One day after New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman suggested his club would move forward with youth along the offensive line, Big Blue released the veteran of the group.
The Giants announced Wednesday that they released guard Kevin Zeitler, who turned 31 years old on Monday.
Part of the 2019 Odell Beckham trade with Cleveland, Zeitler spent the past two seasons in New York, starting 31 games.
The move saves the Giants $12 million in cap space with $2.5 million in dead money, per Over The Cap.
While he had a down season by his standards -- allowing 28 pressures and two sacks, per Pro Football Focus -- Zeitler should easily find a new home. A reunion in Cincinnati, where he spent his first five years, could be one option. The Bengals desperately need to upgrade the O-line and have money to spend.
The Giants, meanwhile, will skew younger, which Gettleman harped on Tuesday when pressed by NFL Network's Kim Jones.
"Just for what it's worth, in terms of where our offensive line is, they're young and they're talented," he said, per the team's transcript. "Things take time. I said it earlier, things take time. We believe in these guys, they all came along, we finished the season fairly strong. One of the things that I would say to you is we were 4-2 in our division and if you look at our division, all of those defensive lines that we play, all those fronts are big, powerful, athletic defensive lines and our guys held up. So, we're getting there. It's the old saying, you've got to run the ball and you've got to obviously be able to protect the passer. We're young and we're getting better."
Gettleman declined to say at the time if skewing young meant the team would cut Zeitler or offensive tackle Nate Solder. A day later, Zeitler is out the door. Solder could be next on the move.
