Defensive back Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie will be playing football somewhere else in 2018.

The New York Giants announced on Sunday afternoon that the 31-year-old Cromartie will not finish the final year of his five-year, $35 million contract with the team in a transaction that will add $6.5 million to the Giants’ available salary cap total. Rodgers-Cromartie would’ve had a cap hit of $8.5 million had he stayed on New York’s salary sheet for 2018.

On Instagram, the following post appeared from Rodgers-Cromartie’s official account, thanking the Giants for everything over the last four seasons of his NFL career:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgMDHUzANFD

Before the Giants elected to release him, Rodgers-Cromartie was asked to take a pay cut by team officials. Once he respectfully declined, the decision to cut ties became easy. New York was also considering moving Rodgers-Cromartie from cornerback to free safety, and it’s unclear how Rodgers-Cromartie felt about that. So far in all 10 seasons of his NFL career, Rodgers-Cromartie has been strictly a corner.

Rodgers-Cromartie joins a cornerback market that features Malcolm Butler, Trumaine Johnson, Morris Claiborne, Brent Grimes, and many others. NFL Network notes that out of all the top available free agent corners, only Grimes is older than Rodgers-Cromartie.

It also should be noted that Rodgers-Cromartie’s  play started to slip, and had he stayed with the Giants, his playing time probably would’ve ended up declining. Throughout his career, Rodgers-Cromartie excelled at picking off the opposing quarterback, but ended up with no interceptions in 2017. He was also suspended one game last season by then-head coach Ben McAdoo for leaving practice early.

The Giants main depth at corner now features only Janoris Jenkins and Eli Apple.

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