NFL free agency 2026: Giants’ DT Rakeem Nunez-Roches has uncertain future

Rakeem Nunez-Roches | Getty Images

The New York Giants need to get better and deeper along the interior of their defensive line. Is veteran Rakeem Nunez-Roches part of the solution?

Reasons to keep Nunez-Roches

The 32-year-old Nunez-Roches, nicknamed Nacho', is a gregarious, fun-loving, always smiling 11-year veteran. He has 5.5 of his 9.0 career quarterback sacks with the Giants over the past three seasons. Injuries limited Nunez-Roches to nine games in 2025, but he had a career-best 3.0 sacks.

Nunez-Roches played a career-high 610 snaps for the Giants in 2024.

The view here is that Nacho' is an adequate rotational player when not relied upon to play a heavy volume of snaps, which was too often the case with the Giants the past three seasons.

Reasons to let Nunez-Roches go

Has Nunez-Roches been part of the reason the Giants have struggled against the run the past three seasons? The best the Giants have done in yards allowed per rushing attempt is to finish 24th in the NFL.

Pro Football is not the be-all and end-all of judging performance. It can, though, give you patterns. The Giants signed Nunez-Roches to a three-year deal in 2023 , largely on the belief that Nacho' would bolster the run defense. In his three seasons, Nunez-Roches has produced the three worst run defense grades of his career, 43.8 in 2023, 48.9 in 2024 and 50.2 in 2025.

Nunez-Roches will be 33 next season. At some point, being a great guy who tries hard just isn't enough.

Verdict

Let him go.

Spotrac estimates a market value of $9.48 million over two years, roughly $4.7 million per year. That isn't a ton of money when the salary cap will be above $300 million, but it probably is money the Giants could allocate elsewhere.

Nunez-Roches is serviceable. I would like to see the Giants try to find an upgrade.