Jerry Reese

Giants general manager Jerry Reese has a little over $6 million to spend on signing draft picks this season. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

With all the holes the Giants have to fill this offseason, the good news is that general manager Jerry Reese will not be hamstrung by salary commitments and should have some money to throw around in free agency, or re-sign some of the team's own free agents. But at least a chunk of that cap space will go towards signing their draft picks this spring, which will limit their overall flexibility.

Over The Cap released its rough projections for the total rookie pool for each team on Monday, with the Giants expected to have $6,267,517 to spend on their draft picks. For those who want a detailed explanation of the rookie pool, this is a pretty good primer, but essentially each NFL team is allotted a maximum amount of dollars to spend on their draft picks not only in year one cap charges, but also in total value. The Giants have a little over $2.3 million to spend on their first round pick, and the allotment obviously decreases with each round of the draft.

So what does this mean for the Giants' overall salary cap picture? Unfortunately, that extra $6 million-plus is not added on top of their projected $16 million in cap space (assuming the salary cap lands somewhere between $140 and $141 million for the 2015 season, which we won't know until March). Bear with me, because this gets a little tricky.

The NFL's "Rule of 51" dictates that, from the beginning of the league year in early March until the beginning of the season, only the top 51 salary cap numbers, any bonus money for the players outside of the top 51, and dead money for players no longer on the roster count toward the team's overall cap. The NFL instituted this rule because of the fact that teams often have rosters of close to 90 players by the time training camp starts, making it virtually impossible for a team to fit all of those players under its salary cap.

Late-round draft picks have low base salaries and small signing bonuses, meaning those draft picks will most likely not be amongst the top 51 cap numbers on the team. So under the Rule of 51, those players' base salaries will not count against the teams overall salary cap, only a player's bonus proration will if they receive one.

The Giants will have eight draft picks in 2015, seven of their own, and an extra seventh-rounder obtained from the Denver Broncos in the Brandon McManus trade. As mentioned earlier, they will have $6,267,517 to spend on those picks.

Here's the breakdown of the projected year one salaries for each pick, courtesy of Over the Cap:

First round: $2,332,018

Second round: $929,578

Third round: $597,000

Fourth round: $551,888

Fifth round: $484,625

Sixth round: $463,000

Seventh round: $450,562

Seventh round: $450,562

And here are the bottom five cap numbers for the Giants:

47. Safety Nat Berhe - $558,200 ($510,000 base salary + 48,200 prorated bonus)

48. Linebacker Devon Kennard - $546,140 ($510,000 base salary + $36,140 prorated bonus)

49. Wide receiver Chris Harper - $510,000

50. Wide receiver Corey Washington - $510,000

51. Linebacker James Davidson - $510,000

Based on these numbers, only the first four picks will have a cap number higher than Kennard, the Giants' 48th highest cap number. Therefore, only those four picks will be part of the top 51 and, under the Rule of 51, will replace the cap numbers of the players who are currently 48th, 49th, 50th and 51st on the Giants' cap — Kennard, Harper, Washington, and Davidson. Only Kennard's bonus proration will count against the cap.

The cap numbers of the remaining three draft picks will fall outside of the top 51, so the base salaries of those players will count against the rookie cap, but not against the team's overall salary cap.

So, to calculate the exact impact of the Giants' rookie cap on the team's overall cap, the amount of the base salaries for each of the bottom four draft picks ($435,000 rookie base salary multiplied by four, equals $1,740,000) can be deducted from the total rookie pool number, $6,267,517. The top four draft picks' cap numbers do count against the overall cap (by virtue of being part of the top 51 cap numbers), but they replace the four players who were formerly part of the top 51, so the base salaries ($510,000) of the four being removed ($2,040,000) can be deducted from the Giants' overall cap.

When those two numbers ($1.74M and $2.04M) are deducted from the team's rookie cap ($6,267,517), you can calculate how much cap space the Giants' draft picks will take up — $3,780,000. Subtracted from the overall projected cap space number, $16,226,246 (via Over the Cap), that leaves the Giants with $12,446,246 in cap space this offseason.

Got that? Obviously, that number is rather fluid given that these are all based on projections, and the salary cap has not yet been officially set, but it doesn't leave the Giants with a lot to work with as far as being active on the free agent market. In fact, the Giants wouldn't even have enough to slap the franchise tag on defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, if that's the route they wanted to take.

But keep in mind, the team will also make some cuts to free up money (looking at you, Mathias Kiwanuka), and will likely ask some players to restructure, which could leave Reese with some extra cash to play around with. Whether Reese has the appetite to be a big spender in free agency is another question.

Nick Powell may be reached at npowell@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpowellbkny. Find NJ.com Giants on Facebook.