Giants

Giants Willing To Allow DE Jason Pierre-Paul To Test The Open Market?

November 15, 2014

On Friday, Giants DE Jason Pierre-Paul was asked about his contract situation to which he replied: “Hey, if I’m here, I’m here. If I’m not, I’m not.”

It’s hard to draw a lot from that quote, but it does sound like he’s at the very least open to the idea of possibly not being back with the Giants next season.

Pierre-Paul did say that he loves being in New York and playing for the Giants, but all added that they will likely wait until after the season before working on a new contract.

“We’ve got to wait and see,” said Pierre-Paul, via Bart Hubbach of the New York Post. “I’ve been here for five years now, and there have been ups and downs. I love it here, but we’ve got to wait and see at the end of the season.”

According to Hubbach, you can rule out the Giants placing their franchise tag on Pierre-Paul next year as it would run them close to $14 million. Hubbach adds that contract talks between the two parties are at a “standstill” right now and he believes they will ultimately take a “wait-and-see approach” to Pierre-Paul.

Dan Graziano of ESPN mentioned in his mailbag that although the Giants have the money and the cap room to sign Pierre-Paul to an extension, “there remains a chance that Pierre-Paul could turn out to be this year’s Hakeem Nicks if he doesn’t produce at a consistently high level over these final seven games.”

Pierre-Paul, 25, is in the final year of his five-year, $20.05 million rookie contract that included $11,629,807 million guaranteed.

Following the 2011 season, it appeared as though Pierre-Paul was going to be among the best defensive ends in the NFL, but he has yet to put together another season of that caliber. He’s also two years removed from back surgery, which could be one of the reasons for his decline in production.

While the stats may not be the same for Pierre-Paul, Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 5 defensive end in a 4-3 system. As of now, we have him rated as the No. 10 player in our Top 25 – 2015 Free Agents list.