Jordan Raanan of ESPN writes that “every day that Johnathan Hankins remains unsigned, the odds increase that he returns to the Giants.”
As of now, Raanan puts the odds of Hankins re-signing with the Giants at around “50-50“ as of now.
New York has reportedly shown interest in retaining Hankins and the market clearly has not played out as he had hoped. Another positive development for the Giants is the fact that they recently picked up $11 million of cap space by locking up DE Jason Pierre-Paul to a long-term contract.
According to Raanan, it’s possible that the Giants’ previous offer to Hankins — that was declined — could still be on the table.
At this point, a return to the Giants on a one-year contract could make the most sense for Hankins, as it would give him another opportunity to be part of a potentially dominant defensive front before hitting the open market again in 2018.
Ralph Vacchiano of SNY recently reported that NFL teams aren’t sure that Hankins on his own is a true impact player. In fact, some have wonder just how good he really is, considering that he played next to Damon Harrison, who dominated in the run game for New York last season.
Before that, Raanan mentioned that sources around the league have said Hankins is asking for more than $10 million per year in a multi-year contract, which is highly unlikely considering where we are in free agency.
Dontari Poe and Bennie Logan both agreed to one-year deals at lower salaries, so it would be tough for a team to justify paying Hankins this much money now that the top end of the defensive tackle market has played out for everyone but him.
Hankins, 24, is a former second-round pick of the Giants back in 2013. He played out the final year of his four-year, $4.03 million rookie contract that included a $1.311 million signing bonus and is now testing the open market as an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career.
In 2016, Hankins appeared in all 16 games and recorded 44 tackles, three sacks and a forced fumble for the Giants. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 72 interior defender out of 127 qualifying players.
We have him featured in our Top 50 Available Free Agents list.
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