Jason Pierre-Paul suffered a major scare from fireworks this Fourth of July, resulting in a serious hand injury for the New York Giants pass rusher. That part may be old news, but the story is apparently heating up a bit for Pierre-Paul and his team. According to NFL, the Giants have decided to pull a $60 million long-term contract offer to Pierre-Paul, leaving his future a bit up in the air.
“The New York Giants are withdrawing their $60 million long-term contract offer to Jason Pierre-Paul following the star pass rusher’s fireworks incident over the weekend, NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday, per three sources informed of the situation.”
Pierre-Paul has also yet to sign a $14.8 million franchise tag that remains on the table for him, which makes this situation even tougher to figure. When truly evaluating where Pierre-Paul sits when looking towards 2015, he’s currently unsigned, but still plans to play under that franchise tag next season.
Even with the offer that was pulled back by the Giants, the same report from NFL explained that Pierre-Paul was expected to turn down the extension.
Now, even through the fact that the Giants have essentially taken the option of a long-term deal off the table for Jason Pierre-Paul, there is a bright spot. It seems that Pierre-Paul is likely to be back this season and isn’t looking at an injury that is career threatening. Even with that though, comes a bit of a negative, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Pierre-Paul could miss not only training camp, but also the start of the 2015 NFL season.
The next few days for Pierre-Paul are going to be pretty critical to his future with the Giants. The good part is that Pierre-Paul will more than likely be back on the field in 2015, but will be playing under the one-year franchise tag.
When really stepping back and looking at the situation though, Pierre-Paul’s health truly is the main concern. When this story originally came out, it seemed that things could end up being far worse and much more severe than they are. Pierre-Paul is still being examined for any type of nerve damage and other issues from the scare, but it seems as though he avoided any long-term issues.
As for Pierre-Paul’s future with the Giants? Well, that one is still completely up in the air and we’ll have to play the wait-and-see game as the start of the 2015 season creeps closer and closer.
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