The Giants came into the offseason with a need for dramatic improvement on the defensive side of the ball and no one can accuse them of pinching pennies when it came to signing free agents that give them the chance to do that.
They re-signed defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul and signed cornerback Janoris Jenkins and defensive tackle Damon Harrison to massive contracts to get things rolling. Now they’ve gone out and added defensive end Olivier Vernon, who saw the transition tag the Dolphins used on him removed after the team signed Mario Williams.
It’s another huge deal. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports it is a five-year contract worth up to $85 million with $52.5 million in guaranteed money, although there’s no note about structure or the nature of the guarantees at this point. That’s a bit less in total money than Malik Jackson got from the Jaguars, but the guarantee is bigger than Jackson’s and any other that a defensive end has received.
Vernon and the other new arrivals account for $114 million in guarantees, so General Manager Jerry Reese hasn’t been sitting on the pile of cap space the Giants held onto for this offseason. That puts the pieces in place for a rapid improvement on defense in New Jersey, although we’ve seen in the past that winning the offseason and winning in the regular season are very different beasts.
