The Giants may not have gotten a meeting with Jason Pierre-Paul before he had his right index finger amputated this week, but that reportedly isn’t changing their plans to keep Pierre-Paul for the 2015 season.
Jordan Raanan of NJ.com reports that that Giants “fully intend” to have Pierre-Paul on the roster at the $14.8 million salary mandated by the franchise tag. The Giants have the option of rescinding that tender because Pierre-Paul has yet to sign it, something that would make Pierre-Paul an unrestricted free agent and leave the Giants without their best returning player in the front seven of their defense.
It’s easy to understand why the Giants wouldn’t want to go that route at this point in the offseason, even with questions remaining about how much of an impact the loss of the finger and a surgically repaired fractured thumb will have on his play this season.
There are also questions about when he’ll be able to play with six weeks given as the timeline for recovery from the thumb injury. That would put his return toward the end of training camp and wouldn’t leave much time before the start of the regular season for a player who missed all of the Giants’ offseason work because of his contract situation.
