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Giants pull lowball offer from Jason Pierre-Paul amid hand injury concerns

Eric Edholm

Earlier we brought you the news of New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul and his July 4 firework accident that injured his hand and later spun it forward to speculate if the team could pull his franchise-tag designation in light of this non-football injury.

Now there's more news: According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, the Giants have removed what had been a standing offer for a long-term contract — a $60 million extension — as the two sides had been negotiating a new deal with JPP shackled under the franchise tag.

What does it mean?

Consider this a leverage move by the Giants, but ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting that Pierre-Paul's status is in some real question.

Although we don't know if he can make a full recovery, or whether Pierre-Paul will miss regular-season time, but assuming that the long-term prognosis is good the Giants are still likely to want him back. They just might not want to pay him as much money, especially if he misses games.

When you consider recent deals given to the New Orleans Saints' Cameron Jordan (five years, $55 million) and the St. Louis Rams' Robert Quinn (four years, $57 million), Pierre-Paul and his camp likely were going to start the bidding much higher than that.

You'd have to think the agent will start with this argument: The franchise tender is $14.8 million, and getting tagged again in 2016 could cost the Giants a 20 percent kicker for $17.76 million. Right there, that's a total of $32.56 million guaranteed the next two seasons, and an average value per season of $16.28 mil. So even a four-year, $60 million deal would fall short of that average-per-year mark.

If the Giants are pulling the $60 million offer — we don't know the other terms of it — then you can tell they either view this as a leverage position or truly are worried about Pierre-Paul returning to health (or perhaps being more accountable).

Rapoport's report suggest that this shouldn't have too big an affect on the negotiations because Pierre-Paul, 26, had no intention of signing the deal, viewing himself as one of the rising pass rushers in the NFL. But we'd counter that the Giants have a motive in this line of thinking, and whatever it is it involves saving money.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!