The Draw Play

We are just inches away from free agency which means nothing is happening but everyone is talking what might be happening. This is probably the worst time of the year for me because it seems like there are plenty of stories to comment on in my next comic but in reality it’s all just a bunch of speculation and the stories change from minute to minute. The news that actually is happening is of minor note and not terribly interesting. I genuinely hate this time of the offseason, the lull between the post SB high and Free agency. I hate speculation articles. I would almost prefer the the empty void of May-July because in those months I can pretty much just do whatever I want because nothing is happening but nothing is being talked about either. The potential yet void of news right now irritates me to no end.

One of the few things that did happen yesterday was JPP getting franchise tagged. Of course this was entirely expected, the Giants even said as much last week. The Giants are in a tough spot with JPP. He hasn’t lived up to his 2011 season, but he expects to be paid like he has. Two of those years were injury plagued, but this past season he was healthy and still didn’t quite live up to that level. He was great against the run, but he wasn’t getting pressure against the pass at all. He performed just well enough to be worth keeping around, but not quite well enough to be a no-brainer contract sign. So the Giants franchised him. Now he’s going to be hard to poach but it also means the Giants need to figure out a long term goal here because the tag is expensive and they didn’t have too much wiggle room to start with. I’m not worried. I assume we’ll get him signed. Osi always threw a fit and we managed to keep him around until he was old. Reese is a tough negotiator and I think the Giants have the leverage here since JPP didn’t quite perform up to the level of pay he is probably asking for.

Part of me thinks we’d have lost him if we didn’t. He made it clear with everything he’s said so far that he is clearly looking to get paid, and if we’d let him test the market I’m sure some team with too much cap room would overpay him. I can’t blame him for asking for the money though, all athletes should get what they are worth and hometown discounts are dumb unless money isn’t an issue. I hope he stays a Giant because he’s still young and I’m interested to see what he can do in Spags’ system.

The other big news of the day was Suh not getting franchised tagged. That means one of two things: The Lions are close to a deal or they are ready to let him walk. Suh is the biggest speculation problem right now. Everyone is going “What if he goes here?” and then they spend time trying to rationalize a way that getting Suh is in any way feasible. I hope Suh signs with someone soon just so people will shut up about it.