EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- One of the early themes of New York Giants training camp has been the voices of the people in charge expressing stern disapproval of the way Jason Pierre-Paul is handling himself in the wake of the July 4 fireworks accident that cost him his right index finger.
Team owner John Mara said Thursday he didn't think Pierre-Paul was getting very good advice. And head coach Tom Coughlin has echoed Mara's sentiment that Pierre-Paul would be better off coming to training camp and letting the Giants' medical staff help him than staying home and getting treatment, which is what Pierre-Paul is doing.
Giants GM Jerry Reese spoke on this issue for the first time Sunday. And while he may well feel the same way Mara and Coughlin do about it, he took a bit of a softer public approach.
“Guys, I really don’t have anything to report about that situation, but I am going to say this: I wish Jason nothing but the best," Reese said before Giants practice Sunday. "It’s a traumatic situation that, you know, was an accident. There’s plenty of people that have opinions about it, but my heart goes out to him. For a young man to have a traumatic event in his life, it’s life-changing for him, and I hope and I pray for the best for him. But other than that, I’m not going to say anything else about what Jason’s situation is, except that I hope for the best and hopefully he’s healing mentally and physically and that he can be back to himself as soon as possible. That’s all I’m going to say about the Jason situation."
Reese cut off a couple more Pierre-Paul questions, though at one point he did say, "We'll keep all our options open with respect to the roster." But even that isn't much, because "keep our options open" is a classic Reese-ism that he uses to answer questions without answering them. To this point, the Giants still have no plans to rescind Pierre-Paul's $14.813 million franchise tender, and Pierre-Paul has no plans to show up at camp until either his right hand is healed or he and the Giants reach some sort of agreement about how he'll be paid this year. It's a stalemate, with more than two weeks left before the original six-week recovery time from his July 8 surgeries is up.
In the meantime, the Giants have to construct a pass rush with what's left. The seven defensive ends on their roster have a combined 36.5 career NFL sacks. George Selvie and Robert Ayers have been getting the first-team snaps, with Damontre Moore and Kerry Wynn on the second team and rookie Owamagbe Odighizuwa mixing in some with each. Jordan Stanton and newly signed Brad Bars are the other two. Neither has played in an NFL game.
Nevertheless, training camp is time for optimism.
"I think we’ll be really good defensively. I think we’re going to surprise people," Reese said. "I think we have five defensive ends that we feel can play at a high level at that position. But I do think our defense is going to be a better unit than it was last year, and I’m excited to see them out there playing."
Reese specifically mentioned Moore, Wynn and Odighizuwa as players who could "step out of the shadows and do something great."
The Giants open the regular season six weeks from now, Sept. 13 against the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas.
