Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora hasn’t been happy with his current contract, pretty much since the day he signed it.
And with $3.975 million due to be paid to Osi in the final year of his contract, teammate Jason Pierre-Paul thinks the team should take care of him.
“I think it’s very important,” Pierre-Paul told Mark Hale of the New York Post. “Give him what he wants, man.”
Though Pierre-Paul would replace Umenyiora if Osi goes, Pierre-Paul thinks that it’s important to keep Umenyiora around. “That’s a great guy and trust me, a guy like that on your team, he’s a playmaker,” Pierre-Paul said. “Just us three defensive ends, we’ve got a couple more on the line, but I feel like we’re all on there together, it’s unstoppable. Who’s going to stop us? We’ve got the best defensive line in the country, and everybody sees that. So bring him back.”
Curiously, Pierre-Paul has no similar concerns regarding his own deal. “I don’t too much focus on that,” Pierre-Paul said. “If it was up to me, I’ll play my whole contract out. I just go out there and play football and I’m OK with it. I got drafted last year, first round, 15th pick and I’m happy. I’ll support my family, buy my family a house and then buy me a house and everything [will be] financially stable and all I’ve got to worry about now is football, just to play great football.’’
Of course, Pierre-Paul received a first-round contract in the final year of the first-round windfalls. Osi, on the other hand, is finishing up a deal he signed after proving to be a solid player following his entry into the league as a second-round pick in 2003.