So why did Justin Tuck end up with the Raiders? The simple answer is that the Giants waited too long to make a serious offer.
And so instead of returning to the team with which Tuck spent nine years and won two Super Bowls, Tuck is heading to Oakland.
Per a league source, the base value of the contract is $10 million over two years. Tuck can earn another $1 million total via incentives based on sacks.
It’s unclear what the Giants were willing to pay at the final stages of the negotiations. If, however, they’d stepped up with serious offers before Tuck hit the market, they could have kept him.
Then again, maybe they didn’t really want him. Maybe they were going through the motions out of respect for what he has done for the franchise.
Regardless, they waited too long to get serious in their pursuit of Tuck. And so he now joins Osi Umenyiora as key pieces of a pass rush that helped bring a pair of Lombardi Trophies to town, and who ultimately had no choice but to leave.