The draft is over and Osi Umenyiora is still a Giant.
There was talk that the Giants would trade Umenyiora, who is entering the final year of his contract and has consistently been hankering for a new deal from the team. They handed a three-year extension to linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka before the draft, but they haven’t had any progress with Umenyiora on that front. General Manager Jerry Reese was asked about Umenyiora’s future with the team after the draft wound up on Saturday.
“Our first choice with respect to Osi is that he will play for the Giants and retire as a Giant,” Reese said, via the Associated Press. “That is what we would like to happen. Osi has been offered an extension two years in a row now. So we would still like to make it work. Hopefully it will work out. But all of our options are always open.”
Reese said the Giants have offered Umenyiora extensions over the last two years, but they’ve been rebuffed. No numbers of those offers were revealed, but Umenyiora has been quite vocal about his displeasure at being a backup to Jason Pierre-Paul and Justin Tuck and he’s likely looking for a contract that pays him like a starter.
All of which means, for all the sound and fury of the last few years, the likeliest outcome is still Umenyiora playing out the final year of his deal with the Giants. That works out well for the Giants, who will pay $3.975 million for a good pass rusher, but it almost certainly doesn’t sit well with Umenyiora.