Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora has expressed an interest in returning to the team in 2013, but he’ll have a chance to talk to any other team in the league before making any decisions about what uniform to wear.
Jenny Vrentas of the Newark Star-Ledger reports that Umenyiora’s contract for the 2013 season voided at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, making Umenyiora an unrestricted free agent. Because Umenyiora is not being released, he’s not free to sign with another team until free agency opens on March 12.
Although Umenyiora said he’d be down to stay with the only team he’s ever played for in the NFL, it seems like an unlikely development. The Giants aren’t blessed with a ton of cap space, which explains why they’ve spent this week releasing several veteran contributors, and Umenyiora will likely be able to land a bigger deal with a team that doesn’t already have two well-regarded starting defensive ends.
Umenyiora was healthy for the entire 2012 season, but posted just six sacks after dropping the quarterback nine times in only nine games during the 2011 season. Still, he has 75 sacks in his career and those numbers are sure to entice more than one team into trying to land Umenyiora for their defensive line this offseason.