JPP is off PUP and that is big-time good news for the Giants.
Jason Pierre-Paul, who is coming off June 4 back surgery that has kept him out of team drills all spring and summer, was taken off the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list on Monday morning, a promising step for the Giants’ best defensive player.
The defensive end said he will not play in Thursday night’s preseason finale against the Patriots in Foxboro, Mass., but he was certain about whether he will be ready to play against the Cowboys in the Giants regular season opener Sept. 8 in Dallas.
The Giants’ move was expected because they were going to need to remove Pierre-Paul from the PUP list by Saturday or he would have been forced to miss the regular season’s first six games.
“I’m off PUP and that’s a good thing,’’ Pierre-Paul said on Monday. “I’m not playing any preseason games and I don’t even know about the Dallas game. I just want try to get better and test it out and see how it is taking on double teams and all that. Right now, there’s nothing to be said about whether I’m going to play come the opener.’’
When pressed if he has a timetable for his return in his head, Pierre-Paul said, “I don’t have no goal. I’m taking it day by day. I’m not trying to rush. A back is a serious thing. Back surgery is a serious thing. You can’t try to come back too early or you can mess it up even more. I’m taking it day by day.’’
The plan was for Pierre-Paul to practice later Monday in the team’s no-pad practice session.
“It’s a big step coming off PUP, but I’ve been working hard for the past couple of months,’’ he said. “Our thinking is I’m going to do good out there. The individual drills I did were harder than the ones (the rest of the team) have been doing in practice, therefore I feel more comfortable about coming back and practicing with the team.’’
Pierre-Paul said it was his “decision’’ to come off PUP, saying he was buoyed by the regimen the Giants training staff put him through and how he was able to handle it.
“The work I did was pretty much harder than the individual drills in practice, so I felt good about that and I got quite a bit of work doing that and my back felt great so that was basically it,’’ he said. “You’re going to get a little bit of soreness working that hard on your back coming out of surgery, but it wasn’t a bad soreness.
“I don’t have that pain that I had before surgery. That pain is all gone. Time to time it can get sore but that’s not uncommon. I feel good about it.’’
He said it’s been difficult watching his teammates practice and play preseason games without him.
“As a player it’s hard to watch your players go out there and you’re not out there on the field to put them in position to win,’’ he said. “Watching preseason games gives me a headache, because all I can do is watch.’’