The wind that swept across New Jersey late Wednesday afternoon might have been caused by the collective sighs of relief from scattered Giants coaches and executives.
Though he did not yet re-sign with the Giants, the deadline for free agent Markus Golden to negotiate with other teams passed at 4 p.m. and now the Giants maintain exclusive rights to him through Week 10 at a salary of $4.125 million. At least that is the team’s interpretation of the rarely used “May 5 tender” tag placed on Golden.
Golden had until the later of July 22 or the first day of training camp to sign elsewhere or be limited to returning to the Giants at 110 percent of last year’s salary. Some NFL sources think the first day of camp is July 25 (when the first teams bring in veterans) but others argue it was Monday, when rookies reported to the Chiefs and Texans.
The NFL and its players union did not immediately respond to requests for clarity.
The tender works like a franchise tag, so Golden, 29, can hold out into training camp or longer to express his displeasure with the way the Giants handled his free agency. He did not receive a big contract offer and the tender limited his market because signing Golden could have cost his new team a compensatory draft pick in 2021.
Golden is very “motivated” by how his offseason played out, a source close to him told The Post. He was hoping to cash in after registering 10 sacks — a benchmark reached by just 15 players around the league — on a prove-it one-year contract in 2019, two injury-plagued years after his career-high total of 12.5 for the Cardinals.
But Golden lost his biggest advocate when the Giants fired defensive coordinator James Bettcher after last season.
If Golden re-signs, it will be a major boost to the Giants, who did not add an edge-rusher at the top of free agency or the draft. General manager Dave Gettleman instead placed some value bets on Kyler Fackrell (10.5 sacks in 2018 but one in 2019) and late-round draft picks Cam Brown and Carter Coughlin.
“He’s a great person, he’s a hard worker, he’s a productive player, so we have a lot of respect for him,” coach Joe Judge said of Golden earlier this offseason. “We thought that [the tender] was a situation when it came up and was available to us, it was something we could use. We have an interest in Markus. We’ve talked to him.”
The Giants’ exclusive rights expire after Week 10 and Golden again would be free to sign with any team. The $1 million bonus he earned for reaching 10 sacks last season does not count towards determining the percentage increase for his 2020 salary.