Despite substantial confusion over the date, it appears as if the rights to linebacker Markus Golden reverted to the New York Giants at 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Paul Dottino of WFAN was the first to report on Golden’s status, which has since been confirmed by ESPN and other media outlets. However, there appears to be a catch.
While the Giants now have exclusive negotiating rights with Golden due to the rarely used unrestricted free agent tender placed on him in April, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that the veteran linebacker does not intend to sign his tender — at least not right now.
With the deadline passing for OLB Markus Golden to sign with another team, the player does not plan to sign his unrestricted ‘May 5’ tender with the Giants today, per source. The tender works like a franchise tag and he can wait to sign. He’s set to make $4.125 million with NYG.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) July 22, 2020
Golden could hold out until Week 10 of the regular season should he desire to do so. After that, he would be forced to sit out the remainder of the season and then become an unrestricted free agent in 2021.
The Giants, of course, are hoping things do not play out that way and that Golden signs his $4.125 million tender and returns to the team in short order.
“I have a lot of respect for Markus as a player and as a person. I think he’s a tremendous guy. I think he’s a hard worker, a tough guy, he’s a productive guy on the field. So we’ve expressed it internally and we’ve talked with him as well about possibly having a fit,” head coach Joe Judge told NJ Advance Media in June.
Golden is certainly feeling a level of frustration after not being able to cash in on his 10 sacks a season ago, but tells the New York Post that will only “motivate” him this year. The Giants hope that motivation leads him to signing his tender and having a monster season.
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