Back in late April, the New York Giants placed the rarely-used unrestricted free agent tender on edge rusher Markus Golden, but the belief was that the maneuver was simply a way to get him counted towards the compensatory picks formula.
As it turns out, there was more to it.
Despite their precarious salary cap position, the Giants have been in contact with Golden and made it abundantly clear they’d like him to return in 2020.
“Without going into what we talked about, yes, I have spoken with Markus. I have a lot of respect for him as a player. He’s a great person, he’s a hard worker. He’s a productive player so we have a lot of respect for him,” head coach Joe Judge said during a Tuesday Zoom call. “He’s definitely someone that I have spoken to in terms of possibly adding to the roster. We placed the tag on him. That’s something that’s allotted to us through the league rules. We thought that it 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. We are going through the procedure right now. We’re going to let it play out a little bit and see where everything shakes out.”
Judge did not elaborate on what the process and procedure they’re going through actually is, but the team is now making it publicly known they’d like to have Golden back despite the coaching change.
Playing on a one-year, prove-it deal a year ago, Golden led the Giants with 10 sacks and 27 QB hits, while also recording a career-high 72 tackles.
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