NY Giants would be wise to approach Markus Golden about extension

Despite the NY Giants holding all of the negotiating power over Markus Golden at the moment approaching him about an extension would be a savvy move.

The NY Giants organization, and more specifically Dave Gettleman, executed a shrewd move and it worked out to perfection this offseason, resulting in a huge win overall in the Markus Golden free agency situation.

However, you can bet the end result was devastating for the team’s 2019 sack leader, as he had to be going into free agency feeling good about his chances of landing a big-time deal after playing out 2019 with the NY Giants on a one-year prove-it contract.

That was not the case as the market was extremely cold on Golden, likely due to the new-age analytics crowd looking upon his Pro Football Focus grade rather than just watching him on the field.

Speaking of that erroneous 60.3 overall grade, it makes no sense, even when using their metrics and basis.

Sure, we already know ‘sacks don’t really matter’ according to PFF in general (they actually even credited Golden with having 12 instead of 10 like the NFL lists), but he also racked up 44 pressures which is their golden (pun) intended standard for grading.

So what am I missing here? The guy had the analytics and the hard numbers – 73 tackles, 10 sacks, 13 TFL, and even a touchdown – yet he received little interest in a league starved for pass rushers.

Surely his injury history played a part here as well as Golden missed 12 games in 2017 with an ACL injury, only to come back and miss 5 more games in 2018. Yet, he’s under 30-years-old, and even with those two injured seasons he still has racked up double-digit sacks in 2/5 seasons while proving he has much left in the tank in 2019.

The NY Giants hold just about all the negotiating power here, as Markus Golden can basically play for Joe Judge, defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, and the NY Giants or no one else, but they would be very wise to throw Golden a bone and take advantage of the rest of the NFL severely undervaluing him.

Sure, the NY Giants could just trot Golden out there for $4.2M in 2020 and pat themselves on the back for finding a way to reinforce their pass-rushing corps in a major way for such a little investment, but what are the chances we see Markus Golden back in Big Blue past this year after he will without a doubt feel a bit robbed one way or another?

That’s not even considering the fact that his main man, former defensive coordinator James Bettcher, is long gone after being fired this offseason, as he was the main reason Golden came here in the first place.

Instead, why not extend an olive branch and lock up a stud player that wants to be here, has proven he can be a sack machine and has zero character or effort concerns to a multi-year deal at an affordable rate?

That would be the smart move for a rebuilding team, AKA thinking past 2020.

Let’s examine what a potential contract extension at this juncture could look like.