The NY Giants struck gold when they figured out a way to retain Markus Golden, but despite having every reason to be bitter, Golden is all positive.
Heading into the 2020 free agency period, I for one, thought the NY Giants were going to have a tough time resigning Markus Golden. For one, I figured his price tag was going to be much higher, and two, he’s heavily-linked with now fired defensive coordinator James Bettcher.
James Bettcher is the reason the NY Giants were blessed to get the chance to have Markus Golden on their football team for $3.5M.
After a sensational sophomore season in the NFL that saw Golden rack up 12.5 sacks, he tore his ACL and battled ankle injuries since. Yet, he still managed to play 16 games and be the best pass rusher on the defense by far, collecting 10 sacks and 44 QB pressures.
How would you feel if you took a one-year prove-it deal, more than proved it, and then couldn’t get near what you should be compensated for; like not even in the same stratosphere.
Before free agency, I advocated for the NY Giants to look to resign Golden at a rate of around $8M-$12M depending on the number of years and guarantees, but the two-time double-digit sack man couldn’t even sniff $5M for one year.
In my opinion, this is a Pro Football Focus case that is overlooking hard data in favor of analytics.
Yes, it’s true that Markus Golden was among the lowest in the league at average time per sack – meaning the sack was more likely to be a coverage sack – but that is more a testament to him never giving up on a play and making late sacks a couple of times a year.
Don’t kid yourself, Markus Golden beat numerous tackles one-on-one for sacks last year and was the bonafide leader of the NY Giants defense despite being a first-year team member (let’s be serious, no one was really listening to Alec Ogletree).
Former @GMENHQ contributor David Solow took the time to piece together all 10 of Markus Golden’s sacks – with a cherry on top epic fumble recovery TD (showing off his high school running back skills) – and by my count, objectively, 6-7 of his 10 sacks were legit one-on-one sacks where he beat his man.
Were the two against the Eagles scheme sacks? Sure. Were there two more in there that were ‘hustle’ sacks? Yes. But what’s wrong with that? You could say the same about almost any other solid pass rusher in the league.
In my mind, hustle sacks are the most consistent sacks and no one hustles harder than Markus Golden.
To be labeled as a “scheme dependent” or “coverage sack guy” is just a fallacy and the biggest Markus Golden fan this side of Missouri (shot out pops!) just can not understand how he is labeled that way.
I mean, can you explain to me how a player that had 72 tackles, 13 tackles-for-loss, 27 QB hits, 10 sacks, and 44 pressures earns a 60.3 PFF grade?
What happened to him during free agency was shameful and he has every right to be upset, but due to the high character guy he is, he’s taking it in stride, to say the least.
"Business is business, man. I know how this stuff goes,” Golden said during a Monday afternoon videoconference. “I’ve been having that mindset since my rookie year. Really since college, man. “I’ve got a business mindset with this. You’ve gotta have that mindset because that’s exactly what it is.“I play the game for a different reason. I play the game for my family. I play the game to win. And I know what I’ve got to be able to do.”"
Business. That’s the one word I would use to describe Markus Golden.
The fact that he’s staying locked in and not complaining sets a very positive attitude for the locker room.