It appears that the New York Giants will be without star defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, at least to start the regular season.
Paul Schwartz of the NY Post is reporting that the Giants have sent Pierre-Paul home and don't feel that he's ready to make a contribution early in the year:
If you remember correctly, Pierre-Paul lost his right index finger in a Fourth of July fireworks accident. He had not met with the Giants up until this week, leading to speculation that there was a rift between the two sides. At the time of the accident, Pierre-Paul had yet to sign off on his franchise tag tender — a tender that remains unsigned to this day.
New York has a couple options here. Pierre-Paul remains on the reserve/franchise tag list. Though, the team could place him on the non-football injury list, which would dock his pay up to six weeks. For Pierre-Paul's part, his people seem to think he's ready to play.
Yeah, there's most definitely drama in New Jersey heading into the team's big Week 1 matchup with the defending NFC East champion Dallas Cowboys.