Dan Graziano, senior NFL national reporter 9y

Checking in on Prince Amukamara

New York Giants cornerback Prince Amukamara missed the final eight games of the season after surgery to repair a torn biceps muscle, but he said Wednesday that the injury was healing fine and that he expected to be cleared for full activity as early as March. That puts him on track easily for the start of minicamps and training camp, and there is no concern about the injury lingering and affecting Amukamara's play once it is healed.

"I feel good. No worries at all. I'll be set to go," Amukamara said by phone from the set of the "Rachael Ray Show." He and his wife were filming an NFL couples cooking competition against the Jets' Eric Decker and his also-famous wife and the Lions' Glover Quin and his wife. The Amukamaras made enchiladas. The show airs Friday.

Amukamara also said he'd heard nothing yet from the Giants regarding his contract, which is a potentially interesting situation that may yet be addressed in the next few weeks.

Because Amukamara was their first-round pick in 2011, the Giants had the right to exercise a fifth-year option on him for 2015, which they did last offseason. If he plays out the season on that option, he'll make $6.898 million in 2015 (a figure determined by averaging the third through 25th highest cornerback salaries in the league in 2013). So far, that money is only guaranteed against injury, but it becomes fully guaranteed if he's still on the Giants' roster on the first day of the new league year, which is March 10.

The Giants like Amukamara, who was having a strong year before the injury, and they consider him part of their future. He'll surely be on the roster on March 10, and if they have to pay him $6.898 million in 2015, they can afford to do so.

But it's also possible that the Giants will approach Amukamara about signing a longer-term contract -- say a two-year or three-year deal that rolls the $6.898 million into a larger guarantee and helps them lower his cap number for this year. Amukamara said he and his agent had not yet been approached about that, but he'd be willing to listen if they wanted to have such a discussion.

Of the 32 first-round picks from the 2011 draft (the first one to which the fifth-year option rule applied), 21 had their options picked up. Of those 21, only four have signed long-term deals, and they are what Amukamara described as "no-brainers" -- Houston's J.J. Watt, Arizona's Patrick Peterson, St. Louis' Robert Quinn and Dallas' Tyron Smith. An Amukamara deal wouldn't come in as a mega deal along the lines of those four, but if the Giants can get him to agree to something reasonable that keeps him there for two or three years, it might help them with a little bit of extra cap room in the short term.

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