EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese met with all of the team's pending free agents Monday, as is his custom on the day after the end of the season.
The most prominent of those is defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, who had 12.5 sacks this season and has made it clear that he's seeking a very lucrative long-term contract.
Whether the Giants can re-sign Pierre-Paul depends on whether he'll sign a deal for their price (as opposed to his) before he hits the open market. But it's also possible the Giants could use the franchise player designation on Pierre-Paul and keep him off the market entirely.
"That is certainly one of our options, but we really haven't fully discussed that yet," Giants owner John Mara said Tuesday. "I have no idea what his agent is going to do. Actually, I do have a pretty good idea of what his agent is going to be asking for. And whether we want to do that or franchise him is something we will have to fully discuss."
The projected franchise number for defensive ends in 2015 is about $15 million, which would be a huge salary-cap hit the Giants would rather avoid with a long-term deal if possible.
The highest-paid 4-3 defensive end in the league is Buffalo's Mario Williams at $16 million per year, followed by the Rams' Robert Quinn at $14.25 million per year. There's a group right after that at around $12 million per year, and Pierre-Paul likely will seek to join that group or slot in right behind Quinn.
The Giants may not think Pierre-Paul is worth that much; he is still a young player -- his 26th birthday is Thursday -- and he did have 16.5 sacks in the 2011 Super Bowl season.
But the two seasons in between that one and this one were difficult, injury-plagued ones in which he was not as productive. Reese seemed to be already in negotiation mode when discussing Pierre-Paul on Tuesday.
"The guy has the ability to be a game-changer," Reese said. "We didn't see enough of that in the first half."
Historically, the Giants haven't used the franchise player designation as a means of keeping free-agent players off the market for an entire year but rather as a means of giving themselves extra time to put the finishing touches on a long-term deal that was near completion.
But in the case of Pierre-Paul, it's possible that they could break from that history and use the tag the way a lot of teams use it -- as a means of keeping a player they want on next year's team without committing to him long term.
"We would certainly like him back, but it would have to be at the right price, something that makes sense for us," Mara said. "He had a great finish to the season and showed us the type of player that he can be. I would be very surprised if he was not a Giant next year."
At this point, the Giants project to have about $12 million or so in cap room, plus expected gains due to the anticipated release of players like Mathias Kiwanuka. They could add cap relief if they signed quarterback Eli Manning to an extension beyond 2015, but to this point they have not discussed that with Manning.
The Giants also face a potentially difficult free-agent decision on safety Antrel Rolle, who is an unrestricted free agent after playing every game of the five-year deal he signed with the team before the 2010 season.