Next Big Defensive Move for Giants Should Be to Move on from Jason Pierre-Paul

For the first time since they lost Steve Spagnuolo in 2009, the New York Giants find themselves searching for a new defensive coordinator, as the team announced that DC Perry Fewell would not return. But there's an increasingly common adage in this league that personnel should dictate scheme rather than the opposite. 

If that's the case, the Giants shouldn't let their current defensive coordinator vacancy impact their stance on free-agent pass-rusher Jason Pierre-Paul. 

If indeed the Giants are determined to re-sign Pierre-Paul, that would make things interesting if the G-Men were to hire a replacement like Vic Fangio, who ran a 3-4 defense in San Francisco. But the reality is the Giants don't have the luxury of cutting bait on good players in favor of the preferences of potential new coaches. 

The question now is whether JPP is worth to the Giants what the market will command, which, according to ESPN.com's Dan Graziano, could be in excess of $12 million a year. And that's where this becomes a riddle. 

Factors to consider:

• Pierre-Paul is a 26-year-old former first-round pick coming off a 12.5-sack season in which Pro Football Focus (subscription required) graded him as the seventh-best 4-3 defensive end in football. 
• He recorded 16.5 sacks while helping the Giants win the Super Bowl in an All-Pro 2011 campaign. 
• When healthy, Pierre-Paul isn't just a ferocious pass-rusher but also a stellar run defender. He had 77 tackles in 2014 and a career-high three forced fumbles. 
• "When healthy" was the key clause above. And you'll notice that I didn't touch on 2012 or 2013. That's because Pierre-Paul had just 8.5 sacks in 27 games those two seasons as he dealt with back and shoulder injuries. But even when healthy, he was lacking something during what was supposed to be a breakout stretch. 

And so while the Giants should look to let key personnel dictate what they do on defense going forward, it's not crazy to exclude Pierre-Paul from that group. 

The Giants don't like to shell out big bucks for free agents—in or out of house. And while Pierre-Paul is in his prime, that injury history has to be a major concern. He's a big name who'll likely be overpaid in free agency, and Big Blue enters the offseason with a moderate but not astronomical amount of salary-cap space. 

More precisely, that cap number sits at about $16.9 million, according to Over the Cap. But key defensive players Antrel Rolle, Walter Thurmond and Jacquian Williams are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents this winter, and quarterback Eli Manning's contract is set to expire after the 2015 season. 

Freaks of nature like Pierre-Paul don't come along very often, so I can see why the Giants would be tempted to pay the man an exorbitant amount of money to remain in blue. But that would be extremely uncharacteristic of a front office that rarely breaks character. 

Chances are, they'll let Pierre-Paul walk just as they did with Osi Umenyiora two years ago and Justin Tuck last winter. To their credit, they do seem to have a knack for finding strong edge-rushers, and 2013 third-round pick Damontre Moore had 3.5 sacks and 14 quarterback pressures in the last six games of the 2014 regular season despite the fact he was only on the field 41 percent of the time, per PFF. 

In fact, when it comes to PFF's "pass-rushing productivity" formula, Moore had a stronger season than Pierre-Paul. Throw in that former Broncos first-round pick Robert Ayers also fared significantly better than JPP in terms of that telling advanced stat, and it's hard to believe Pierre-Paul would be worth such a hefty investment.

Player	PRP rating	Rank among 4-3 DEs
Robert Ayers	15.2	1st
Damontre Moore	11.3	8th
Jason Pierre-Paul	8.9	21st

As we saw with Tuck in 2013, the Giants are too smart and too disciplined to be fooled by strong contract years, and it's important to note that Pierre-Paul recorded nine of his 12.5 sacks during the final five weeks of the season. Those were basically meaningless games, so while there's a small possibility he was suddenly returning to his 2011 form, the Giants should still be asking themselves where those sacks were when the games mattered. 

Time period	Sacks	Games	Sacks/game
2011 season	16.5	16	1.0
2012/2013/first 11 weeks of 2014	12.0	38	0.3
Final five weeks of 2014	9.0	5	1.8

In order to get a better feel for the potential answer to that question, they could slap Pierre-Paul with the franchise tag, which co-owner John Mara hinted at last month. But that would cost about $15 million for one season, which might only be feasible if they extend Manning's contract. And considering the flux state of this franchise, I just don't see that being the right move at this point in time. The Giants also haven't used the tag on a position player this decade. 

New York got a combined 22 sacks in 2014 from Moore, Ayers, defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins and rookie linebacker Devon Kennard, three of whom are younger than 25. And Ayers is still only 29 but has the ability to take on a leadership role.

Maybe, at this point, New York would be better off asking its next defensive coordinator to draw up schemes that suit those guys rather than the fragile and expensive Pierre-Paul. That won't be easy to do considering the potential that he still possesses as well as the role he played during this franchise's last collision with glory, but this is a business, and few teams understand that as well as the Giants. 

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFC East for Bleacher Report since 2012.

Follow @Brad_Gagnon