In terms of seeking a new contract from the Giants, Osi Umenyiora isn’t exactly negotiating from a point of leverage. Whatever the Giants did last season seems to have worked. Unfortunately for Osi, they did it with him playing backup to Jason Pierre-Paul and Justin Tuck. When your team wins a Super Bowl, it’s tough to convince the coach that he needs to change his personnel approach. Umenyiora wishes that wasn’t the case.
“I don’t like being a backup, I can tell you that,” he said according to the NY Daily News. “It worked for us last year, but I was coming of an injury or whatever. But I see myself as a starter in the NFL. I see myself as a Pro Bowl type player. That’s the way I see myself. I don’t like being on the bench. I’m not OK with that.”
Umenyiora has more sacks than any Giants player over the last three seasons, but Tom Coughlin found a rotation that worked last year and stuck with it. Since the results were exactly what the team hoped for, it’s safe to assume they’ll start camp this season using that same rotation.
Osi is at a point in his career where he has to decide what is more important to him: competing for a third Super Bowl with the same team or being a starter. As far as a contract extension is concerned, the Giants would love to keep him. He would provide tremendous depth behind Tuck and Pierre-Paul, but you can only pay so much for depth. At the end of the day, it’s up to Umenyiora.
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