Jason Pierre-Paul warns rookies about having too much time on their hands
JPP is looking to recapture the form that saw him rack up 12.5 sacks during the 2014 season
By
Ryan Wilson
•
1 min read
It's been almost a year since Giants pass rusher Jason Pierre-Paul suffered a serious hand injury during a fireworks accident. He missed eight games in 2015 and when he returned, he didn't have full use of his hand during games because it was taped into a club. As a result, he finished the year with just one sack.
In fact, Pierre-Paul said in December that doctors initially wanted to cut his "whole hand off." A few weeks later, he revealed what his right hand looked like during a television interview with Fox Sports' Michael Strahan.
Now, with offseason workouts winding down until training camp, Pierre-Paul is warning rookies of the dangers of too much down time.
"Remind them that they've worked their entire life to get to this position and find themselves in one of these buildings, and how it could be taken away so quick," veteran running back Rashad Jennings told the New York Post on Thursday, after the Giants' final minicamp practice. "You know, take advantage of it. It goes a long way when you hear it from players more so than coaches, so we have some veteran leadership that [took] the time to make sure we're preaching it in the locker room ourselves."
JPP also posted this message to Instagram: "Just know I REMEMBER, and I will never FORGET!!! #90powercircle":
The former first-round pick signed a one-year, $10.5 million "show-me" deal in March, and is coming off January hand surgery.
"The surgery is definitely going to help me a lot," Pierre-Paul said Dec. 30. "I can't grip out of my middle finger, it can't close right now. That's the reason why I'm in the club. Once I have my surgery I'll be fine. I'm excited to actually get it done. Something I knew I had to get done at the end of the season."
Next up for Pierre-Paul: Enjoying a fireworks-free July 4th holiday and then returning to the form that made him one of the NFL's best pass rushers. The most recent surgery should help, but he still has a long way to go to match his sack total from 2014 (12.5), when he started all 16 games for the Giants.
