New York Giants Trade Markus Golden For Sixth-Round Draft Pick

Just hours after Giants head coach Joe Judge opined that he didn’t think there was a need for a fire sale on the team’s veteran players, the Giants traded outside linebacker Markus Golden to the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for a 2021 draft pick.

In retrospect, the handwriting was on the wall all along for the 29-year-old Golden, the Giants 2019 sack leader with 10.0, and was the first Giants defender to record double-digit sacks in a season since defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul did so in 2014.

After failing to find a market in free agency, Golden rejoined the Giants, who had used the seldom-used “unrestricted free agent tender” on the pass rusher.

That tender ensured the Giants would retain the rights to Golden’s services at a 110% increase over his 2019 base salary of $3.75 million.

When Golden was unable to find a new team by the start of training camp, the rights to his services reverted to the Giants. They deployed him as more of a spot player than a featured player as he was last year under defensive coordinator James Bettcher.

By moving Golden, who appeared in 38% of the Giants defensive snaps in seven games this season, New York saves just a hair over $1.5 million on their 2021 salary cap. 

Before the trade, the Giants were projected as having $16,205,911 in effective cap space—the maximum cap space projected once the team signs 51 players as part of the Top 51 rule that begins at the start of the new league year in March.

That cap space is based on a projected $175 million salary-cap figure in 2021, a reduction expected due to the financial impact the COVID-19 virus has had on fan attendance.

Golden, originally a second-round draft pick of the Cardinals, finishes his Giants tenure having appeared in 23 games with 17 starts and 11.5 sacks, 82 tackles, and 33 quarterback hits.

The Giants, who before the Golden trade were without their fifth- and seventh-round prices in 2021 (traded to the Jets and Denver respectively for Leonard Williams and Isaac Yiadom), now have six picks in the 2021 draft.

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