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- Mar 19, 2019
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Much has changed with Jason Pierre-Paul‘s former team since his last season with the Giants in 2017. The Giants are on their second coach since then, and Eli Manning is retired.
Other than the familiar uniform, Pierre-Paul might barely recognize the Giants.
The pass rusher had 16.5 total sacks in his final three seasons with the Giants when they gave up on him and shipped him to the Buccaneers in a March 22, 2018, trade.
In 33 games with the Bucs, Pierre-Paul has 26.5 sacks, including 5.5 this season. The Giants don’t have anyone with more than three sacks this season.
Pierre-Paul will face his former team for the second time since leaving, feeling he has nothing to prove but wanting to make a point nonetheless.
“I’m happy to play Daniel Jones. Eli’s not there no more, so I won’t have to pick him up and say ‘Eli, man, you good?'” Pierre-Paul said Friday, via Art Stapleton of northjersey.com. “I’m coming for their necks, and they know that. Jason Pierre-Paul ain’t going nowhere. I’m going to Monday Night Football and going to destroy the Giants. That’s what I want to do as an individual, you know what I mean, but I still have love for ‘em. Period.”
In his first return to MetLife Stadium, eight months after he was traded to Tampa Bay, he made 1.5 sacks but the Giants won anyway, 38-35. This time, the Bucs are the favorites.
“This game definitely means something special to me,” Pierre-Paul said. “You already know they made a mistake. You know, when I left there, I got 12.5 [sacks] that year. And when I came back from a broken neck, I got 8.5 that year. And I’m having an amazing season this year. It’s not that I’m trying to show them they made a mistake. You know, it’s just the fact that, I know that I wasn’t washed up or finished up. So, this [Monday], I have to show them. It’s my old team, and we’ve got to show them the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers.”