Joe Judge excited to have Markus Golden back with Giants

Pass rushers are a valuable commodity in the NFL and Markus Golden is coming off a 10-sack season in his first year spent with the New York Giants.

But while pass rushers are coveted, Golden wasn’t this offseason. It allowed the Giants to place the little-used unrestricted free agent tender on Golden this offseason and get him back under contract for 2020 at a reasonable bargain. While the route back to the Giants may have been somewhat unusual, Giants head coach Joe Judge is glad to have Golden back for the upcoming year.

“I’m excited Markus is back in the building with us,” Judge said, via Paul Schwartz of the New York Post “Obviously it’s the first time I’ve worked with him on a personal note. But obviously his reputation throughout the league is a very solid one. He was someone we wanted to have on the team and we’re lucky it worked out the way it did.”

A pass rusher that has two seasons of double-digit sacks for just a $4.125 million salary isn’t a bad asset to have. He also already knows the Giants scheme defensively and won’t have a significant learning curve during a highly unusual training camp.

It’s also gives Golden a chance to hit the free agency market again next offseason when there’s a better chance of the country not being in the middle of a pandemic.

Golden’s 10 sacks last year were the second-most of his career. He had 12.5 sacks for the Arizona Cardinals in 2016.