Jason Pierre-Paul
Jason Pierre-Paul has been shipped to the Bucs! (Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports)

The mangled hand and horrendous contract are heading to the Bucs! Classic Bucs, they trade a valuable draft asset for damaged goods. Jason Pierre-Paul has been traded by the New York Giants in exchange for the Buccaneers third-round pick in 2018 along with a fourth-round pick swap. Tampa Bay tried hard to trade for Rams pass rusher Robert Quinn but will now settle for Pierre-Paul instead.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter was the first to report the news:

The Giants paid JPP $22.5 million in 2017. Obviously, he didn’t have a bad season racking up 7.5 sacks but that kind of production isn’t worth $22.5 million. JPP now has $39.5 million remaining on his contract for three more years. It would be shocking if Pierre-Paul survives the life of the contract considering only a tad over $11 million of it will be guaranteed. The Giants will eat a vast portion of that deal eating a dead money cap hit of $15 million for the upcoming season. New York only freed up $2.5 million in cap space to execute the trade.

The Giants may have their eyes on NC State pass rusher, Bradley Chubb. There’s no doubt that Chubb is the best defensive lineman in the class and is realistically a more polished product than the number one pick last year, Myles Garrett. The Giants probably don’t make this trade if they don’t have plans to draft Chubb. Remember, Giants gm Dave Gettleman is famous for building a pretty nice defensive line in Carolina with Kawaan Short, Star Lotulelei, and others.

Tampa has done a nice job turning over their pass rusher unit. They also signed Vinny Curry from the Eagles on a nice contract. Releasing Robert Ayers to bring in this group is at least an upgrade. The key to this pass rusher unit for the Bucs will ultimately come down to whether Noah Spence can play. Spence, the former 2nd round pick in 2016, had just 1 sack in 2017 after a 5.5 sack performance as a rookie.