Pierre-Paul, 27, is playing on a one-year, $10 million “prove-it” deal in 2015.
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“I’ll be gone, I won’t even be in the United States”, Pierre-Paul told reporters.
He didn’t reveal the exact destination, but said, “Where I’m going, they don’t celebrate the Fourth of July”. But it’s hard to blame the guy for wanting a clean break with the holiday that changed his life last summer.
“It will be a year”, he said.
“I have overcome a lot of things in my life”, he said. It hasn’t even been a year. “It seems longer, for what I had to do, but I am OK”.
If Pierre-Paul can continue to improve and get back to being the handful he once was, the defense is going to be in terrific shape. Even before the fireworks accident, he was opting out of the voluntary portion of the offseason and missing the June minicamp because he had not signed his franchise player tender and was still hoping for a long-term contract. “He has been able to hit the weight room and is able to go out and practice fundamentals with it for a year, so obviously he is ahead of the game that way”, said first-year Giants head coach Ben McAdoo.
Pierre-Paul made his debut at Giants OTAs on Monday.
Pierre-Paul had 26 tackles, one sack and six passes defensed in eight games last season.
“He has bulked back up and you can see he is getting more accustomed to using his hand and the state that it is in”, Newhouse said.
Pierre-Paul also said that after a sharp learning curve past year, he feels more prepared to take the football field and be more effective than he was during his shortened season. I am going to be making more tackles. The year before the accident, Pierre-Paul racked up 12.5 sacks.
That said, the two-time Pro Bowl defensive end of the New York Giants is looking forward to the 2016 season, one that he thinks will be a better one for him.
Since then, Pierre-Paul has had to adjust to playing with his new limitations.
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Four weeks from today will be the one-year anniversary of Pierre-Paul’s accident. I’ll never be completely back to normal. “I’m sure if you asked him, he would be able to give you a pretty good indication of it”.
