JPP doesn’t mind Dak Prescott guarantee, says Giants have eyes on the Super Bowl
Jason Pierre-Paul says the Giants only have one goal in mind: the Super Bowl.(MICHAEL REAVES/GETTY IMAGES)
Jason Pierre-Paul doesn’t blame Dak Prescott for guaranteeing the Dallas Cowboys will win the NFC East at this month’s ESPY Awards. JPP is just as confident in himself and the Giants. Plus, Prescott and the Cowboys, swept by Big Blue in last year’s season series, are going to have to prove it anyway in Week 1 this fall down in Texas. “Hey, (Prescott) had a great year,” Pierre-Paul said Thursday night at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, attending in support of the national Philip R. Shawe Scholarship Competition and charity gala. “He should be like that. They won the division, they had a great season. I’d
be like that. I think like that all the time: Nobody can block me, nobody can stop me, nobody can play the run the way I can. You’ve got to think like that all the time. So he’s confident. I hope his team is confident behind him.” And with that, let the Giants’ 2017 season unofficially begin, with training camp set to open one week from Thursday and Pierre-Paul even mentioning the magic words that are on everyone’s minds: Super Bowl. “Our goal is to bring this team another Super Bowl,” the defensive end admitted. “But we have to do it all together ... First, our goal is to win one game at a time, win our division, and then once you get in the playoffs and you keep guys healthy, sky’s the limit.” Pierre-Paul, 28, who re-signed this offseason on a blockbuster four-year, $62 million contract with $40 million guaranteed, said he therefore intends to “pick up where I left off.” “My goal for this season is to be on top of everything,” he said. “I feel like I’m just getting started.”
Giants punter Brad Wing (l.) and defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul pose on the roof of 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn in support of the national Philip R. Shawe Scholarship Competition and charity gala on Thursday, July 20, 2017. (PAT LEONARD/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
And he feels the rest of the defense and the Giants can be even better. “When other teams fear you, that’s a big difference,” Pierre-Paul said. “My one year we won the Super Bowl, every team that walked through here knew we were about business.” Giants punter Brad Wing echoed the excitement for 2017. “Our defense proved last year that they can run with the best defenses in the NFL,” Wing said. “We added an extreme weapon in Brandon Marshall, and then Evan Engram had a good OTAs. So it’s looking good. There was a lot of excitement around OTAs, so I can just imagine once training camp gets here, I can’t wait to get it going again.” In Weeks 11 and 12 of last season, Pierre-Paul registered 12 tackles, 5.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, a pass defensed and a touchdown return in consecutive Giants wins.
“I was on a roll,” he laughed. “Once I get on a roll, it’s hard to stop me.”
Jason Pierre-Paul said he was on a roll last season before he went down with a season-ending injury. (RON SCHWANE/AP)
But JPP went down the next week in Pittsburgh and required season-ending sports hernia surgery, so he has unfinished business. He wouldn’t commit to being 100% healthy entering camp, but more because he doesn’t like that definition of health for someone who’s been through as much as he has — including the infamous July 4 fireworks accident in 2015 that cost him a large part of his right hand. “Am I 100 percent? I’m working on myself. Let’s say that,” Pierre-Paul said. “No, I wasn’t limited (in OTAs in June), but like, I’m a warrior, man. I do what I have to do to get better.” Pierre-Paul didn’t have much of an opinion on the possibility that Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott could be suspended for the Giants’ Week 1 visit, but he did have some good perspective. “At the end of the day we all make decisions,” he said. “He’s a great player. Nobody knows the real story. I made a decision and I had to face it. So each player is accountable for his own decisions.” Thursday’s scholarship competition saw law students present arguments at Borough Hall in favor of reversing a Delaware Chancery Court decision that forced the sale of the company Shawe co-owns, TransPerfect. The competition offered $100,000 in tuition to the students competing and sponsored four charities, including the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Both Pierre-Paul and Wing said the charities involved and the focus on giving back to youth inspires them, particularly because both have young sons: Wing’s son Bentley is 5, and Pierre-Paul’s son Josiah, 2, is already learning just how big a deal his dad is.