Restricted Players

Just came out of the Giants' locker room after talking to Barry Cofield about his restricted tender.

Today, of course, was the deadline for teams to proffer offer sheets to restricted players, of which the defensive tackle was one. But a combination of an off-year due to knee surgery and the second-round level of the Giants' tender scared off everybody, as did just about every other tender in the league.

So Cofield officially becomes property of the Giants, and has until June to actually sign the offer. In a usual season, he might have wound up with a major unrestricted free agent contract. But now he settles for the one-year, $1.684 million deal, and he's not crying about it.

"I'm happy with the contract and being here, being able to play," Cofield said. "There's a lot of excitement here and I want to be part of the solution. I'm not going home crying or anything."

Cofield said not being able to participate in last year's offseason program and most of training camp hurt him, But this year will be different.

"I know how good I feel now," he said.

He also said that nothing should be read into the fact that he hasn't signed his tender yet.

"I'm not a disgruntled guy who's complaining about my contract. Now, there's a period where I have until June to sign, so it just depends on when I want to mosey on upstairs and do it," Cofield said.

The team's other restricted free agents have either signed or are on the verge of signing. WR Sinorice Moss signed his yesterday, and WR Domenik Hixon was going to sign his after his workout today. WR Derek Hagan hadn't signed yet, and LB Gerris Wilkinson is supposed to sign tomorrow. DE Dave Tollefson, T Guy Whimper, and G Kevin Boothe all signed in the previous weeks.

EP