GIANTS DON’T PLAY HANKY BANKY

Hankins bolts to Colts for a few dollars more

The Giants have been like an ATM machine fixing their defense in the last 14 months, but the really big bucks stopped with Johnathan Hankins. You can’t pay everybody outrageous money and after handing out huge free agent contracts last year to Olivier Vernon, Damon “Snacks” Harrison and Janoris “Jackrabbit” Jenkins and then resigning Jason Pierre-Paul last month, the Giants stood firm with Hankins, a valuable defensive tackle. He’s just 25 and was one of the Giants best young players.

Hankins, a second-round pick from Ohio State in 2013, signed a three-year, $30 million contract Thursday with the defensively-challenged Colts, according to ESPN. There is $14.5 million in guaranteed money. Hankins had been looking for $10 million per year and he got it. He visited the Colts on Tuesday, which surprisingly was his first visit of a free agent season which has not been kind to defensive tackles.

The Giants reportedly offered Hankins $28 million over four years, so the Indy deal gives him more money and gets him back into free agency again quicker.

Although he was clearly priority No. 4 on the defensive line, Hankins will be missed. The D-line was the best overall unit on the team last season. Hankins and Harrison clogged up the middle and were playmakers. Hankins had 43 tackles and three sacks. Losing Hankins is not unlike a few years ago when the Giants did not re-sign young defensive tackle Linval Joseph, a second-round pick in 2010, and he’s emerged as a really good player for the Vikings. Now the Giants will likely use a premium draft choice to replace Hankins.

Alabama’s Jonathan Allen is the best defensive tackle in this draft but he will be a top 10 or perhaps a top five pick. The Giants, at No. 23, could potentially take Florida’s Caleb Brantley or Michigan State’s Malik McDowell.

Last year the Giants signed Vernon to a five-year, $85 million deal with $52.5 million guaranteed and Harrison to a five-year, $46.5 million deal with $10.4 million guaranteed. After JPP proved to the Giants he could still be an effective pass rusher after the horrific fireworks accidents in 2015, he signed a four-year, $62 million deal with $40 million guaranteed.

There is only so much money to go around for one unit. It didn’t exactly dry up for Hankins, but the Giants didn’t offer him what he wanted.

So, where does that leave the Giants?

They still have three big-money players across the defensive line. Jay Bromley and Robert Thomas figure to be the veterans in the competition to replace Hankins. Bromley, a third round pick in 2014, has started four games in three years with 55 tackles with one sack.

Thomas was signed as an undrafted free agent from Arkansas by Washington in 2014 and the Giants are already his sixth team. He was claimed on waivers by the Giants after the Panthers cut him last September. He played in eight games for the Giants with five tackles and one sack. They liked him enough to sign him to a one-year deal after the season.

Although Hankins wasn’t able to stay with the Giants, he got paid. In the NFL, there is plenty of money to go around, they all get paid.