Golden bounces back to Giants

Markus Golden is back for at least one more Giant season. The team’s lone double-digit sack man of 2019 has officially signed his unrestricted free-agent tender, which amounts to a one-year, approximately $5.1 million contract for 2020, sources confirmed.

Golden, 29, recorded 10 sacks last season on a oneyear prove-it deal as a freeagent signing, recruited by former defensive coordinator James Bettcher, who had coached Golden in Arizona.

The Giants then placed the rarely-used unrestricted freeagent tender on Golden in late April, which left him free to sign elsewhere until July 22 without the Giants being able to match.

When a blockbuster market did not develop for Golden, the Giants’ gamble paid off and landed Golden back in blue.

The tender pays Golden at a rate of 110% of his 2019 salary, which means a $5.097 million cap number, per overthecap.com, with a $4.097 million base salary and a $1 million sack incentive bonus (which he hit last season).

Golden, a sixth-year vet, has taken a long road back from a 2017 ACL tear in his right knee that ended his third NFL season just four games in. He played 11 games in his final 2018 season with the Cardinals, still well below 100% health.

But then he appeared in all 16 games for the Giants last season and used a relentless motor to present the defense’s only real pass-rushing threat.

Now Golden returns to lead a young pass-rushing group that needs to blossom to give the defense a chance in 2020.

SILLS CLEARED

Wide receiver David Sills V was cleared from the Giants’ reserve/COVID-19 list on Tuesday, while linebacker Josiah Tauaefa was added, becoming the second Giant player to go on it.

Sills spent a week on the COVID-19 reserve list as the first Giant to test positive, though he was asymptomatic. It was not immediately known if Tauaefa had tested positive or was put on the list because he came into close contact with someone who has tested positive.

OPT-OUT LANGUAGE

Giants receiver Da’Mari Scott’s voluntary opt-out for the 2020 season makes him eligible for a $150,000 stipend, but that is far from free money.

If Scott takes the stipend and is not on the team next season, he will have to pay that $150,000 back to the Giants, per the terms of the NFL’s and NFL Players’ Association’s agreement.

If Scott takes the stipend and makes the team next season, that $150,000 stipend will be subtracted from the $750,000 non-guaranteed salary he had been scheduled to make this season (which now tolls until 2021).

So his new salary for 2021 in that case would be $600,000.

BILL, IS THAT YOU?

New head coach Joe Judge gave fans a tour of the Giants’ new training camp setup in a video released Tuesday, and he sounded a ton like his mentor, Bill Belichick, at the end.

“Every day is ‘come to work, do your job,’ ” Judge said.

Judge’s attention to detail stood out in explanations of the many safety precautions in place at the Giants’ main locker room and meeting setups inside MetLife Stadium.

The Giants are busing players in three separate groups across the parking lot from the stadium to the facilities’ practice fields for on-field conditioning. Then they are using the MetLife Stadium field for a full-team evening walk-through.

The early returns on Judge’s workouts are as expected: they’re grueling.