Giants’ Homegrown Defender Named Among Top Pending Free Agents

One Giants defensive piece is predicted to be among the most coveted free agents when the NFL negotiating window opens in March.

Oct 13, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants linebacker Azeez Ojulari (51) tackles Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) during the first half at MetLife Stadium. | Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

The New York Giants have a huge task on their plate when it comes to navigating what move to make with their No. 3 overall pick in the NFL Draft, but they also can’t forget about the in-house players whose fates with the team are all on the line in a couple of months. 

When the new league year opens, the Giants will have 17 of their 2024 rostered players set to hit the free-agent market on March 12. Some players will be more coveted than the rest, but one defensive player, in particular, is gaining traction as he tests the open waters for the first time in his career. 

That would be outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari, who expects to earn some outside calls for his services and was ranked by Bleacher Report as the No. 6 free agent out of the top 50 players in the league’s upcoming annual signing frenzy. 

“Though he was largely a role player in New York, Ojulari could potentially explode as a full-time player elsewhere. He'll be healthy for the start of free agency, and he won't turn 25 until June. He'd have value to a contender and could also be a foundational piece for a rebuilding team,” NFL writer Kristopher Knox said of the Giants’ 2021 second-round pick out of Georgia.

Ojulari is one of the few players left on the Giants’ roster from the Dave Gettleman era and one of the interesting unrestricted free agents that the front office will have to decide on as it retools its ranks. 

He hasn’t had the most consistent tenure in East Rutherford due to injuries, including his toe ailment in Week 12 this season. Still, he has found ways to be one of the most efficient pass rushers under multiple defensive coordinators. 

In his first four years in New York, Ojulari only played a full schedule once during his rookie debut, when he appeared in 17 games and made 48 total tackles and a career-high eight sacks. 

Since then, he has seen limited time, ranging from six to eleven contests. He has tallied at least 5.5 sacks and five total turnovers, finishing toward the top of the Giants’ defensive leaderboard in those categories. 

After playing just under the dozen-game mark this fall, the 24-year-old raked in 28 total tackles (12 solos), which was the second best among the outside linebacker position, and added in six sacks, ranking third on the defense, seven tackles for loss, and one fumble recovery. 

With this impressive body of work, despite missing his share of time on the field, the numbers match up to an impending free agent whom other organizations will come calling to recruit, including the Patriots and Lions, whom Knox suggests could get involved in the bidding games for the soon-to-be fifth-year edge rusher. 

The bigger question is whether general manager Joe Schoen and the Giants keep themselves in the mix for a player who wasn’t drafted by the current regime yet has lifted them amid relentless injuries to the depth at core positions. 

Ojulari’s best games this season came in the middle of it when teammate Kayvon Thibodeaux spent time on the injured list and kept the pressure factor alive, with five of his six sacks coming in a three-game span. 

He hasn’t finished with less than 20 overall pressures in each of his last three seasons and has been instrumental in making the quarterback rush his decision-making and force play into faulty passes and, sometimes, big-time turnovers for the defense. 

Now, that is where the problem awaits with Ojulari’s future in blue, as the Giants hope to have a stronger and healthier front returning in 2025 to power the impact of Shane Bowen’s system. 

That crew would include Thibodeaux, who isn’t far removed from earning 11.5 sacks in 2023, Brian Burns, and Dexter Lawrence II, whose season was en route to All-Pro status before he suffered a season-ending elbow injury. 

With all those weapons juicing up the front four and the Giants' pass rush, the team would view keeping Ojulari as gravy. 

On the other hand, his market is bound to balloon amid competition from external suitors. This may force Schoen to let a homegrown product walk in exchange for using a chunk of the Giants’ estimated $59 million in cap space on more critical holes in the roster. 

It’s not out of the unthinkable that they invest one of their eight draft selections on an edge guy, including as early as the first round, if what they want at the quarterback position doesn’t pan out by the time it gets to the No. 3 pick. 

No matter how they choose to handle Ojulari’s impending status in two months, he is bound to be one of the candidates who earns a fair amount of discussion. He is projected to gain huge interest from front offices in several other cities simultaneously. 

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