Eight NFL free agents who could be fool’s gold

Jason Pierre-Paul, defensive end

Now this is a tricky one, especially because this scribe loves rooting for athletes who have overcome difficulties. This certainly applies to Pierre-Paul, who lost some digits in a fireworks accident on the 4th of July in 2015.

Just over a year removed from that incident, Pierre-Paul emerged as a force off the edge for the New York Giants until a groin injury derailed his season. Despite missing four games in 2016, he tallied 7.5 sacks, 53 tackles, one forced fumble and even scored a touchdown (watch here). He also earned high marks by the folks at Pro Football Focus, ranking No. 13 among the NFL’s edge defenders.

Not surprisingly, he’s not interested in doing any more prove-it deals like the one he signed for last season. He is reportedly seeking a contract similar to the one the Giants doled out to Olivier Vernon last year (five years, $85 million).

The biggest reason he’s featured in this list is that, while Pierre-Paul has put up some tremendous numbers in his career, he has just as many mediocre campaigns as he does good ones.

We’re convinced the Giants or some other team will bank on Pierre-Paul to reproduce the stats in his best years, rather than looking at his tepid campaigns. Time will tell whether his best years are the outliers or if we should expect him to be consistently outstanding going forward.