Albert Haynesworth Says Giants Offered Him $80+ Million Contract

Safety C.C. Brown Continues to Meet With Giants: Unrestricted free agent safety C.C. Brown (Houston Texans) arrived in the area yesterday to meet with the Giants. According to press reports, he will continue to meet with the Giants today. Brown’s agent told The Daily News last night, “No deal tonight. Talks will be tomorrow.”

Tight Ben Troupe to Visit Giants Today: According to The Star-Ledger, unrestricted free agent tight end Ben Troupe will visit the Giants today and workout for the team. Troupe played for the Titans from 2004-2007. After two solid seasons in in Tennessee in 2004 and 2005, Troupe’s NFL career has been plagued by injuries, mainly to his feet. Troupe was signed by the Buccaneers as a free agent in March 2008, but waived in September. The Raiders picked him up, but he rarely played and was placed on Injured Reserve. Oakland waived Troupe in November 2008.

Albert Haynesworth Says Giants Offered Him $80+ Million Contract; Giants Deny: Pro Bowl DT Albert Haynesworth, who signed a 7-year, $100 million contract with the Washington Redskins last Friday within hours of the opening of free agency said on Monday that the Giants offered him an $80+ million contract. This was before the Giants signed LB Michael Boley (Falcons), DT Rocky Bernard (Seahawks), and DT/DE Chris Canty (Cowboys).

“Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, of course you’re going to sign a $100 million deal,’ but honestly I had another $100 million deal from Tampa (on the table),” Haynesworth said, “and I had another $80-something millon deal from the Giants.” When asked to confirm that the Giants offered him $80 million, Haynesworth responded by saying yes.

However, General Manager Jerry Reese denied that the Giants offered that much. “We were serious about Albert,” said Reese. “I think everybody was serious about Albert Haynesworth. Everybody would want a big monster like that in the middle. I’ve seen reports that we offered $80 million. That’s not true. We did make a good offer. We wanted to put our toe in the water. It would be awful for us not to even put our toe in the water and the guy goes to his press conference in Washington and says, ‘I really wanted to be a Giant, but they never offered me anything.’ We always do our due diligence in that respect. We made a nice offer, but obviously it wasn’t in that ballpark.”

Quotes: RG Rich Seubert on DT/DE Chris Canty: “Chris is a very good player. He’s tall, he’s big, he’s fast, he’s strong. He’s going to help out our team. I’d rather have him on my team than go against him twice a year…Just from playing against him, he’s a good athlete. He’s got some speed and some power. He’s got enough size to be inside and he’s fast enough to be outside…It’ll be fun (having him on the team). Instead of going against each other on Sundays I’m sure we’ll be going against each other a lot more in practice. Hopefully it will make us both better.”

Former Giant DT Keith Hamilton on Canty shifting from the 3-4 to the 4-3 defense: “No matter where he plays, it’s going to be a tough transition. With the style of play the Giants play, a lot of things happen quickly on the inside. There’s going to be an adjustment period for him to get used to that. It’s not going to be easy…It took me a good two, three years to get enough confidence to play it and be really good at it.”