Giants sign another former Cardinal, DL Olsen Pierre

With a nearly blank slate on defense, the New York Giants are bringing in a lot of former Arizona Cardinals. The latest is defensive lineman Olsen Pierre. Pierre joins safety Antoine Bethea and edge rusher Markus Golden as former Cardinals who have played under James Bettcher to sign with the Giants in free agency.

Pierre, who will turn 28 years old in August, went undrafted out of Miami in 2015 and didn’t make his NFL debut until 2017 with the Cardinals. That season he started seven games and finished with 5.5 sacks. His role changed a bit under Steve Wilks in 2018, though his playing time did not change drastically. He played 38.6 percent of Arizona’s defensive snaps in 2017 and 34.5 percent in 2018. Last season, per Sports Info Solutions, Pierre had just two pass pressures on 129 pass rush snaps, a 1.6 percent pressure rate.

The Giants will hope for another bounce back with a player reunited with Bettcher. With Mario Edwards now in New Orleans and Josh Mauro in Oakland, Pierre should be a quality add to the defensive line rotation for little investment.