John Mara satisfied with Giants free-agent spending spree

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Giants owner John Mara gives his stamp of approval on an uncharacteriscally big spending spree this offseason.

No, John Mara has never loved freewheeling in NFL free agency. But for one offseason, the Giants owner was OK with a big spending spree.

That’s what Mara told reporters on Sunday, two weeks after he watched GM Jerry Reese hand out nearly $ 200 million in contracts to three players, doing everything possible to give an instant makeover to the NFL’s worst defense from last season.

“We obviously had the cap room to do it,” Mara said Sunday, before the NFL’s owners meetings in Boca Raton. “We had some big holes to fill and we were fortunate to get the three top guys – at least according to how we had them rated – at their position.

“It’s not something you want to do every year,” he added.

And yet here the Giants are again, with their second big-spending free agency in three offseasons. Mara said the same thing before the 2013 season, after Reese had handed out $ 100 in player contracts to revamp the team the first time – and all that did was get the Giants three straight losing seasons.

This time? The Giants made instant impact in free agency earlier this month, adding defensive tackle Damon Harrison and cornerback Janoris Jenkins just hours after the market opened. They ended the day by giving ex-Miami Dolphins defensive end Olivier Vernon a five-year, $ 85 million deal, the richest ever given to an edge rusher.

Mara told reporters he was on board with the approach never the less. He said he believed the team would be able to get two of those three players, but they got all three in a free agent spending spree that he described as “pretty successful.”

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

The Giants ink defensive end Olivier Vernon to a five-year, $ 85 million deal.

“The three guys were a little more expensive than I thought they were going to be, but they are all young, they are all healthy and they fulfill needs,” he said.

Indeed, Vernon, Harrison and Jenkins, all younger than 27 years old, have combined to miss four games in 11 pro seasons. For a club that’s watched injuries help keep them out of the playoffs four years running, that was critical to the owner, who has typically avoided such lavish free agent makeovers.

Mara has long talked of preferring to build through the draft and not treating free agency as a panacea. He reiterated that Sunday, telling reporters that “you have to pick your spots (in free agency) and this was our spot.”

They may not be done. Mara knows there are still some hopes, and he hopes to fill those with budget signings.

“Those were the three guys we wanted going into it,” he said. “After that, you’re kind of looking at some lower level guys.”

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