Might the new home for outside linebacker Bud Dupree for the 2021 season be the New York Giants? I suppose there’s a chance of that happening. ESPN’s Jordan Raanan really thinks that Dupre could be a member of the Giants soon.
“Bud Dupree is a guy I have my eyes on,” Raanan said on the “Breaking Big Blue” podcast recently. “I know there are people in the building who like him. Obviously, I don’t know if they’re willing to make that offer and go to that level because [he’s] coming off a serious knee injury. And there is risk in that, obviously.
“Also, he kind of blossomed the past two years, whereas the beginning of his career got off to a slow start. How much of that, do they determine, is the fact that he played alongside T.J. Watt? Definitely something you have to take into consideration.”
Would Dupree fit with the Giants in their defense? It’s possible. After all, the Giants tried to make former Steelers outside linebacker Tuzar Skipper fit not long ago.
The Giants don’t currently have a lot of salary cap space to work with, according to the Sunday NFLPA update, but that obviously could change in just a matter of days if they have a few cap casualties and contract restructures.
It’s a forgone conclusion that Dupree will be playing for a different team in 2021 at this point and now we’ll wait and see where and for how much. He received the franchise tag from the Steelers almost exactly one year ago. He then went on to have a particularly good 2020 season until it ended with him tearing his right ACL in December against the Baltimore Ravens.
Should Dupree indeed sign elsewhere in the coming weeks, the Steelers should get a nice compensatory draft pick value for losing him this offseason as an unrestricted free agent. If he does wind up signing with the Giants, the Steelers wouldn’t have worry about facing him in the very near future unless the two teams wound up facing off in a Super Bowl.
