In his first campaign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul has proven to be a key cog to the puzzle for the franchise.
This has also opened up the opportunity to play against his former team, New York Giants, on Sunday afternoon for the first time since being traded in the offseason. With that in mind, Pierre-Paul has a simple but direct message for the team for the upcoming matchup, according to Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com.
Pierre-Paul has plenty of motivation to put up a strong performance against his former team that had essentially shipped him off to acquire additional assets and salary cap relief. He has played well in his first year with the Buccaneers currently eighth in the league with 8.0 sacks, which has tied the mark he had through playing in all 16 regular season games last year.
The 29-year-old is playing some of his best football despite the Buccaneers struggling to find some consistent success having dropped six out of their first nine games played. He has been one of their bright spots defensively that could come into play against the Giants' struggling offensive line that has had issues providing consistent protection for quarterback Eli Manning. This is also the first chance that Pierre-Paul will have at tackling Manning in his career after spending his first eight years with New York.
This is simply one of the underlying storylines around the matchup in what could be one of the more intriguing games of the week despite both teams struggling to take steps forward this season. There is clearly plenty of personal motivation for Pierre-Paul to perform well against his former team.
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