It seems Markus Golden might wind up returning to the Giants after all. Sort of.

Well, he might not have a choice.

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Per ESPN’s Field Yates, the Giants placed a rarely used “unrestricted free agent tender” on Golden, which requires him to play for the Giants if he doesn’t sign with another team by July 22. In the meantime, per Yates, Golden is still free to pursue a contract with other teams, though it would count toward the 2021 compensatory pick formula.

The Giants have placed the seldom-used UFA tender on DE/OLB Marcus Golden, per source. That means that if Golden remains unsigned past July 22, he can only play for the Giants this season, who would maintain the pass rusher’s exclusive rights. — Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 27, 2020

If not for the tender, as of 4 p.m. on Monday free agents were not going to count toward the formula. So, the Giants found a quirk in the NFL rulebook that will have them either bringing back their best pass rusher from last year or potentially gaining a compensatory draft pick if he departs in 2021.

This is a strange decision from the Giants perspective, though a potentially smart one.

The Patriots actually used the UFA tender on running back LeGarrette Blount in 2017, though he signed with the Eagles before the end of that window.

Per Pro Football Talk’s report on Blount from 2017, it seems the Giants will own exclusive rights on Golden from July 22 through the Tuesday after week 10 of the regular season. He can only sign with the Giants in that stretch.

The tender, per PFT, is worth 110 percent of his total pay from the previous season. For Golden, that was $3.75 million — so he’d mathematically be eligible to earn approximately $4.125 million, though Over the Cap estimates that it would actually equal $4.098 million plus a $25,000 workout bonus and $1 million in incentives. Golden earned $1 million extra in performance-based incentives in 2019 after getting 10 sacks.

The Giants opted not to address the edge rusher position in the NFL Draft and only added one player at that spot in free agency, signing Packers’ Kyler Fackrell to a one-year deal.

Golden was a success story for the Giants last season, signing cheaply on a one-year contract, which he out-played to the tune of a team-high 10 sacks. The Giants had one of the worst pass rushing defenses in the NFL last year even with Golden, so the current group would certainly improve by bringing him back into the fold.

If not, not a single Giants player recorded more than 4.5 sacks last season.

“We’re going to constantly evaluate,” general manager Dave Gettleman said after the NFL Draft on Saturday. “Roster building is a 12-month season. At the end of the day, we feel good about where we’re at and we’ll continue to try to improve it. We’re gonna take a look at what we got, and part of it is gonna be scheme.”

Now, the Giants can sit back and wait to see if Golden can find the market he was looking for, look to sign him themselves, or simply force him to come back in July if nobody signs him.

It’s a strange NFL quirk that the Giants are taking advantage of. The fruit of that decision might not pay off for a couple months.

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Zack Rosenblatt may be reached at zrosenblatt@njadvancemedia.com.