Love me tenders? Probably not

Barry Cofield had the misfortune of being born the year he was born. Of leaving Northwestern when he did. Of arriving in the NFL four years ago. And of being one of the few hundred players who would have been an unrestricted free agent next week.

Cofield will be a restricted free agent when the CBA expires next week and the minimum experience for being unrestricted jumps from four years to six.

So instead of shopping himself around for a multi-year contract with a hefty signing bonus, Cofield will be tendered by the Giants at a second-round level. That makes him due to earn $1.759 million in 2010. None of it guaranteed.

Love me tender? Doubt very much that Cofield does.

Of the nine Giants players who will be restricted free agents next week, only one of them is a starter for the team. That’s Cofield. But all of the rest have learned of the Giants’ tendering intentions. What’s not clear is whether the Giants will be tendering all of them, although it would seem to be a no-lose situation for them to do so.

The ones we know so far are Cofield (2nd round), Gerris Wilkinson (3rd round, $1.176 million) and Guy Whimper (4th round, $1.176 million). That leaves Domenik Hixon, Kevin Boothe, C.C. Brown, Kevin Dockery, Derek Hagan and Sinorice Moss.

The Giants also put a second-round tender on restricted free agent (no matter what because of only three years’ experience) Dave Tollefson. TE Darcy Johnson is also a restricted free agent.

We’ll update the list throughout the day as more information becomes available.

(Photo: AP)