The Sports Xchange

New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin said Wednesday that franchise-tagged defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is “not ready to play” in the season opener.

Coughlin said Pierre-Paul was “in an outstanding frame of mind” during his two days visiting the Giants and has returned home to south Florida.

Coughlin said Pierre-Paul is “optimistic” and the Giants will contonie to “monitor” him.

“Be great if he was all healed and ready to go, but he’s not,” Coughlin said.

Giants officials met with JPP on Tuesday, but the discussions apparently broke down because the sides could not agree on Pierre-Paul’s readiness to play.

Pierre-Paul left without signing his one-year, $14.8 million franchise tender. That number counts on the Giants’ salary cap even though Pierre-Paul is not playing at the moment.

Pierre-Paul sustained injuries to his right hand in a Fourth of July fireworks accident. The most significant damage was done to his index finger, which had to be amputated. Pierre-Paul underwent a physical exam performed by team doctors on Monday.

Pierre-Paul’s agents have insisted he could be ready to play before late October.

Teams have already submitted their final 53-man rosters, so the Giants can’t place him on the non-football injury list, which would allow him to be activated after six games.

Pierre-Paul had been designated in March as the franchise player for the Giants, but he didn’t sign the tender then, and had previously not agreed to meet with team doctors for the Giants as the team attempted to assess his status for 2015.

Pierre-Paul started all 16 games for the Giants last year and made 77 tackles with 12.5 sacks.

The Giants open the regular season in Dallas against the Cowboys on Sunday night.