By failing to report to training camp last week, Giants defensive end Michael Strahan gave General Manager Jerry Reese the first big test of his brief tenure running the team.

Reese can pass the test by doing nothing at all.

Strahan says he’s staying at home while his teammates sweat through practices in Albany because he’s contemplating retirement, but almost everyone believes Strahan actually just wants a raise. That gives Reese four options: He could offer Strahan more money to convince him to show up to training camp; he could take the decision out of Strahan’s hands by cutting him; he could trade Strahan if he can find a team willing to take him, or he could do nothing and let Strahan decide whether to show up and play under his current contract or whether to end his NFL career.

General managers are usually only noticed when they take bold actions, but the path of least resistance for Reese is to wait this controversy out. With two years remaining on his current contract with the team, the 35-year-old Strahan has no leverage, and the Giants would be foolish to pay him more than the $4 million he’s scheduled to make this year.

Reese might be tempted to cut Strahan and send a message to the rest of the team that the Giants don’t take kindly to players skipping out on training camp. But firing Strahan would actually send the opposite message. If they released Strahan, the Giants would make him a free agent and give him the opportunity to negotiate with every team in the league. That would encourage more players to hold out of training camp if they don’t like their contracts.

A trade sounds appealing because it gives the Giants something in exchange for Strahan, but it’s not a realistic option. The Strahan of 2007 is not the same player who set the NFL’s single-season sack record in 2001. In two of the last three seasons, Strahan has missed significant playing time because of injuries, and last year he recorded just three sacks, the worst total since his rookie year. It is highly unlikely that any team would be willing to give the Giants anything of value in exchange for Strahan.

That leaves doing nothing as the best option for the Giants. And although that option could cause Strahan to opt for retirement and leave the Giants’ defense without his services for the first time since 1992, that wouldn’t be so bad, either.

New coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is changing the Giants’ approach on defense, and Strahan isn’t a great fit for Spagnuolo’s system. Spagnuolo previously served as linebackers coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, and one of the ways he will make the Giants’ defense more like the Eagles’ is to use defensive ends and outside linebackers interchangeably. Strahan is a prototypical defensive end who lacks the lateral quickness needed to line up as an outside linebacker, and that makes him less useful in a system that requires the defensive ends to be more versatile.

The Giants plan to bring in veteran defensive end Simeon Rice, who was released last week by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for a physical tomorrow. Rice is a better fit than Strahan for Spagnuolo’s pass-rushing approach, and if Rice becomes a Giant, that will likely end Strahan’s career with the team.

But even if the Giants don’t sign Rice, they’ll be just fine at defensive end. On the right side, they’re set with Osi Umenyiora, who has led the team in sacks in each of the last three seasons. And although Justin Tuck’s playing time has been limited in his first two seasons, the Giants can be reasonably comfortable with him replacing Strahan on the left side. Tuck was the team’s third-round draft pick in 2005, and he’s an outstanding athlete who has the speed to make plays all over the field.

It’s good for young players to have 15-year veterans like Strahan around, and in that sense, his departure might cost the Giants more in the locker room than it does on the field. But Strahan is only good for team morale if he has a positive attitude toward the franchise. Like many veterans on the team, Strahan has seemed at times as though he’s fed up with coach Tom Coughlin’s hardnosed approach. Even if that feeling is justified, Strahan needs to accept that Coughlin is in charge. If he’s complaining about his contract or the methods of Coughlin, he could hurt the team more than he helps it.

Although Strahan can’t shop himself to other NFL teams, he can look for work elsewhere if he can’t come to an agreement with the Giants. Strahan is articulate, likeable, and funny, and there’s no doubt that he’ll have offers to work in television whenever his playing career ends. None of those jobs will pay him close to the $4 million the Giants are slated to pay him this year, though, and Strahan had a costly divorce that makes him unlikely to walk away from the salary he can earn from the Giants.

Strahan is likely to cave in and report to the team before the regular season starts. If he doesn’t, the Giants should wish him well and move on without him.

Mr. Smith is a contributing editor for FootballOutsiders.com.