Full details of Dexter Lawrence’s Giants contract extension released

Last week, the New York Giants took care of a key item of business, locking up Dexter Lawrence to a four-year, $90 million contract extension. The number was surprisingly low for Lawrence, who figured to exceed Jeffery Simmons’ $23.5 million average annual value. Instead, Lawrence’s AAV is the same as fellow NFC East defensive tackle Daron Payne at $22.5 million.

The full terms of the contract were recently released by Over the Cap.

Of note, the Giants restructured Lawrence’s fifth-year option as part of the deal. Instead of the $12.407 million scheduled cap hit, Lawrence will now count $6.653 million against the cap. That’s $5.754 million in savings, which the Giants desperately needed to sign their rookies and make continued moves in the offseason and beyond. Per Over the Cap, the team is now in the black at $5,674,351 in total cap space and $3,134,965 in effective cap space.

The Giants could gain more cap space if they can agree to a long-term extension with Saquon Barkley that would lower the cap hit from the $10.091 million franchise tag.

Lawrence’s total guaranteed money comes to $46.5 million, which comes to more than Payne's ($46.01 million) but less than Simmons’ ($47.83 million). It is structured as a $22 million prorated bonus, a $2.253 million guaranteed salary in 2023, a fully-guaranteed 2024 base salary of $16 million, and a $6.247 million guaranteed 2025 salary.

The remaining non-guaranteed $9.253 million of Lawrence’s 2025 salary vests at the start of the 2025 league year. Realistically, that is likely to be earned money, as the Giants would eat a lot of dead money to release him prior to that point: $19.447 million if prior to June 1 and $10.647 million if after.

Unlike the Commanders with Payne, the Giants did not add any initial void years to Lawrence’s contract. Joe Schoen appears to want to keep his restructuring flexibility for later rather than adding the void year from the outset. (It is worth noting that Payne’s extension was to nullify the franchise tag, while Lawrence’s was to restructure the far more affordable fifth-year option. That afforded the Giants more flexibility than Washington from the outset.)

Overall, Schoen did a good job structuring Lawrence’s contract. He kept the average annual value fair but not exorbitant, the guarantees in keeping with the market, and the base salaries low enough to be able to restructure later, if necessary.

The Giants will have their big man in the middle for a long time. Another big man, Andrew Thomas, may be the next man up. The two franchise cornerstones are big wins from the Dave Gettleman era.