Giants’ Pro Bowler Still ‘Important,’ Despite Expensive Cap Hit

The New York Giants have signed two defensive tackles in free agency and are tipped to eventually pay Dexter Lawrence II, but those moves won’t impact Leonard Williams’ future. He’s a potential salary cap casualty or at least a candidate to have his expensive deal restructured, but Williams “is still considered an important piece to this defense,” according to NorthJersey.com’s Art Stapleton.

It makes sense for the Giants to still value Williams, who was dominant in 2021 before injuries took their toll last season. The problem is his salary cap hit for this year is excessive, including a base salary worth $18 million, per Spotrac.com.

Paying Williams what he’s slated to make in 2023 makes it harder to hand Lawrence the lucrative contract extension he earned after an All-Pro campaign last season. The spiralling cost of the defensive tackle market this offseason should make Lawrence a rich man, provided the Giants can make room for his next deal.

Making room for contracts for Lawrence and possibly for Pro-Bowl running back Saquon Barkley, will require some creative cap management from general manager Joe Schoen. His best option is to rework existing deals, with Williams still the obvious candidate.

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Opinion Still Split on Leonard Williams’ Future

Williams is still “valued,” but there are those who continue to believe a restructured contract is “inevitable.” Among them, Dan Duggan of The Athletic wonders if the Giants “may be delaying as long as possible so they’ll know exactly how much they’ll need and therefore can limit how much is pushed into the future.”

Duggan’s right based on the pressing need to secure the long-term futures of both Lawrence and Barkley. Neither is expected to attend the official start of the team’s offseason program while they wait on fresh terms, per Paul Schwartz of the New York Post.

Cost is something Schoen can’t ignore when the Giants have just $3,364,182 worth of space under the cap ahead of the 2023 NFL draft. Making room for draft picks is one thing, so is hoping Barkley eventually signs his franchise tag, a one-year deal costing $10.091 million.

Where does that leave Lawrence? It’s not clear, even though Stapleton is confident the nose tackle who’s about to play on the final year of his rookie deal will “likely” get a four-year contract paying him $24 million annually.

Lawrence merits those numbers, but he’ll also be better with Williams on the field next to him. Fortunately, the Giants have options after Robinson’s arrival.

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Giants Still Need Leonard Williams

Signing Robinson added a proven run-stuffer to a defense that allowed 5.2 yards per carry last season. It was also a move Schoen structured in such a way to still leave the Giants with cap space even after taking on a front-loaded one-year contract, per Duggan.

Robinson joins fellow free-agent signing Rakeem Nunez-Roches to give the Giants greater depth and more oomph up front. It was a necessary signing, but “Robinson’s addition should not be taken as a sign that the Giants are losing faith in extension talks with Lawrence or are ready to move on from Williams,” according to Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post.

Keeping Williams makes sense because, as Zoltan Buday of Pro Football Focus put it, No. 99 and Lawrence “form arguably the best interior pass-rushing duo in the NFL.”

That’s a valid endorsement, even though Williams’ numbers took a downturn in 2022. He registered 17 pressures and 2.5 sacks, per Pro Football Reference, compared to 22 and 6.5 the season before.

Williams missed five games due to knee and neck injuries, but Lawrence more than picked up the slack. Lawrence notched 7.5 sacks, 36 pressures and 19 quarterback knockdowns, all career-high tallies.

The Giants went 8-5-1, including the playoffs, with Lawrence and Williams on the field together. This double act is still the cornerstone of Big Blue’s defense, so don’t expect anything to change, even if it means Schoen and the Giants rolling the dice on letting Lawrence enter free agency next year.

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