Albert Breer’s Notes: Dexter Lawrence II Shows a Trend for Contract Disputes

Here’s why now was the time for him to take a stand. Plus, thoughts on Kyle Pitts Sr., Kirk Cousins, new uniforms and more.

Dexter Lawrence II is looking for a new contract after seven seasons in New York. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Jump to a topic

1. New York Giants 
2. Atlanta Falcons
3. Las Vegas Raiders
4. Jimmy Garoppolo

We’re only a little over two weeks away from the NFL draft, but there’s also other news to address, so let’s dive in …

New York Giants 

There’s an interesting trend that the Dexter Lawrence II situation illuminates which might be useful for everyone tracking contract disputes going forward: These fights are happening more and more when a player reaches the end of the guaranteed portion of his deal.

Last year—the third of the five-year contract Lawrence signed (or four-year extension, depending on how you look at it) in 2023—had more than $15 million fully guaranteed attached to it at this point in the calendar. The first two years of that pact were essentially fully guaranteed at signing. And now we’re into the deal’s final two seasons, which from a functional standpoint are twin, team-held $20 million options.

It makes sense that more players and their agents approach things this way, if you think about it from their perspective. Take the Lawrence deal, and the protections for each side. At signing, Lawrence was fully protected against injury for two years, and partially for a third year. Had he not made it through those three years healthy, the team definitely would have exercised the protection it had against such a circumstance before the fourth year, and walked away from the deal.

So if the player does make it that far healthy, why wouldn’t he seek more insurance?

Then, there are the simpler facts. Lawrence will turn 29 in November. He had a monster year in 2024, before suffering a season-ending dislocated elbow, then took a bit of a step back in ’25. He’s missed eight games over a seven-year career, and that includes the five games that the elbow injury cost him, so he’s been pretty durable, and fortunate, and that injury pendulum can swing on any football player on a dime. Which is to say, this might be his last chance to get paid at the highest level before hitting the back end of his career.

So, it’s pretty easy to see why Lawrence saw this as the time to take a stand, with a new coaching staff that really wants him aboard. And it’s pretty hard to blame him for doing it.

• One other Giants item: I don’t know how aggressive the Giants would be in moving Kayvon Thibodeaux, but I certainly think they’d listen. The reason is pretty easy to ascertain. They’re deeply invested in Brian Burns, who had an outstanding 2025, and Abdul Carter, whose potential, even after a so-so rookie year, is through the roof. As a result, it’s tough to conjure a scenario where Thibodeaux is a Giant in ’27.

And if that’s the case, and someone offers something good for him, it seems logical that you’d give whatever that offer was a good, long look.

---

Atlanta Falcons

Why did Kyle Pitts Sr. sign his $15.05 million tender? Because it was a good deal for him.

That money is not just now fully guaranteed—it also gives him a strong leverage point in negotiating a long-term deal. Generally, the way you want to look at negotiating a contract for players at the top of the heap at their position is to take two franchise tags and add them together. That, then, is your guarantee number, and you cut it in half for your average per year.

In this case, two tags for Pitts (this year’s tag at the aforementioned number, and next year’s at 120% of that number) comes to $33.11 million. Split that in half, and it’s $16.55 million. Give Pitts a small sweetener on those numbers, and we’re talking about, perhaps, a four-year, $68 million extension, with $35 million fully guaranteed. That would put Pitts behind only George Kittle and Trey McBride at his position, and not far off from them.

That would be one outcome. The other outcome would be Pitts playing on the tag and putting the Falcons in position to have to tag him at $18.06 million next year if he balls out.

Which is another example of the tag not always being a terrible thing for players.

In this case, if it was, Pitts wouldn’t have signed his tender.

• The Falcons’ new uniforms are a massive upgrade, and the best they’ve had since abandoning the Deion Sanders era aesthetic in 2003. Hopefully, the Ravens and Commanders bring similar “less is more” looks to the table next week (Washington, at the very least, has given off hints that it’s headed back to the classic Joe Gibbs era look).

---

Expected No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza took an official visit to the Raiders’ facility. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Las Vegas Raiders

Yes, it’s significant that Tom Brady was at the Raiders’ facility on Tuesday for Fernando Mendoza’s 30 visit, just as it was noteworthy that he was at Indiana’s final game, the CFP title against Miami, in January.

I do think Brady will identify with Mendoza’s story, and how he transformed himself from a middling prospect with good-not-great tools into the No. 1 pick in the draft. I think he’ll identify with Mendoza’s work ethic and drive, and strong family background, as well. What would be interesting to me is seeing how the two mesh from a personality standpoint, because I do know how Brady views the quarterback as the tip of the spear in the locker room.

That said, by all accounts, Mendoza has confirmed what the Raiders have gathered in doing all their research on the Heisman winner over the past six or seven months.

• While we’re there, the one part of the Raiders’ signing of Kirk Cousins that I should have acknowledged in my takeaways the other day is that he can essentially be another flag bearer for Klint Kubiak’s program, and a teacher of his system for Mendoza.

Kubiak was Cousins’s position coach in Minnesota for two years, and his coordinator for a third year, and Cousins’s background in the coach’s scheme goes back to the quarterback having Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay as his coordinators for the first five years of his career in Washington. As such, Cousins will be able to give Mendoza a player’s viewpoint on what Kubiak is trying to build, which should be invaluable.

And I also have one addendum to the contract gambles that Cousins made on himself in playing on franchise tags in 2016 and ’17. The Commanders’ best offer in ’16 was a five-year, $80 million extension: a good deal, but short of what the tag’s leverage points would dictate. In playing out the two tags instead, Cousins wound up making $138 million over those five years and negotiating a new extension in 2020, which is a $58 million uptick on what Washington was trying to convince him to take.

---

Jimmy Garoppolo

Jimmy Garoppolo is still available, and I think, at this stage of his career, the likelihood is that he’ll find a place as a high-end backup. His experience with the Rams was a good one, and I’d think that door would still be open, and perhaps set him up to be a bridge quarterback whenever Matthew Stafford decides to walk away.

---