A Closer Look at Giants DL Dexter Lawrence's New Contract Structure

The numbers are out for New York Giants defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence's new four-year, $90 million contract extension. Once again, general manager Joe Schoen and the others involved in the structuring of the deal knocked it out of the park.

Let's take a deep look at the very interestingly crafted structure and try to make sense of it all.

Wait, How Many Years?

The first thing that jumps out about Lawrence's deal is that it covers five years, not four. That's because the Giants reworked the option year in Lawrence's deal for 2023, in which he was supposed to have earned over $12 million guaranteed.

Instead, New York lowered the base salary to $2.253 million and covered the remaining guaranteed money owed to Lawrence in the form of a $22 million signing bonus, which the player receives upfront.

For accounting purposes, the signing bonus prorates over the life of the new deal up to five years, and that clock begins in the first year in which the money is agreed to.

In doing so, the Giants cut Lawrence's 2023 cap hit in half, thereby giving the team some new breathing room for the time being while also taking advantage of spreading the signing bonus over the maximum number of years allowed.

A High Workout Bonus

The next thing that jumps out about Lawrence's new deal is the $500,000 workout bonus. As I noted in an article last year, the Buffalo Bills, from where Schoen was before being hired by the Giants, often make use of large workout bonuses as a way to drive additional money into a player's pocket without creating a potential issue for the team in dead money later on if the contract terminates early.

You'll see that Lawrence didn't get a workout bonus for this year; again, the reason why is 2023 was treated as a "restructure" year to open up some cap space. Whether the lack of a workout bonus affects Lawrence's decision to report to the rest of the voluntary workout remains to be seen.

"You know, I'll be back with my guys. I'm excited," Lawrence said last week when the question was asked. "There's still stuff I've got to take care of. I've been in constant communication with the coaches. It's voluntary, so we'll talk about it."

What's With that Roster Bonus at the End?

By the time this contract wraps up, Lawrence will be 30 years old. So long as he continues to play at a high level, there's no reason to think he won't be on the roster to finish the deal.

But eventually, Father Time plus the wear and tear of the game catches up with people, which is probably why the Giants put a $2.5 million roster bonus in the final year of the deal, the bonus also boosting Lawrence's cap number to $26.4 million for that year. The roster bonus should help Lawrence remains among the top paid at his position, assuming he is still good enough to earn it.

Considering Lawrence told reporters he wants to be a Hall of Famer one day, you can be sure he'll do everything possible to make sure he does finish out that contract.

The "Oddest" Thing About This Deal?

That would be the $1 million total per year ($58,823 per game) that Lawrence stands to earn through per-game roster bonuses.

That clause stuck out because when one thinks of a per-game roster bonus, it's usually for a player with an injury history, which Lawrence does not presently have. So why would the Giants include this clause in the deal?

There are a couple of reasons. One, the Giants, having seen how Leonard Williams, who up until 2022 had never missed a game due to injury, finally succumbed to the injury bug. Watching that likely served as a reminder of how physically demanding life in the pit can be and how the likelihood of pit players having an iron-man streak a la Eli Manning is very slim.

So if there is a chance of a player missing time, why not try to get some money back in the process? Remember, if a player has a per-game roster bonus and he doesn't play for all 17 games, the team gets a cap credit to use the following year.

Although the salary cap is set to rise significantly starting next year as the new broadcast revenue continues to hit, every little bit helps when planning for the future.

A Healthy Cap Percentage

Want to know a surefire way to ensure that your team's salary cap will always be healthy? Ensure you don't have many players taking up more than 10% of your team's cap space in any given year.

That's a big mistake the Giants, under the previous regime, used to make and is one that Schoen is still trying to rectify. And so far, so good in that regard, as except for Leonard Williams, who counts for a whopping 14.05 percent of the 2023 cap space, every other player is under 10 percent.

Getting guys to count for less than 10 percent of the cap usually means that you don't have to target them for massive restructures at a later date. That, in turn, leads to inflated contracts (and subsequent cap hell).

A couple of years ago, that's what the previous regime had to do to clear cap space to make moves. Ultimately when a team does that, the time to pay the piper does come around, and when that happens, and the boated contracts need to be removed from the books, that creates large chunks of dead money that can't be used.

The Giants had to go through that scenario with receiver Kenny Golladay's contract, choosing to rip the bandage off and swallow the $14.7 million dead money to dumb that contract. That amount accounts for 64.6 percent of the team's $22.74 million dead cap space.

Final Thoughts

Cleaning up the salary cap mess left by the previous regime was always going to be a multi-year project. Already we have seen via the structures of the contracts given to players by the current regime a forward and more creative way of reaching a happy middle ground in terms of structure (which is so very important) while also keeping the franchise's best interest in the forefront.

While much better this year than in 2022, the Giants' cap situation will be even better in 2024. Like anything, it takes time, but it's good to see that Schoen has found a balance with being competitive in the market while at the same time showing that he can exercise restraint and not overpay for talent.

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