Giants could extend Dexter Lawrence’s contract to cut his $27M cap hit in 2026

For years, Dexter Lawrence has been the immovable object at the center of the Giants’ defensive line. But as the 2026 offseason looms, the vibes in East Rutherford are shifting from celebration to calculation.

Lawrence is entering a critical juncture with a $26.9 million cap hit—the second-highest on the team—and a 2025 season that left many wondering if the former All-Pro has finally hit a wall.

While some corners of the internet are buzzing with mock trade proposals to the Bengals or Bears, Dan Duggan of The Athletic has proposed a more stable path.

Could the Giants Extend Dexter Lawrence this Offseason?

Duggan suggests that rather than tearing down the foundation, the Giants should double down with a two-year, $56 million extension.

“Topping the $26 million average annual salary Milton Williams secured from the Patriots in free agency last offseason is a fair outcome. With Lawrence already signed through 2027, a two-year extension worth $56 million would give him a $28 million average annual salary in the added years,” Duggan argued.

The logic behind Duggan’s extension proposal is purely financial. By tacking on two years at a $28 million average annual value, the Giants can perform a max restructure that converts his 2026 base salary into a signing bonus. This would effectively slash his $26.9 million cap hit, creating upwards of $10–$12 million in immediate breathing room.

“Beyond rewarding one of the team’s best players, another benefit of extending Lawrence would be lowering his $27 million cap hit in 2026. The Giants could easily create a few million in cap savings by spreading the cap charge from a signing bonus evenly throughout a new four-year deal,” Duggan wrote of the potential cap savings.

For a front office that currently has less than $5 million in functional space, this could be the maneuver that allows the Giants to re-sign Jermaine Eluemunor or pursue a high-end piece in free agency. It turns a problem contract into a tool for roster construction.

It’s a move designed to alleviate the immediate cap crunch, but in a “what have you done for me lately” league, the risks of hitching the wagon to a regressing star are impossible to ignore.

The 2025 “Regression” Reality Check

The raw data from Lawrence’s 2025 campaign is jarring for a player once considered the gold standard of interior defenders. After a 2024 season that saw him rack up nine sacks, Lawrence finished 2025 with just 0.5 sacks and 31 total tackles—his lowest output since his 2021 season.

Pro Football Focus (PFF) still respected his presence, awarding him a respectable 75.6 overall grade (9th among DIs), but his pass-rush productivity plummeted to a career-low 3.3% pressure rate. While some point to a lingering elbow injury and a lack of interior help as the culprits, the fear is that at 28 years old and 340 pounds, the physical toll of being a force multiplier is starting to catch up.

However, Lawrence was bouncing back from an elbow injury that required surgery and forced him to miss five games in 2024. If fully healthy in 2026, Lawrence should be able to return to the prime form that saw him dominate the NFL in 2023 and 2024.

The Extension Math: How the Giants Can Lower Lawrence’s $27M Cap Hit

Despite the financial benefits of an extension, the crowd arguing to trade Lawrence has gained steam, fueled by Bleacher Report’s suggestion of a package yielding a 2026 second-round pick from the Bengals.

The argument is simple: sell high before the regression becomes permanent. However, as Duggan points out, the Giants just watched Leonard Williams win a Super Bowl with the Seahawks at age 31 after they traded him for pennies on the dollar.

Under John Harbaugh and DC Dennard Wilson, the plan is to build a hyper-aggressive defensive front. Moving Lawrence now would leave a crater in the middle of that vision that a mid-round pick simply can’t fill.

Extending him isn’t just a cap move; it’s a bet that the “real” Dexter Lawrence is the one who dominated the league in 2024, not the one we saw last fall.