As New York Giants Pro Bowl nose tackle Dexter Lawrence enters his fifth NFL season, he’s at the top of the league at his position and soon may be paid like it.
Lawrence will be an unrestricted free agent come this time next year unless the Giants can bowl him over with a lofty contract extension.
Just how lofty, you ask? Just take a look at the recent contract extensions that some of Lawrence’s contemporaries have signed.
Washington’s Daron Payne and Tennessee’s Jeffrey Simmons were both inked to four-year mega deals this year worth $90 and $94 million, respectively.
The market has been set. Lawrence will play this season on his fifth-year option price of $12.4 million. That’s about half of what Payne and Simmons will play for under their new deals.
Although the Giants remain engaged with Lawrence and his representatives, they are running quite low on current cap space. They are down to just $2.3 million and may not have enough wiggle room to sign Sexy Dexy to a big-money extension right now.
Of course, that could easily change.
“Lawrence is a guy we’ve started talking with his representatives,” Giants general manager Joe Schoen said in early March. “He’s on the fifth-year option. You can lower that number with a signing bonus. So, the signing bonus allows you to spread the money over the length of the contract up to five years, and that’s how you’re able to lower the yearly amount that counts against the cap.”
There’s no doubt the Giants will get this done. Lawrence is a former first-round pick who is playing like one. They view him as one of their core players and now have to show that with a lofty extension of their own.
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