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The Giants didn’t want to get rid of Lawrence, but the relationship reached the point of no return. Once a top-10 pick was on the table, the Giants decided to pull the trigger on the blockbuster trade. That the Bengals were willing to part with the No. 10 pick illustrates Lawrence’s value. Securing such a high pick was a score for the Giants, who weren’t willing to dump Lawrence for a weak return.
Harbaugh avoids the ugliness of a protracted contract dispute with a popular player in the locker room. A hold-in by Lawrence would have started Harbaugh’s first training camp on the wrong foot.
SNY touched base with four head coaches in the NFL after the Lawrence trade became official. All were stunned New York got what they did. Three pointed out Lawrence’s dip in production and conditioning, describing him as someone who needs his snaps limited to maximize his production. Another described him as a “one-position player.”
“Truly crazy return,” one coach said. “I truly thought the most they were getting was a second, maybe a second and fifth.”
Senior vice president of football operations Dawn Aponte.
Together, they made the call for the Giants with input from throughout the organization in ultimately signing off on Saturday night’s stunning trade of Pro Bowl defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for the 10th overall selection in this week’s NFL Draft.
So getting back to the scars that Harbaugh and Schoen bear from 2025, no, there wasn’t some sort of gazing into the mirror that the coach or GM did after last year.
“I think it’s just a clumsy way of thinking. It’s too generic. You’re doing that every day,” Harbaugh says. “Every day, you’re looking at everything you do, How can I do this better? How can I say this better? You have regrets, you have things you’re proud of. But on the whole, I think you feel the same way. I look back at everything we did, and I feel really great about it. I know one thing, I know personally, I did the very best I could do every single day.”
“That’s probably the best way to put it—you’re always doing that,” Schoen agreed. “We make so many decisions in a day. You’re always evaluating the decisions you make. Again, I was deep into the head coaching search, so there was no time, and this week is probably the first time, or this past weekend, we both kind of came up to take a breath for a short amount of time. And now we’re already thinking about the draft and all that.”
One unintended benefit is the approximately $13 million in annual salary cap relief the Giants are getting by shedding themselves of Lawrence’s contract for the next two seasons. However, it also leaves them with $13.916 million in dead cap. As of Sunday morning, Over the Cap lists the Giants’ available salary cap space at $18.43 million, while Spotrac has them at $19.41 million.
That will be enough to play their incoming draft class and then some. There are still several free agents the team may be focusing on this spring that they were previously unable to afford, but that they now can sign.