The New York Giants have made headlines to begin the month of April, a franchise embroiled in contract controversy with NFL All-Pro defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II. This isn’t the first instance of drama on the salary front between the two sides, as Lawrence and the Giants were unable to come to terms on a new contract in either of two prior NFL offseasons.
What’s different now is that Lawrence has reportedly asked to be traded out of New Jersey, apparently unwilling to participate in the Giants’
offseason workout program beginning Tuesday, April 7, per Adam Schefter. Adding a player of Lawrence’s caliber would immediately benefit any team, especially one as starved for production along the defensive line as the Buffalo Bills proved in 2025.
However, Lawrence represents a massive financial commitment — the type that just may make president of football operations/general manager Brandon Beane a bit uncomfortable. As of publishing, One Bills Drive has in the neighborhood of $12 million dollars available to spend toward the roster in 2026. They’ve done meaningful work to get under the salary cap while also managing to sign a few outside free agents in the last few weeks.
The point remains that Buffalo has been relatively quiet this offseason, and are yet to make a splash in free agency. They did pull off a trade for wide receiver DJ Moore, and that’s going to eat up a fair amount of cap space this season and in future seasons. Moore doesn’t play defense, and it’s worth wondering if the Bills have the right in-house hands in the dirt to adequately accomplish a shift to new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s 3-4 base system.
It’s worth noting that Lawrence has spent his NFL career playing in a 4-3 system, the same as defensive tackle Ed Oliver. That shouldn’t preclude Buffalo from kicking the Bugatti-cloaked tires Lawrence and his preferred contract necessitate. It’s easy to envision success for a base line consisting of Lawrence, Oliver, and Deone Walker.
The biggest questions surround the Bills’ ability to pull off a trade, what moves need to be made to fit Lawrence’s 2026 salary under their cap, and how they’d manage a path to a new, lucrative multi-year deal for Lawrence. Would the Giants listen to an offer from Buffalo that included their 2026 first-round draft selection (26th overall) as the best part of any draft capital surrendered? Beyond that is where things really get complicated.
Lawrence, who’s set to turn 29 years old in November, currently averages $22.5 million a year per Spotrac. Any new contract agreement is likely to be far north of that yearly sum, perhaps somewhere beyond Zach Allen’s current deal with the Denver Broncos that pays him an average of around $25.5 million per year. It’s reasonable to guess that Lawrence will also covet guaranteed money in signing any new deal.
Importantly, before Buffalo could even make something happen on that front, they’d need to create around $6 million more in 2026 salary cap space just to acquire Lawrence and his $18.5 million salary via trade. That has to happen before the Bills could even begin to restructure Lawrence’s current deal and coming to terms on a new contract extension.
It’s not an impossible scenario for Buffalo to land Lawrence, but it’s far from simple. What would be best is for them to identify, draft, and develop their own version of a Dexter Lawrence as someone on a cost-controlled rookie contact.
