The lines of communication are open.
That is the word from the Giants amid their ongoing saga with their disgruntled nose tackle, Dexter Lawrence, who is seeking more money and has requested a trade.
“We’ve had good conversations with his representatives throughout the last five or six days,’’ general manager Joe Schoen said Tuesday, noting that he, head coach John Harbaugh and Dawn Aponte — the new senior vice president of football operations and strategy — have all been involved in the talks with Lawrence’s agent, Joel Segal.
“Trying to find some resolution,’’ Schoen said. “I’ll echo what coach [Harbaugh] said last week, we’d like Dexter to be here and at some point we’ll come to a resolution here, whatever that may be, we’ll see. Conversations have been really good, they’ve been productive and we’ll see what happens here down the road.’’
The draft arrives April 23 and it stands to reason that if a financial agreement cannot be found, any potential trade would include 2026 draft picks.
“I’m not gonna get into if there’s a deadline or not,’’ Schoen said. “He’s under contract for two more years, so we’re not going to put any deadlines on anything. Right now, productive conversations and we’ll see where it goes.’’
Lawrence, 28, is only halfway through the four-year, $90 million contract extension he signed in May 2023. That deal included $60 million in guaranteed money and every dollar of that has already been paid out to Lawrence. That is one of the reasons he wants to renegotiate — to get additional guarantees moving forward. When he signed the extension, Lawrence became the third-highest-paid interior defensive lineman in the NFL. Currently, he is 12th and that situation needs to be rectified, in Lawrence’s view. The trade request was initiated to get the Giants’ attention.
The Giants prior to the 2025 season added $3 million in incentives to Lawrence’s deal but he was not as productive on the field as he was in years past, which resulted in him earning only $1 million of the incentives.
Lawrence has been a no-show at the offseason workout program that opened last week. The program is voluntary, meaning Lawence cannot be fined for his absence.
The trade request could spur other teams to check in with the Giants to determine what compensation might be needed to make a deal.
“I’m always going to pick up the phone, so if a team calls … that is my job as a general manager,’’ Schoen said. “It’s case-to-case basis and what the compensation may be, that’s my job to take into consideration what that looks like, who the player is, how that affects the roster and then try to make the best decision off of that.’’
