Giants forced into Leonard Williams contract decision they were trying to avoid
The Giants cut into their future budget just to get out of salary cap hell this season.
Despite general manager Joe Schoen saying he wanted to do everything possible to avoid this situation, the Giants were left with no choice Tuesday but to restructure defensive lineman Leonard Williams’ contract in order to get under the salary cap before Wednesday’s deadline.
The Giants converted nearly $18 million of Williams’ $19 million salary for this season into a signing bonus and added a void year to his contract, which allows the cap charges to be evenly distributed over three seasons. So, Williams’ new cap hits are $15.3 million for 2022 (instead of $27.3 million), $32.2 million for 2023 (instead of $26.3 million) and $6 million for 2024 even though his deal is up by then.
“We’ll get to where we need to get where we can get through the season,” Schoen said last week. “But the situation’s the situation. It’s the hand we were dealt, and we’re going to do the best we can with what we have.”
With the restructure of arguably their best defensive player, the Giants went from $5.2 million over the cap, according to NFL Players Association records, to about $6.72 million under the cap. Cornerback Adoree’ Jackson was the other logical candidate for a restructure.
Williams will receive the same amount of cash over the life of his contract — just sooner than expected. Players typically cannot decline and do not have to approve salary-to-bonus restructures.
“It doesn’t really change anything,” Williams told The Post. “If anything, it’s better because I’m happy I’m helping the team out with cap space, and I’m getting the same amount up front instead of waiting for it.”
In most cases, a restructure like this one makes it more difficult to cut the player in the future because it raises dead-cap charges and thus the player becomes more secure. But the Giants cut cornerback James Bradberry in May after twice restructuring his deal last season.
The Giants are flush with cap space in 2023 — about $55.6 million, which is the second-highest amount in the NFL, according to overthecap.com. But that doesn’t mean Williams is completely safe from cuts next season because the Giants could get out of his bloated $32.2 million charge — fourth-highest among non-quarterbacks — by taking on $20.2 million in dead money to save $12 million.
Williams’ situation can be easily traced back to a controversial trade with the Jets during October 2019.
In the middle of a lost season, the Giants lost all future negotiation leverage with Williams by trading two draft picks for him just months before he was scheduled to hit free agency. They were forced to use the franchise tag on him off of an underwhelming season in which he produced a half-sack, which in turn set up paying top dollar (three years, $63 million) in a tense negotiation to keep him from free agency after Williams blew up with a career-high 11 sacks in 2020.
The terms of Williams’ restructure were first reported Tuesday by The Athletic and ESPN.