A week before the New York Giants’ season opener, the front office chose a strange time to start making noise.
What was supposed to be a quiet Labor Day weekend turned into a flurry of moves: backup quarterback Jameis Winston got an extension, defensive tackle Dean Lowry was added to the practice squad, and then the Giants cut loose their longest-tenured player, wide receiver Darius Slayton, while also handing offensive lineman Jon Runyan a two-year extension.
That last move is the one that stands out.
Runyan, 29, is coming off what was described as arguably the worst season of his career, yet New York locked him in for two more years and $22 million, with $21.5 million guaranteed. That’s a hefty commitment for a player who had already been viewed by many as a likely cap casualty earlier in the offseason.
The timing makes the decision even harder to ignore. The Giants already took on $12.749 million in dead cap by moving on from Slayton, one year after giving him a three-year, $36 million deal.
They’ll also carry another $3 million in 2027. Now they may have set themselves up for a similar kind of financial pain if Runyan doesn’t bounce back.
Before the extension, the Giants had options. Runyan was entering the final season of his three-year, $30 million contract, and if his 2025 form carried over, New York could have simply let him leave after the season and redirected the money elsewhere. Cutting him earlier this offseason would have saved $9 million, too.
Instead, the team guaranteed him $21.5 million.
The full structure of the deal hasn’t been revealed, but the guarantees alone suggest the Giants could be looking at roughly $10.5 million in dead cap if they decide to move on after one season. That would put them in familiar territory after the Slayton breakup.
And Runyan wasn’t exactly the kind of player other teams were expected to chase hard. If he does thrive under Harbaugh’s new staff, the Giants would have every reason to be glad they acted early. If he doesn’t, they may be left with another expensive mistake on their hands.
For now, New York is banking on the new coaching staff getting more out of Runyan before the first regular-season snap has even been played.
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Gordon McGuinness pointed to the lines promise while making clear it still needs development, which is where rookie Francis Mauigoa enters the picture. If Mauigoa can help speed up the progress, the Giants could at least start to stabilize the offense under Harbaugh, but this is still a group expected to need more time than patience usually allows in New York. Until the protection settles in, everything else the new staff wants to build on offense will have to work around that uncertainty. [Read more 🡒]