Giants DT Dexter Lawrence requests trade (4/7 Hour 1)

Coming up today on PFT Live, a key member of the Giants defense wants a trade. How can New York solve the sexy Dexy conundrum? Ravens quarterback Laura Jackson arrived for voluntary workouts. How long will he stick around? And his buccaneers GM Jason Leight concerned about Baker Mayfield's long-term future in Tampa. PFT Live starts after this. Tuesday edition of PFT Live, it is already April the 7th, just 16 days away. In the 2026 NFL draft, he's Chris Sims. I'm Mike Florio. That's usually what I do on a day when we don't have something to dive right into. PFT Live and BCSN, Sirius XM85, Peacock Sky Sports Action. I think podcast, I know. I know this. When is there going to be a fun national championship basketball game? We watched the UCLA, South Carolina game on Sunday after Easter dinner. That was boring. Last night's game for the most part was boring. It felt like every time Connecticut was trying to make it interesting, Michigan just slammed the door on them. Yeah. Well, I think Michigan was at a different class than Yukon. I mean, when the head coach of Yukon comes in and the first interview of the first half, and I think he's, you know, I love Dan Hurley, Jersey guy. Yeah. Do you remember what he said? He's like, we basically got to make the game ugly and slow, and it's working because we can't win any other way. They knew. I mean, that's a special Michigan team. I mean, it says their record, right? So I think they had a playaway in which they had a slow and make the game ugly and boring to your point. And then it's, you know, young kids who now it's boring. The game is slow. They're not professionals and they're missing seven and eight foot jumpers because they can't get in rhythm. So yeah, it wasn't the most exciting final four or finals ever, but credit to Michigan. Good for them to win it for the first time in 37 years. Right. That Michigan fight song over and over last night. Yeah. I was never fully familiar with the lyrics. I thought it was hail to the victims, not hail to the victors. You learn something new every day. No, we learned something new yesterday as it relates to as her late to the New York Giants and the thing we didn't learn. I thought the one new thing I would learn yesterday about the Giants is they're the only team that blew it in the 2022 top 10. They blew it twice. Yeah. Right. You learned that yesterday. That was just the appetizer. Right. That was the appetizer. One of the guys they've nailed in the past Dexter Lawrence, sexy Dexie. There was some chatter about a possible trade or discontent or something. Well, it all came to a head yesterday. Dexter Lawrence's camp got the word out via Adam Schefter of ESPN that Dexie wants a trade. And my first thought was always he disenchanted already with a new head coach, new boss, doing a little too much, being a little too abrasive. Going to do things differently. No, it's not about that. It's about the big mamoo. It's about money. Yeah. Yeah. He's got a contract that's been superseded by the market by the salary cap. He's been trying to get a new one. I'm told he has not succeeded, obviously. And so you put the word out and you see what happens. Maybe the Giants wake up or maybe somebody else says, oh, we'll call the Giants and see if we can make them an offer they won't refuse. Yeah, it's interesting. Like you said, there was murmurs of it, right? So when you were probably off season, you were kind of like, wait, is that right? Like Dexter Lawrence, what am I hearing that? But I didn't hear much. So it kind of went away for a period of time. Then it comes out yesterday and right away, you know, for me as a Giant fan, I'm just a little bit like, oh man, what sexy Dexie's one of my favorite players on the football team. You know, I'm a little just like, hey, I'm thinking, I hope it's about money. And then of course, you know, you see some of the reports and you realize it is about money. It's all about money. And the timing's perfect too. And part of that timing, I think too, Mike, is it's a draft one that I don't think detackles are looked at to be at a premium. There's not a ton of them. They're not growing on trees in this draft. So there is value in putting yourself out there in this moment. But like to your point, he's severely underpaid. He's severely underpaid from the standpoint of if you look at the market, you can look at two guys, or Chris Jones is at the top, right? And he's a unicorn, right? Wouldn't you agree because of everything he's done? Kansas City, everything like that. So I'm not saying you got to challenge the top of the market, but one thing I think sexy Dexy or Dexter Lawrence could say to the New York Giants and to anybody and anybody in football will have his back, I think would go. No, no. Dexter Lawrence is every bit, if not better than Milton Williams or Jordan Davis. And there's been a staple as far as one of the best defensive tackles here for quite some time. So I understand him wanting more here and he deserves to be towards the upper part of that list. That's for sure. Cause he's, he's better than some of these people on the list. Who would you rather have right now? Chris Jones or Dexter Lawrence? I would Dexter Lawrence. I would and that's no disrespect to Chris Jones, who I think is awesome and is a pro is a first ballot hall of famer. But Dexter Lawrence is like just hitting the peak of his like prime here. Not only hitting the peak of his prime, usually those big run stuffing, you know, two gap. Just we make a mosh pit in the run game. They could, they could last a while. You know, that's not, there's not a quick shelf life in that career to where there's, there's some, you know, 10 years, 11 years for those guys. That happens. So that's where I would take Dexter Lawrence as well. Lawrence, part of the problem he's entering the last two years of his contract. And a lot of times we see the back end of a deal contains phony baloney puffed up numbers aimed at driving up the APY. Yeah. Lawrence has lower than his APY in the last two years. And remember we talked during free agency about how we're seeing these three year deals. The three year deals help the player because the player gets back to market instead of being stuck on the back end where the team can say, Hey, Dexter Lawrence for $20 million. That's pretty good for us. Whereas if it was a player who wasn't getting it done and it was some balloon payment, they'd say, well, we're tearing that thing up. Yeah. So this helps the Giants. We're beyond the guaranteed money. We're into the non guaranteed years of his contract and the numbers that are in there aren't good enough. And usually what you, you believe going into one of these deals is we're going to do another one. Yeah. When we get to the back end. And I think that's where the frustration comes from. Yeah. We're going to do another deal. Oh, no, we're not. We got you 20 this year and it's 19 five next year. So it's a good situation for the Giants because we're getting toward the meat. If not the back end of a guy's prime when you consider the position he plays going to be 29 in August. So now's the time to draw a line in the concrete as a wise man once said and and for Dexter Lawrence to just raise this issue. But putting it out there will invite teams to call the Giants. And I believe that was part of the motivation. Totally. What out there that you've asked for a trade. So now Joe Shane's phone is going to be ringing all day and he's going to be cursing the situation because all of his time is taken up by all the teams calling him trying to make him offers for Dexter Lawrence. And who knows, maybe someone will offer something that gets them to say, OK, either OK, we'll take it or wow. Somebody else values him this way. That's what's going to happen. A little bit. That to me is where it's going to go. I think that's why you make the play. I think between that and then when I brought up the draft, I wouldn't be shocked if the Giants start to go. Damn, a lot of people want Dexter Lawrence. Damn, they already know that they know that they understand this is this is a guy. He's in the prime of his career. Like we talked about he's 20 about to be 25 years old. He's 25 years old. It's John Harbara 28 Dexter Lawrence. I don't think so. He's 28. Is he really drafted in 2019, Chris? Yes. OK, I'm just I don't know why I have it right here. He's 25 years old, but maybe I'm wrong here. No, no, he's he's a let's confirm the date of birth. Let's confirm it, but he was drafted in 2019. So if he's 25, he was one hell of a wonderkin. Oh, you know, you're right. You're right. I'm right. I'm wrong. You know what I'm looking at? You know what I'm looking at? And I'm I'm looking at age of signing last contract. That's my bad. That's what I am looking at. So listen, that changes the dynamic a little bit, but what I said with Chris Jones, but I still say I would take Dexter Lawrence. OK, even though they're different players, he's a mosh pit space eater, right? But regardless, here's the point I was going to when I fumbled his age is the big thing. It's John Harbaugh. It's the era here. It's it's supposed to be a new time with the New York Giants. We're supposed to have a new football team here. Big bad Ravens like Giants old days here we come and Dexter Lawrence just fits the mold there of everything that embodies. And then we got a Denard Wilson as a defensive coordinator who's rooted into Baltimore and that system as well. And he likes big people. So to me, like part of the culture and what they're trying to do here with the New York Giants right now. And one of the special parts of the football team is going, oh, wait, we got at John Harbaugh, a new D coordinator, and we got Abdul Carter and Brian Burns. And in the middle is Dexter Lawrence and holy crap. And that's, you know, something I think everybody's excited about here going into this next season. So that's where I hope they can get something done here with Dexter Lawrence and splash the pot, give them a new deal, whatever they need to do. Well, and part of the attitude may be, Hey, everything's new. Everything's exciting. Why aren't you going along with the program instead of, all right, we have a key player who needs to be taken care of the last contract doesn't reflect his current value. Let's fix it. And that's the obligation that falls on every team that finds itself in that situation where the guaranteed money is ended back into the contract. The market has changed dramatically. Salary caps gone from 182 in 2021 to 301.2. Now you just need to be fair with the players you value. And here's what John Harbaugh said about Dexter Lawrence, the scout and combine. He's super, super important. He's a cornerstone football player. He's not really a cornerstone. He's more like the middle stone. He's right in the middle and he's a very big stone and he's a very active athletic stone. We want him. We need him. That sounds like something you would have said. It really does. Right. You're funny. It does. I was kind of reading that too and being like, that's, that's how I would go. I would say that and then go, wait, he's not a cornerstone. He's a middle stone. In fact, he's a huge middle stone. But yeah, I think that, you know, what he's saying there, I think that's, you know, true words. And again, I'm sorry I bungled his age there a little bit, but regardless, this is a guy that still I will sit here and go, no, it's primed Dexter Lawrence and it's not going anywhere right now. Fought through some injuries last year, but the versatility and what he can do as far as one, he's athletic enough to be disruptive. So people look at him and go, oh, he's a space eater. But once you go, when he gets like single team, just single blocks, he can really cause havoc and then we know he can hold his ground against double teams and then he's got the ability as we talk about sometimes Mike to two gap, which then can give the defensive Gordon coordinator some versatility and once he wants to do cause he's like, wait, Dexter's just going to hold this guy there and he's got the gap to the left and the gap to the right and we got, he's got both of them. That's how good he is. And now our linebacker can be a little free to go somewhere else or do whatever else and that's the value he brings to the table. And yeah, I would think with what the Giants are trying to instill here a little bit and we know the O line, it's Jackson, Dard. Okay. We're, we've got some things working on the offensive side of the ball, but I think the defense is where we're looking as far as Giants fans to go. Ooh, you know, there's a few things here to hold down the fort and be special. And it starts with the middle stone and Dexter Lawrence right there. Certainly need him and want him back. And it's a twist on f and up the play. When you have that guy that can be the two gap player, he ties up so much of the line that they can't go block the other guys. It's not like he's blowing a hole in the side of the offense like a Jadavian clowny in his prime would do. Right. He's just got so many guys occupied to keep him from doing that. It's free run to the ball. And I'll say this. I don't mind at all. Yeah. Did you got his, his age? Yeah, I know you don't. But that was so stupid of me. You made me think, you made me think that you were having a senior moment. Yeah, yeah. No, you made me question. You made me question my sanity. Like I looked it up yesterday. He's 28. I wrote he's 28. I just said he's 28. I mean, you said he was 28 and I had just looked at 25. When you said that, I was like, wait, he's wrong. What's he talking about? I was just looking at some stuff last night and whatever, but I'm realizing I'm sitting here looking at the age. He signed the contract one. And that and the second part is, I mean, that's just stupid of me. When did I think he was drafted when he was 17 years old? I mean, that was one of the things that came out of my mouth. And that's what happens when you're a middle stone player. You get drafted while you're in middle school. Right. But, but yeah, I, you know, this is, this is a big deal. And what, what can they do to, I mean, he obviously wants a new deal. Now, does he want to break the market and go above Chris Jones? Like I said, I think Chris Jones is a little bit of a unicorn because he's one of the greatest players in the history of the Kansas City Chiefs. He was the best defensive player on a dynasty football team. So he almost got like a surplus superstar, you know, extra tax charge to the Kansas City Chiefs because of that. He's still awesome. Is he what, what he once was? No, but that's what I don't know. And we'll hopefully hear is, is what is Dexter Lawrence trying to get on the open market? What's he want here from the New York Giants? What's that number? And hopefully the Giants can figure something out because yeah, we need sexy Dexie. And remember before the Chris Jones contract, the defensive tackles were all kind of clustered. Jones blew the lid off the market and there's still a gap. And look, I think there's a little creative accounting with the new money thing. How many years he had left, but regardless, it's accepted. It's 31 eight. It's accepted that he's on the back end of his prime. Yep. That he's not the guy that he was when they were winning consecutive super balls. And you wonder how many years that he's got left on that team, frankly, at that number, but that's the number and how high does Dexter Lawrence want to go on that stack that he isn't even in? It's crazy. It's crazy tied for number 11. He's not even in that stack of top 10. And the one that did it. I'm told Jordan Davis when he got to 26. I mean, look, I'll do respect to Jordan Davis. He's not Dexter Lawrence and that accelerated. I believe the effort to try to get this thing fixed and the Giants have said no. That's the bottom line. The Giants have failed to do what they need to do to take care of Dexter Lawrence. And that's why it got to this. Yeah. People can say, oh, he's selfish. He wants to trade. Well, if the Giants just would do the right thing, it never would have come to this. And now he's got to play this card in the broader game of chess checkers and chicken and see what happens. And maybe the end result will be the phone rings off the hook. They realize other teams highly value this guy. Maybe we should too. Let's not have another Saquon Barkley situation. Let's get this guy paid. And let's not be unreasonable with this idea, this outdated idea that we get to the back end of a contract and you're signed for grossly below market numbers that are non-guaranteed that were just there to be a repository for cap charges that are spread out. You can't say we got you. Yeah. Deal with your contract. That's the way the Eagles used to do it when they would sign guys for 10 years. Right. And it failed to reflect basic human understanding of how people think, how people operate, how they work. The guy's still in his prime. The market has changed. Deal with it. Yeah. That's the message to the Giants. That's right. In his prime and to like I said, to usually these bigger space eater guys last a little longer than maybe the Aaron Donalds of the world or even the Chris Jones of the world because Chris Jones is an incredible athlete too. And he does, you know, depend on that maybe more than a Dexter Lawrence. So that's to where I just look at it and go away. We got a lot more of shelf life here with Dexter Lawrence. He's not going anywhere. The value of the player is still way up there even though he's 28 years old and we showed that list there. Right. Yeah. It's it's it's Chris Jones who's at the top of the list and he's him and DeForest Buckner are the only two people there that are over 30 years old. So that's interesting in itself. But I think when you look at that list and go, okay, yeah, you know, Alia McNeil, Nonde up a Madabouke who of course is dealing with the neck injury and everything there. Jordan Davis, I would say has not been clear the player that Dexter Lawrence has. I mean, Dexter Lawrence has done some special things. He's been a two time second team all pro. And I think one of those years he really deserved to be first team all pro. So I, yeah, that's where you look at it. Here's the other angle. I'm going to throw out Milton Williams. Yeah, good player. But, you know, one real good here in Philadelphia, he gets $26 million. I'm sure Dexter Lawrence is looking at that going, wait, I've been the, the middle stone cornerstone of the franchise here for the New York Giants. And I'm not even on this graphic. That's crazy right there. So here's one thing I'll throw out to you because as we know the NFL, it's about balancing your, your checkbook, right? And you can't have an embarrassment of riches at one position. Ding, ding, ding, like the Atlanta Falcons, the backup quarterback can't be getting $50 million sitting on the bench holding that that's not good team building or having too many good players in one position. Right. They do have a defensive line here right now where we got Abdul Carter, we got Brian Burns, he's starting. Cave on tibodeaux right now is sitting there as a backup who's making a pretty good chunk of change here. And I sit here and go, that money right there could go to Dexter Lawrence or where is this going, but are we going to pay Cave on tibodeaux $15 million a year to sit on the bench or is he going to be something a part of the trade here? And we're going to get that money off the books. That to me is the other angle that maybe plays into this Mike, at least when I look at it a little. Well, the handwriting has been on the wall for that. Since Abdul Carter was drafted last year and they tried to say, well, we have three great pass rushers, that's fine. But at some point you got to pay him 14.751 million is his fifth year option number fully guaranteed for this year. He's a guy who could be traded before or during the draft. And one of the dynamics we see play out every year, a team targeting a player doesn't get that player in round one. Yeah. Next thing you know, there's a trade done in the 18 hours between the end of round one and the start of round two. That's just kind of how it goes. And there could be a market that emerges for him. But you're right, that 14.751 million could then become cash and cap space that would be devoted to Dexter Lawrence and getting him properly taken care of. But that's what they need to do. I mean, we talked about and had a few laughs at how they kind of whiffed on Tibidow and Evan Neal in 2022 when the other eight guys taken in the top 10 have all either gotten second contracts or the only one who has his Drake London and he'll presumably get his. When you hit on a guy, that's the reality of this NFL bizarro lottery. The draft is a lottery. Every pick is a ticket. And when you scratch off a winner, you eventually have to pay the jackpot. You don't get the jackpot. Your jackpot is a player who helps you win games. It comes with a price. It's like having a really expensive car. You got to take it to the shop and it costs a lot. And if it needs a new wheel, it's not like going down to the local tire supplier and getting the cheapest thing on the rack. Everything about having that car is expensive. You got to pay. And that's part of the obligation. And it's part of understanding how to keep your team happy. They need Dexter Lawrence to be happy. And if he was happy with everything, it wouldn't go out of this. And this wasn't something where he was walking down the sidewalk and mentioned something to a friend and someone overheard it. This was deliberately, deliberately played, deliberately handed, deliberately fed to a reporter who would take it and blast it on an 11.5 million dollar or 11.5 million follower Twitter platform. And now everybody knows. And let's see where this goes next. He's a pillar of the organization. That's how I look at it right now. It's a team that hasn't been real successful here in recent history, but we got something working right now where we got a young nucleus that can follow some of the guy that's, hey, been there a little bit veteran, right? And Dexter Lawrence. But you know, when you look at the giants and go, hey, Jackson Dart, man, Malik neighbors, okay. Oh, Andrew Thomas at left tackle. All right. That's the offense. It's out of the ball. The defense is out of the ball. And then has started with Dexter Lawrence and then Brian Burns. And now we got an Abdul Carter who really played really well last year and a lot better than I think the public realizes cause they just look at sack numbers. So there's something going there. He's definitely one of the lightning rod personalities of the football team that the fan base loves. So that's too, where you're like, if you're John Harbaugh, I'm sitting there and if I was there talking to him, go, man, this is, this is, you know, Hey, he's, he's one of the guys you want on the field to, to kind of instill your culture. And he's also one of the guys off the field that the fans kind of like. So let's not let that get messed up and start the new era here with kind of a bad taste in our mouth. Like, man, what did we really get rid of one of our, the best defense of tackles and football when we're about to be the big bad giants again with John Harbaugh? That's where I just hope that, you know, common sense prevails here in this one to where they can find a way to be creative or whatever to reward Dexter Lawrence and find a way to make sense for everybody as he, you know, gets into the thirties and a few years and everything there. This will be an interesting test case of the new look giants organization. How will they handle this? Will Joe Shane, the GM and John Harbaugh be on the same page? Will the Donna Ponte, whose job duties scream out front office, but who reports to Harbaugh? Yeah. Where will she fall in any potential friction or disagreement between Shane and Harbaugh? But this is the first practical test because remember, remember how this went. And I don't know that this got the attention to deserve because it was all unfolding in real time while the postseason was happening and there's games and there's other stuff going on. 10 coaches got fired, but Shane was supposedly hiring the coach and then Harbaugh becomes available and Shane's not hiring the coach anymore. Shane's not hiring the coach. The owners hired the coach and Shane's had to find a way to coexist with the coach and it's one thing to let the dust settle on the way in as to how we're going to get along and wait. The GM always has had the coach report to him. That's just the way the giants have done it for at least 50 years. Now we're going to do two separate tracks. GM reports to the owner and the coach reports to the owner and it kind of feels like the GM reports to the coach kind of like the coach is the guy who's the center of the university and they start moving around whether it's firing or whether it's soft landings, key long-term employees of the organization. The Dona Ponte thing though was really the one that was me like Harbaugh's taken over. Harbaugh's in charge. 100%. So how does this all, I don't know how it's going to play out. But that's the key. This is the first practical example of what the John Harbaugh, Joe Shane, Dona Ponte, arrangement is going to do when it finds itself in a difficult spot. Yeah. I'll be interested to see how it's handled too. It's been smooth sailing for the most part, you know, ever since that incident. And then you're right. I mean, it kind of went from Joe Shane is going to hire the guy to wait. It sounds like it's John Harbaugh, but what's going on? And then we got into a point where we were like, wait, it's going to be John Harbaugh. Is he going to keep Joe Shane and everybody else? That's kind of what it felt like at the end. I mean, it literally got to that point. But regardless, they found the right formula in what works. And Joe Shane has drafted some good players here to where you go, Hey, you could build something here with this football team. There's some young talent that we talked about. They hit the lottery with Jackson Dart. So having him and of course being on the rookie deal is very favorable. You would think to be able to help things like this out as we go forward here. But yeah, this is a big test. You're right. And like I said, I just would think not knowing John Harbaugh all that well, but knowing him enough through the years of watching football to go, this would be one where I would think he, yeah, he doesn't want this, you know, on his lead first line of his new resume with the New York Giants. Like one of the first big moves he made was he got rid of, you know, they got rid of the biggest, baddest defense attack on the game. The guy that nobody can move and then we need two people to block every time we want to run the ball up the middle, they got rid of him. And that just doesn't seem to me like a John Harbaugh or a Harbaugh move at all. The whole damn family, I'd say. And so hopefully they can, they can get this done with Sexy Dexy. And look, the other potential argument that may be raised within the organization as they work their way through this is the precedent it will set as to, and we hear that from time to time. I think it's a lazy crutch that teams use. Well, you know, if we, if we tear up your deal with two years left, well, it's just going to be a parade. Yeah, right. One player after another. It's going to be like the end of Rudy when they're all bringing in each other. They're all coming in trying to get new contracts. You can take my spot, coach. The easiest response to that is play like Dexter Lawrence and you'll get a new contract well, yeah, two years left. That's right. That's an easy response. But that's the way to justify. Well, you know, we can't do that because we have to be concerned about precedent. This is a new operation and we have to be very concerned about precedent. And I think that Dexter Lawrence and his representation will say GTF OH in response. Yeah, you're right. GTF OH something like that, whatever, but it's, it is, it's such team propaganda BS bull crap when they say stuff like that, because that's not how the locker room works. The locker room knows the locker room knows the pecking order. They understand that. You know, I knew as backup quarterback, if I made, you know, made a ruffle about wanting more money or something, like the organization, like screw you, get out of here. Warren sap says it. They're, well, hold on. We'll talk to your agent later. We'll figure something out. Hold on. We'll get back in. Like no crap. No, I mean, the players are aware of it to your point. It doesn't hold. It doesn't mean anything. The locker room knows the three or four guys in the locker room that are allowed to break the rules or the normal rules that the other 49 guys can't do. Right? I mean, we know that the 1986 giants knew Lawrence Taylor had a few different rules in his rule book than Jim Burton. Exactly. Right. And so yeah, it just, that's the way it was. And that's the way it is in every locker room to a degree. And especially when it comes to contracts and stuff like that, that even more so, because yeah, that's not something personal and the coach is trying to keep everybody together. This is the business side of it. And the locker room certainly knows who the guys are that, you know, can play the business game and kind of threaten the organization right back the same way. And that's always a very short list of guys and Dexter Lawrence certainly is one of those guys. I mean, some of the rules I recall loosely are the sleeping bag rule. Yeah. Allowed him to take a nap during meetings. The show up at meetings with handcuffs on rule, which was not a law enforcement situation gone bad. No, it was not. You're exactly right. And the show up at Phil Sims house at four in the morning looking for golf clothing. Yes. Golf clothing. Exactly. Right. And probably a whole bunch of other rules too. Definitely. So, I mean, that's a special thing. It's funny because, you know, it actually came up during that little coaches cocktail hour by the pool at the owners meeting last, last week, but there were stories going around. And I think it might have been Sean Payton or somebody, but kind of went there with LT. And I kind of reaffirmed the story of like, yeah, I mean, you know, my dad always told me Lawrence had a sleeping bag at the feet of Bill Belichick, the guy who is famous for keeping everybody and we're going to, I'm going to be tough on Tom Brady. Just like I got to be tough on you. This is the 53rd player on the roster. And you know, with that one, it was like, no, Lawrence is going to get three sacks this weekend. So let's just let him sleep right now. Well Dexter Lawrence hasn't pushed it quite that far. And that's the other side of it. He's never been a problem. No, not that Lawrence, not a problem. Lawrence Lawrence is a very unique individual whose greatness manifested itself in all sorts of ways that were both positive and maybe not so positive. Dexter Lawrence hasn't created an issue. He hasn't created a problem. He's done everything they've asked of him. We've never heard of any issues with Dexter Lawrence other than the issues he creates for opposing offensive lines. So they just need to take care of this. But my concern is you got, you got several chefs there. I think it's awkward. Hey, I wouldn't be surprised if a year from now, Donna Ponte is the GM of the team and Joe Shane's not there anymore. I mean, Shane's really going to have to prove himself to Harbaugh and this could be the first report card. John Harbaugh sitting back, folding his arms and just monitoring. How does Joe Shane handle this? When does he come to me? What does he ask for? How does he negotiate? How does he carry himself? How does he communicate? All those things that will make a guy who believes reasonably, I don't have to play those games anymore. Now, all of a sudden he's playing those games because the coach that came in is higher in the de facto pecking order than he is. So it's not a great situation for Joe. It's not a great situation for him at all. But I think Harbaugh is going to be watching him like a hawk circling your chickens to see if he makes the kind of false move that then becomes the basis for saying after the season to one of the mayors, we need to make a change at GM. This is a tangible example of the kind of thing that if Joe Shane doesn't handle it well, it goes sideways or it could be a situation where no matter what he does. And look, I'm not trying to get an angry phone call today. I'm just trying to explain to everybody how the human dynamics can play out. It's possible that the guy who's making the decision on Shane is going to look for anything that will support a predetermined conclusion that I want Dona Ponte to be the GM. I'm not saying that that's what's happening. I'm just saying we get these different agendas and different personalities under the same roof and this is how it all plays out tangibly. And this is the first tangible example of it. Yeah. Well, I mean, we hope it's not a Saquam Barkley moment, right? That's what you hope as a giant fan, right? Where, you know, whatever, whoever you want to blame, but we know was famous for the offseason hard knocks and we saw, you know, Mara's and Joe Shane there talking in that scene about Saquam Barkley. And of course, he didn't end up there. And that was a big deal. And the Giants are still made fun of that to this day. So that's where you look at it and go, yeah, this is a big test. Certainly it definitely is. Joe Shane's done a lot of good things here, but this is a new regime and you're right. It's a new power structure and he's got to make the head man, which it all does seem with John Harbaugh as the head man. He's got to make him happy here. So he's got to figure that out. Now, like the other aspect of this too is like, and Gary brings this up because he goes, you know, hey, should meet Gary who's running the show today. He goes, well, should he wait to Jaylen Carter? That's one of the things he's wrote in the rundown, right? Because Jaylen Carter, of course, is a guy that we all look at to go, wait, this could be the guy that breaks the market again. And so I don't think you wait for that for Dexter Lawrence. That doesn't matter. Jaylen Carter is in the prime of his career right now. He is a really special football player. I mean, when Jaylen Carter is at his best, he's arguably the best defensive player in football. He's up there with my money would be Micah Parsons, Miles Garrett, those kind of guys when he's healthy and playing his best. He can do it all. So he's a little different that way. I don't think that should dictate how Dexter Lawrence looks at this. But regardless, Dexter Lawrence needs to be a lot higher up in that pecking order. And he certainly can look at Jaylen Carter's teammate and Jordan Davis and go, wait, Jordan Davis hasn't been as good as me and he's not as good as me right now. I can't have him pay it making more money than me. And so that's where you look at it go. Well, he's definitely got to be north of 26 million a year. That's a guarantee given when I kind of look at it and look at the situation. And I don't know if this is something we talked about because it all came out in the days before the start of free agency. But once Jordan Davis got his contract, there was a report from ESPN. The Eagles have received calls about Jaylen Carter. And I'm always curious when a report like that comes out because look, there are two potential categories of source for that kind of a story that a team has received calls about a player. One, you've canvassed every team in the league and each one has been truthful with you about whether or not they've called the Eagles about Jaylen Carter. Two, the Eagles are putting it out. And sometimes for the same reason, we're hearing that Dexter Lawrence has asked for a trade what's the purpose to get the Giants phone ringing with trade offers? What's the purpose of a team leaking that it's received phone calls about a player? Even if it's made the calls or hoping the phone rings, there's always, especially with the Eagles, folks, they do everything well, including work the media. We spent a lot of time talking about it last week with that. Whoa, what timing to drop this Jaylen Hertz mega story right after Nick Siriani and Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie were intermingling with all the media. The moment they're out of Arizona, wheels up, when can we post the story? The moment the plane is off the ground like Argo, as soon as the plane's off the ground, you're good to go. And I suspect that they put the word out there, which made me think, are they thinking about trading Jaylen Carter? And you know what the issue would be if they are? Yeah. 50 year option. We've talked about the 50 year option. The way that thing is calculated based on pro-bow births early in the career. We talked about Tibido at 14 seven for this year, 50 year option. Next year, Jaylen Carter, 27.127 million because of the early success. It bumps up that 50 year number, which becomes part of the basis for the discussions on a new contract. How can it not be? I'm already due to make 27 next year, fully guaranteed. They haven't picked it up yet, but they surely will. Why wouldn't they? So that's the reality. And so you just wonder if by paying Jordan Davis, they've decided they're not going to pay Jaylen Carter. So it may be a point that never becomes ripe because this thing may play out for a while. Yeah. Next Lawrence wants to take care of business now. He wants to take care of business right now. He's at a different point in his career here. And he's trying to get contract number three as he knows he's getting there to an age where, you know, it's the last time I might be able to get a huge payday. So that's a different thing here. Jaylen Carter, he's not worried about that situation. And I'm with you, Mike, when I first heard that, that to me, when something, oh, Jordan Davis got signed and then there's little rumors about, oh, maybe Jaylen Carter, he could be trade that that for Chris Sims, Spidey senses been around the NFL. That's code word for holy shit. He asked for this much money. Holy crap. Like that, that to me is what that is. Like what he wants 32 million a year. He's up for trade bait. He's up for trade bait. He's up for trade bait. Like, I mean, that, that, that to me is what that usually speaks to a number or they talk to agent and they were like, whoa, he's looking for that. I don't know if we can do that. And that's kind of how I took it. And we'll see where it goes. But yeah, I think Jaylen Carter is going to demand that kind of number or that kind of shock factor. He could be the guy that breaks Chris Jones hold at the top of the market here. I think he's that type of talent for sure. And why wouldn't he? Yeah, the cap keeps going up. The market keeps going up. Why wouldn't he? But you're right. That's the kind of thing where once he puts that number out there and this is where tampering can help a team. If the team is confident no one else would be willing to pay Jaylen Carter that kind of money, that may soften the expectation. Yeah. Yeah. Like whatever the number is, maybe it's 35. 35. Are you kidding me? Because if it had to be a number big enough to make him say, are you freaking kidding me? We can't do that. Hey, if we're going to do that, then we'll, you know, we'll take whatever we can get from him from somebody who's willing to give us the trade compensation and pay him this amount. But one thing leads to another and you start having conversations and they're all hypothetical and even it's all tampering. Nobody cares at this point. You'll find out that nobody else is going to pay him what, what he's asked to be paid. But I think he's going to try to get there and whenever he does do his second contract, it will be north of Chris Jones because it's time for somebody to be north of Chris Jones. That's just the way this thing works. The dollars keep going up. The market keeps changing. The best player and the guy that got that contract is going to age out and somebody else is going to come into their prime and that's the guy that's going to become the highest paid player. That's just the way it works, especially at the non quarterback position where age is always a factor and 30 is always kind of the moment where it's like, ah, your prime earning years for the most part of ended. Yeah, no, it is. It's, it's, this is why you got to, you got to strike now. You got to and it's an important position as we know. I mean, defensive tackle. Yeah. For whatever reason, kind of didn't climb the market quite the way, the same way other positions do. Aaron Donald, he was the unicorn for a while, right? He had a $31 million a year contract where it was like nobody was even close to that. I think the next closest one was like 22. So that's where we were, but with the current status of the NFL and, and you know, some of these offenses and all they do and all the special stuff, you, you need difference makers on the inside of the, your defense, you do that and you look at really a lot of the good defenses in football. Of course they have that kind of guy in the middle. You look at the teams that have been to the Super Bowl, they've all kind of had those kind of guys in the middle. Oh, the bucks wanted. Oh, it's Vita Vaya. Oh, that's right. He was damn good in his prime. Oh, there's Aaron Donald with the Rams. I mean, the 49ers have had, you know, de Forest Buckner, Eric Armstead. I mean, they've had a lot of guys there. The chiefs of course with Chris Jones, the Eagles and who they've had. So I think it's one that the public overlooks at time, but you know, you and I, and we talk about it, these are guys that can eff the play up or they eff the play up because they can't be moved and there's nine guys trying to block them when they made a mosh pit in the middle of the run game. And there's great value with all that stuff there. Yeah. The problem is with great defenses, when you have one or two dominant interior defensive linemen, other people get tackles, sacks, interceptions that the efforts of the unsung heroes have caused. It's harder to stand out in a great defense because, and that's the irony of this, your efforts are so good that the other players are becoming stars because of the havoc that you're causing. Yeah, right. I go to the, look at the Seahawks, right? We don't like Byron Murphy. We don't talk about him, but him and then, you know, you know, the big, big Leonard Williams. Leonard Williams. Yeah. I mean, there's a top 10 pick and a top 20 pick. We don't really talk about them, but like, yeah, when we dive into it and talk about it, we go, wait, they're, they're one of the cornerstones of the middlestones of that defense. I mean, obviously Vrable, he went, the first thing he did was let's sign a big D tackle. Oh, there's Milton Williams. You know, and then they have other guys inside like Christian Barrymore, who really is a first round talent that had a knee issue. And that's the only reason he didn't end up in the first round. But yeah, you know, I think you can kind of look at that. The Broncos, what have they got? Oh, that's right. Zach Allen, one of the highest paid defensive tackles in football. I mean, you can go through the list a little bit here and kind of go, yeah, there's some correlation and especially with the, some of the great defenses of all time. So you're saying it right. It's a position that does not get the, uh, public notoriety that it should, but any football person would tell you, man, if we're going to have a good defense, we need some people in the middle that are the real deal, holy field there. Well, we're going to see how this plays out because he's under contract for two more years. He's not going to attend off season workouts. He's got a $500,000 workout bonus. He's not going to be there until he gets his contract or his trade. And most importantly, and this is the thing where off season hard knocks would be very interesting for the giants this year. How does this get handled by this new power structure that has been complicated and changed by the hiring of John Harbaugh and Donna Ponte from the league office who's now working for the giants? Joe Shane is the holdover. How do they figure this one out? But speaking of Harbaugh, speaking of players under contract for two more years, speaking of players who have significant workout bonuses that they may or may not be willing to earn. Lamar Jackson showed up. We'll talk about it and all the different tentacles and all the reasons why Ravens fans are back to saying, why do you hate Lamar? Jackson, the Ravens Tuesday edition of PFT Live.