Second-year New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen is not resting on his accomplishments from 2022. He knows he has a lot of work ahead of him to get his club to the next level.
One position where Schoen is showing some concern is defensive line. He has two staples to build around — Pro Bowler Dexter Lawrence and veteran Leonard Williams.
At the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Schoen was asked about the overall state of the defensive line.
“Not great,” he told reporters. “That’s a premium position. Again, talk about allocating resources to a position. That’s important. We gotta be better next year stopping the run. I think some of that is our depth where Dexter doesn’t have to play the amount of snaps he played or Leo doesn’t have to be out there as much as he was out there. That’s important, not only there but we have to improve the depth across the board.”
Currently, the Giants ‘depth’ on the interior of the line consists of D.J. Davidson, Henry Mondeaux, and Ryder Anderson. They will be seeking one — or more — this offseason.
Both Lawrence and Williams are under contract but Schoen is expected to rework both players’ deals. Williams has a whopping $32.2 million cap hit for this season and has already volunteered to take a pay cut.
Lawrence had his fifth-year option for $12.4 million picked up last year but the Giants know they have to get him inked to a long-term deal very soon.
“This week will be a big week, all the UFAs, anybody like Dexter, Joel Segal’s his agent, we’ve had conversations with him,” Schoen said. “That’s a little bit trickier, the DT market when you look at the gap in-between the highest paid and the next guy. But Dexter’s great, leader, great player, did a good job for us this year so he’s definitely somebody we will talk to and we’d like to have him here for a long time.”
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