There are few things NFL general managers enjoy more than kicking money down the road. Why deal with today’s problem when tomorrow’s problem isn’t even here yet, am I right?
New York Giants GM Joe Schoen has gotten pretty good at it. The 47-year-old restructured Burns’ contract twice in less than a year, freeing up more than $27 million in cap space between 2025 and 2026. Very convenient at the time, but the future comes for all of us eventually.
Tomorrow is getting closer. And unless Schoen plans on letting Burns carry a $44.1 million cap hit in each of the next two seasons, Big Blue's next move with their star pass rusher couldn't be more obvious.
Giants can't keep treating Brian Burns’ contract like a credit card
...or can they?
The three-time Pro Bowler costing a lot of money isn’t necessarily the worst problem to have. Burns is arguably the best player on the team, and the G-Men knew they were going to have to pay him when they traded for him, immediately giving him a five-year, $141 million extension in 2024.
Paying top dollar for one of the most important positions on the field makes sense -- the problem is what Schoen has done with his contract since.
In May 2025, Schoen converted $16 million of Burns’ salary into a signing bonus, clearing roughly $12 million in cap space. He went back for seconds this past March, converting another $22.75 million, opening up another $15.1 million for 2026.
That’s why Burns has a relatively friendly $21.4 million cap hit this season despite being one of the highest-paid quarterback hunters in football. It’s also how the Giants are looking at $44.1 million cap hits in 2027 and 2028. The bill always comes due.
The good news is that New York isn’t exactly hurting for money next year. Big Blue currently projects to have roughly $50.7 million in cap space entering 2027, and that’s with Burns’ $44.1 million already baked into the books.
So no, the Giants aren’t screwed. Far from it. They just have a very obvious way to give themselves even more room. But Burns isn't the only expensive Giant waiting around the corner.
Andrew Thomas’ cap hit jumps from roughly $13 million this season to just under $30 million in 2027 after New York also restructured his contract. Kayvon Thibodeaux is also scheduled to hit free agency after this season, with Spotrac estimating his current market value at roughly $21.3 million per year.
Decisions, decisions.
And that’s where the obvious solution comes in: get this man an extension.
Burns is under contract through 2028, so there’s no immediate pressure to do anything. But adding a few more years to his deal would give the Giants more room to spread out the money they’ve already kicked down the road, lower those $44.1 million cap hits, and keep one of their best players in New York for the foreseeable future.
At some point, restructuring the same contract over and over starts to feel a little like paying off one credit card with another. An extension wouldn’t magically make that bill disappear, either. It would just give the Giants more years to spread things out while keeping Burns around beyond 2028.
If they’re going to keep kicking money down the road anyway, they might as well get some long-term security out of it.
Jaxson Dart’s rookie contract gives the Giants plenty of time to play cap gymnastics... for now
And all of this eventually comes back to Jaxson Dart, because quarterbacks.
Dart will only be entering Year 3 of his rookie contract in 2027. If your young quarterback is the guy, you get several years to spend around him before that franchise QB money comes in.
So carrying expensive veterans like Burns and Thomas isn’t exactly financial malpractice right now, especially at their respective positions. If anything, this is when the Giants can actually afford to go all the way in.
Burns is signed through 2028, but extending him now would give New York more flexibility with those enormous backend cap numbers while Dart is still cheap. He’ll turn 29 next April, so there’s obviously a limit to how far the G-Men should take that idea, but an extension feels like the right way to go regardless.
It also means Dart gets to spend these next few years with one of the league’s premier pass rushers on the other side of the ball. The Giants can afford to absorb some of the financial gymnastics that come with keeping Burns around.
For now, though, the pass rusher is fresh off an NFC-leading 16.5-sack season and is the centerpiece of a defense built around getting after the QB. The Giants have the luxury of a cheap quarterback for the next three years. That’s exactly when you can afford to pay everyone else.
Just maybe stop making Future Joe Schoen pick up the tab every time.
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