The New York Giants aren’t heading into the offseason with a ton of money to throw around. Over the Cap currently has Big Blue sitting at about $6.9 million in wiggle room, and that’s after factoring in the some-$20 million cap increase.
I’m no cap strategist or salary negotiator, but that doesn’t exactly feel like enough money to cover an entire offseason’s worth of upgrades. Which would be a real problem... if the G-Men didn’t just hire someone who’s made a career out of working in situations exactly like this. Enter Dawn Aponte -- the Giants’ new cap and contract ace.
Giants are hiring NFL executive Dawn Aponte into a VP role, per me and @AdamSchefter.
— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) February 4, 2026
Aponte has been with the league since 2017 as the chief administrator of football operations. She also has previous experience working on the team side with the Dolphins, Browns and Jets.
Aponte has been around the NFL since 1994, when she kicked off her career as an accountant with the New York Jets. She’s come a long way since then, most recently serving as the NFL’s Chief Administrator of Football Operations from 2017 to 2026.
Aponte replaces Kevin Abrams, who held down the fort for nearly three decades before being shown the door once Harbaugh was hired as head coach. With the Giants currently staring at limited cap space, it’s fair to wonder how much Harbaugh and general manager Joe Schoen can realistically add this offseason.
But with Aponte now running the financial side of things, that math can change in a hurry. A couple of restructures here, a few cap casualties there, and the new VP of Football Ops could clear north of $120 million if she wanted to. That would put the G-Men in a terrifyingly interesting spot very quickly.
Dawn Aponte just changed the Giants’ financial ceiling at the perfect time
No more Mrs. Nice Person. It's time to find out what happens when people stop being polite... and start getting real (MTV Real World throwback). But seriously, Harbs and Schoen didn't bring Aponte in to play buddy-buddy. She's here to blow up the roster in the best way possible, starting with some potential cap casualties.
Big Blue has a couple of obvious candidates who could be sacrificed for the greater good:
Player | 2026 cap savings |
|---|---|
Devin Singletary, RB | $5.25 million |
James Hudson, OT | $5.38 million |
Jon Runyan, OG | $9.25 million |
Bobby Okereke, LB | $9.0 million |
Graham Gano, K | $4.50 million |
Players like Jalin Hyatt and Jamie Gillan are on the chopping block too, but their dead cap hits outweigh the potential savings, so we’ll stick with the Fab Five above for now. And even just with that group, Giants fans are looking at $33.38 million in additional cap space, pushing the total estimated room to around $40.28 million.
You could argue Okereke should stay since he’s at least shown some tackling prowess after signing his four-year, $40 million deal back in 2023, but it’s still tough to argue he’s worth more than the savings. Singletary is getting paid $6.5 million to be the third-string running back, which is about $6.5 million too much. As for the others, under-the-radar free agents and draft picks can fill those roles for a fraction of the cost.
Now that we've established Aponte is cutthroat, it's time to take a look at the contract restructures to see if there's more money to be saved.
According to Over the Cap, there are two types of restructures:
- A simple restructure converts payments into prorated signing bonuses within the confines of the remainder of the contract. Teams typically have the ability to unilaterally execute simple restructures without any action necessary from the player.
- A maximum restructure increases the amount of cap space via conversion into prorated signing bonuses by either extending the contract or by adding void years to a contract, years that do not extend the contract but are only used as placeholders for the proration. Maximum restructures are typically considered a renegotiation of the contract that requires the player's consent to execute.
If the G-Men were to keep it simple, stupid, and go with the simple restructure, they could save an additional $61.18 million. Now Aponte's cooking with gas. That's $100.46 million in cap room before free agency starts.
If she decides to go big or go home and pulls every possible restructure lever, Big Blue suddenly has so much room it wouldn’t even know what to do with it. We’re talking $126.74 million more, pushing the total into you-know-what money at $167.02 million.
Team reconstruction consists of (non-rookie contracts):
- OLB Brian Burns
- DE Dexter Lawrence
- OT Andrew Thomas
- CB Paulson Adebo
- SAF Jevón Holland
- WR Darius Slayton
- DE Chauncey Golston
- P Jamie Gillan (The Scottish Hammer)
Talk about moving fast. The Giants just went from we can afford a mid pass-rusher to "I'll have one of everything" real quick.
In all seriousness, it’s tough to tell what the new Sr. VP of Football Operations has up her sleeves. One thing is for certain: the team brought her in right before free agency opens, and that’s not a coincidence. It's the Dawn of a new era of Giants football. And I'm here for all of it.