New York Giants Restructure Leonard Williams' Contract, Clear Cap Space

The New York Giants have opened up significant cap space ahead of the 2022 NFL season. ESPN's Field Yates reports the team has restructured the contract of defensive lineman Leonard Williams:

The Giants have converted $17.88M of DL Leonard Williams' base salary into a signing bonus (while adding a void year), creating $11.92M in 2022 cap space.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 6, 2022

The Giants had been dangerously close to the $208.2 million cap limit; overthecap.com had them as much as $6.6 million over early Tuesday due in large part to a massive $42,677,556 in dead money. The $11.92 million Williams' restructure clears should get the team comfortably under, as well as provide them with some flexibility in the coming weeks as cuts and trades continue in the early portion of the NFL season.

Williams came to the Giants via a trade with the New York Jets during the 2019 season. Initially taken 6th overall in the 2015 NFL Draft, Williams spent his first four years with the Jets, proving to be a consistent and powerful presence on the interior of the defensive line. But while playing on his fifth-year option, it became clear the Jets had no intention of extending him, so they dealt Williams to the Giants. Williams played the 2020 season on the franchise tag, rewarding the Giants with a career-high 11.5 sacks, and finally earned his coveted contract in the 2021 free agency period, signing a massive three-year, $63 million deal.