Giants convert part of Leonard Williams’ salary into signing bonus

The Giants continue to move money around in order to create cap space heading into their 2021 regular season.

Dave Gettleman and the Giants front office have yet again converted part of a player’s salary into a signing bonus for cap purposes — this time around, it’s Leonard Williams who they have worked with.

Jordan Raanan of ESPN reports the Giants converted $2.4 million of Williams’ salary into the bonus, which creates $1.6 million in cap space. The Giants have also made financial moves like this with safety Logan Ryan and wide receiver Sterling Shepard.

More money matters: The #Giants converted $2.4 million of Leonard Williams’ salary into a bonus. It created $1.6M in cap space. They were tight against the cap entering this week.

— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) September 10, 2021

Williams inked a three-year, $63 million deal with the team this past offseason after the Giants franchise tagged him (the tag was always supposed to be a potential placeholder).

According to OverTheCap, Williams’ base salary is $1.1 million for 2021 but his cap hit is $9.4 million.

2022 is when the contract truly becomes expensive — Williams’ base salary and cap hit for that year will respectively be $19 million and $27.3 million.

The Giants now possess a bit over $3.28 million in cap space with their regular-season opener just two days away (they take on the Broncos this Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET).