Harbaugh sends message after Giants’ Lawrence trade request

John Harbaugh wants Dexter Lawrence to remain a Giant. He thinks Lawrence wants to stay in New York, too.

But the Giants’ first-year head coach fired a warning shot Tuesday at players who think they’re above the program.

“Everybody’s tradeable,” Harbaugh said after his first Giants team meeting. “Everybody.”

Harbaugh did not aim this message at Lawrence specifically. He said it when asked about Kayvon Thibodeaux’s uncertain future with the team.

Corner Paulson Adebo actually caught the biggest stray during the coach’s 20-minute Zoom call with the New York media.

Harbaugh volunteered that “we had all but three guys here” on the first day for players to report for the voluntary spring offseason program: Lawrence, Adebo and a defensive lineman named Sam Roberts.

He said Roberts couldn’t travel due to a surgery that required “stitches to heal.” As for Adebo, who carries the second-highest salary cap hit on the roster at $24.1 million, Harbaugh was still waiting for an explanation.

“I’m not exactly sure, but it’s his right,” Harbaugh said. “It’s his reason. Whatever his reason is, I’ll be interested to hear it. But it is what it is. It’s OK.”

It’s not OK with Harbaugh, though, clearly, even though he expressed “enthusiasm” for his new team and said it was “an honor” to coach them. And that’s refreshing.

Lawrence ($26.9 million) and Adebo carry the two biggest salary cap hits on the 2026 roster. Neither stayed healthy nor played well last season. Neither showed up for Harbaugh’s first day with the team.

And Harbaugh shouldn’t tolerate that. Not if he intends to change the way the Giants enable players, constantly lose and make excuses.

Harbaugh praised Lawrence and Thibodeaux at different points during the interview. He consistently emphasized that what he is focused on is incorporating these talented players into the Giants’ plans and schemes.

“I think he’s a great player,” Harbaugh said of Thibodeaux. “I’m excited about him. I was fired up to see him. He looks great. He’s in great shape. I’m thinking about him on the field. I’m thinking about getting him plugged into our defense and getting him rolling.”

But the head coach felt the need to remind everyone there is a new boss, and no one is above his higher standards and expectations for the team.

“You want to talk about, well, is he a trade possibility?” he added on Thibodeaux. “Everybody’s tradeable. Everybody.”

The reason Harbaugh felt the need to fire these warning shots, of course, is because Lawrence publicly requested a trade on Monday. The team’s star defensive tackle wants more money, and he wants out.

Harbaugh seemed optimistic the Giants will work something out to retain Lawrence, 28, but he didn’t guarantee anything, either.

“We’ll find out,” he said. “I think the prospects [of Lawrence returning] are gonna be high because, speaking for the Giants, we want Dexter here, and I believe Dexter wants to be here. That’s a good formula. But there’s business involved. It’s a business proposition.”

Harbaugh said he was “not surprised” by Lawrence escalating the situation to a trade request based on recent conversations with his agent. GM Joe Schoen feigned surprise — or maybe was out of the loop — when questioned about Lawrence’s contract and future with the team at the NFL Combine in late February.

But Harbaugh clarified this has been an ongoing conversation that came to a head this week.

“[I] saw it coming a few weeks back probably and had good conversations with Dexter’s agent, Joel Segal, and understood what they were thinking and this is where we’re at,” Harbaugh said. “So we’ll try to work through it and see what we can get done.”

The possibility of Lawrence remaining a Giant still exists based on precedent with Harbaugh as an NFL head coach.

Baltimore Ravens MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson memorably requested a trade publicly in the spring of 2023 as Harbaugh sat down in his chair for the NFL Owners meeting AFC breakfast that March, and the organization and Jackson’s team still worked out a new contract to make both sides happy.

While Harbaugh said that “patience” was the key to resolving Jackson’s situation, though, he admitted that the “great relationship” he had with Jackson — having coached him for several years prior to that impasse — was different than the faceoff the Giants find themselves in now with Lawrence.

“It was a little different because I knew Lamar at that point,” Harbaugh said. “It’s not quite that way with Dex. I don’t know Dex as well. But I think it’s the same in the sense of understanding that’s just part of the business of the job. And it’ll get resolved. It’s gonna work out. Dexter wants to play. We want him to play… I’m not worried about it.”

If Harbaugh isn’t worried about Lawrence, however, he is clearly paying attention to how his players — his veterans — buy in to his program and his message.

While being complimentary of Lawrence, he noted that anyone who doesn’t show up early is going to have to play catch-up quickly when they do walk in the door.

“You meet people where they’re at when you can,” he said. “We had a great day today. You build. And when guys do come back in, situations like this or personal deals or whatever it might be … you’ve got to get up to speed quick. When someone comes back into the building from something like this, they’ve got to hit the accelerator. And they will, and we’ll be rolling.”

It was also noteworthy to see a report from The Athletic’s Ian O’Connor, after Harbaugh’s Zoom press conference, that the Giants are “fine” keeping Thibodeaux on their roster but would be “compelled” to trade him if they received a late second-round pick or early third-round pick in return.

That would be an expensive price to pay for Thibodeaux’s sack production in 2025, but it’s interesting that the Giants are so seriously dropping hints to outside teams that they want to make a move.

The message is clear: when Harbaugh says everybody’s tradeable, he’s not just talking. He appears to mean it, at least in this early stage of inheriting a losing team.

Harbaugh generally spoke highly of Lawrence. He called him a “dominant” football player. He revealed that in their most recent conversation a few weeks ago, Lawrence told him “he wants to play the best football of his career.” And he said Segal has told him that Lawrence is “working super hard training.”

The coach’s plan, even though he said senior vice president Dawn Aponte and Schoen will handle the negotiating, is clearly to keep Lawrence on this team.

“I expect him to come out and be that leader by example, be that leader by what he says, what he does,” he said.

Harbaugh sent a clear message as the new leader of the Giants, however, that everyone should remember who is in charge.

He is demanding a commitment to football and to the team. And if he doesn’t get that, at least according to him, Harbaugh is content for players to play somewhere else.