Jon Runyan Jr. is heading into the Giants’ season opener against the Cowboys with more security on his deal and the same excitement he had as a teenager watching games from his room. Last week, the left guard received a two-year, $22 million extension worth $21.5 million guaranteed, a new layer of stability after he entered this season with no guaranteed money left on the three-year deal he signed in March 2024.
That matters because Runyan is not just any interior lineman fighting for a spot. He started 29 games over the past two seasons, and the new contract puts him among four of the five starting offensive linemen signed through at least 2028. For the Giants, that makes his extension part of a bigger bet on keeping the front together as the season begins under the lights.
Runyan said that is exactly the kind of setting he wants. “I love playing ‘Sunday Night Football’ because I just think back to times, me being in high school, still haven’t done my homework and ‘Sunday Night Football’ comes on, in my room, laying on the floor playing catch with the football and watching,” he said. He also remembered watching by himself and seeing his father, former NFL offensive tackle Jon Runyan, play. “I love it. There’s nothing better,” he said.
The timing gives the comments extra weight. The Giants are opening against Dallas at MetLife Stadium, and Runyan described the matchup as the “only show on in America at the time, playing against the Cowboys.” He has 96 games and 79 starts on his NFL résumé, with four years in Green Bay and the past two with the Giants, so primetime is hardly new to him. But this one arrives with a contract that rewards what he has already done while also acknowledging how exposed he was before the extension.
That exposure was real. Without guaranteed money remaining on his old deal, Runyan could have been cut despite holding down a starting job and helping anchor the line. Instead, the Giants moved to lock him in, leaving John Michael Schmitz Jr. as the lone starter in the group not signed through at least 2028. For a team that has made its offensive line a central part of its plan, the message is clear: Runyan is not just starting the season, he is part of what they want to build around.
What comes next is the first test of that idea, and it lands on the biggest stage the opener can offer. The Giants get Dallas in primetime, Runyan gets the spotlight he says he has always loved, and the new contract begins with the same kind of game he once watched from the floor with a football in his hands.
