The Knights will reportedly have until June 30 to make a decision on the futures of Dane Gagai and Tyson Frizell.
Both players are heading towards the end of their careers and have the ability to leave the club or renegotiate for 2026 and beyond with mutual options in their respective contracts for the final season.
While they are locked in to play with the Knights for 2025, both have been able to negotiate since November 1 for next year given player and club will need to tick off on the deals being extended for 2026.
News Corp are now reporting that both contracts have a June 30 deadline to be signed off on if they are going to be extended into 2026 for both players.
The options in their contracts comes at an intriguing time for the Knights, who are currently in the midst of a squad overhaul and salary cap restructuring job.
Both players were reportedly among a group of players who had permission to explore their options at the end of 2024, and the Knights are almost no chance of re-signing any of Jackson Hastings, Jack Hetherington or Adam Elliott beyond the end of their current deals that expire in 2025.
Daniel Saifiti has already departed for the Dolphins, freeing up a significant chunk of salary cap, and if the Knights decide the departures already slated to occur won't be enough, they could well elect to move on their former State of Origin duo for Adam O'Brien and his coaching staff to completely hit restart on the club.
The decision could well hinge on how Newcastle kick-off the 2026 season, with the club likely to have internal expectations of pushing for the top eight, even if external expectations don't match.
