In an NFL where everyone wants to run light boxes and two-high shells, the math tells you that to do that, your defensive linemen had better defend at least a gap and a half. If they can’t do that, opposing run games will tear that defense apart.
NFL
Why the Dexter Lawrence Trade Was the Best Move the Bengals Could Have Made
Dexter Lawrence is moving from the Giants to the Bengals after Saturday’s major trade. Doug Farrar explains why it’s the smartest thing Cincinnati has done in a long time.
Apr 19, 2026 9:58 AM EDT
By Doug Farrar
NFL Writer and Analyst, Athlon Sports
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New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence has earned second team All-Pro honors twice
Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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It’s always a big deal when you drop a high first-round pick on a current NFL player just days before the draft, and the Cincinnati Bengals did just that on Saturday night with the move to acquire interior defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence from the New York Giants for the 10th overall pick in the 2026 draft.
While there is absolutely no question that Lawrence is one of the best in the NFL at what he does, there are always going to be questions about what the Bengals gave up, and whether this was the best use of their resources. Here’s why I believe that the Bengals absolutely made the right move.
There are very few force multipliers in the 2026 draft.
It’s always nice to have the 10th overall pick in the draft, but what happens if a draft class is more wide than tall – i.e., it isn’t stacked up top with franchise-level players who are scheme-transcendent, and can immediately define your team on one side of the ball? In my opinion, there are two such players in this class – Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love and Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles. These two are about as fully-formed for their positions, and ding-proof overall in a larger sense, as you’ll see in any draft.
Outside of that, you can pick apart most of the top prospects pretty easily if you want. If the Bengals looked at the entire class, and assumed (probably rightly) that both Love and Styles would be long-gone at 10, it makes more sense to get the guy who can be a complete field-tilter via other avenues.
So, let’s get down to business. What can Dexter Lawrence do for Al Golden’s defense?
Dexter Lawrence can define your defense right away.
This is not even a question. A healthy Dexter Lawrence is such a complete game-wrecker, and creates so many problems for opposing offenses, that it could be credibly argued that he’s as valuable as any defensive player in the NFL today. This was even true in the 2025 season, when Lawrence played through the dislocated elbow that cost him the final five games of the 2024 campaign. The 2025 metrics aren’t quite what they were in 2024 – 10 sacks and 36 pressures in 2024 as opposed to one sack and 39 pressures in 2025 – but even with that lingering injury, Lawrence was still the primary difference-maker on the Giants’ defense, and the main focus of every opposing offensive line.
Consider that last season, Lawrence was double-teamed on 26 of his 772 snaps, and he still managed 17 of his total pressures when doubled. Why was Lawrence doubled as much as he was? Because as Philadelphia Eagles center Brett Toth discovered in Week 8, if you were on an island against Mr. Lawrence, you were going to die, and your quarterback was going with you into a very bad place.
You have never seen anyone else like him.
Moreover, the extent to which Lawrence is able to demolish opposing offensive lines from a head-over-center nose tackle alignment, or a 1-shade nose tackle to either shoulder of the center, makes him one of one in pro football history. Let’s take Pro Football Reference at their word, and assume that Lawrence has played at 6’4” and 340 pounds throughout his career. In the entire history of pro football, disruptors of that size are few and far between.
In previous eras, guys like Dan “Big Daddy” Wilkinson, Shaun Rogers, Ted Washington, and Sam Adams were able to disrupt at 340 pounds and more, but not at Lawrence’s level. And the more modern size equivalents, like Dontari Poe, Haloti Ngata, and Vita Vea, generally had to move outside of those nose tackle responsibilities to get their disruptions. As Warren Sharp recently pointed out, the numbers for modern interior defensive linemen aren’t even close. From 2022 through 2025, Lawrence had 108 total pressures at a nose alignment.
Vita Vea is next on the list… with 32.
Because there’s never been anybody else like him, there’s really no way to replicate what he can do in the middle of the pit. Which is why so many opposing offensive lines have looked so helpless against him.
Dexter Lawrence is already where the NFL is going.
This one is pretty simple. In an NFL where everyone wants to run light boxes and two-high shells, the math tells you that to do that, your defensive linemen had better defend at least a gap and a half. If they can’t do that, opposing run games will tear that defense apart.
I call this the “Brandon Staley Conundrum.”
Look at the last two Super Bowl champions. Both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Seattle Seahawks run defenses with light boxed and shell coverage at their base. In Super Bowl LX, the Eagles demolished Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offensive line without blitzing once, because they had those gap-and-a-half defenders, and the men in the middle – Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Milton Williams, and Moro Ojomo – needed no help to drive through the middle of Kansas City’s offensive line, and all around it with stunts.
In Super Bowl LX, the Seahawks got away with no base defense at all against the Patriots and their power run game. They played base defense (three linebackers) on 1.5% of their snaps, nickel on 44.8% of their snaps, and dime on an astonishing 53.7% of their snaps – 43.7% above the NFL average. They were able to do so because Leonard Wiliams, Jarran Reed, Byron Murphy II, and Rylie Mills tore through New England’s overwhelmed offensive line with straight-ahead inside rushes and complex stunts.
Interior pressure is more important than ever.
