How Giants D-line Coach Andre Patterson is Guiding Dexter Lawrence's Growth

With Los Angeles Rams interior defensive lineman Aaron Donald having retired, the NFL is looking for a successor to the best and most feared interior defensive lineman in the league.

New York Giants defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence II, who has always set lofty goals for himself, believes he has as good a chance as anyone in the league now to become that guy.

“Yeah, it could be,” Lawrence said last week after the team concluded its fifth OTA. “I've just got to keep working, working on my weaknesses and getting better with my strengths.”

Lawrence, who praised Donald for playing at the top of his game for ten years, has always been one of the more modest players in tooting his own horn.

Ranked as Pro Football Focus’s second-best interior defender behind Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs, Lawrence has not only been a load for opponents to handle in the run game, he’s also been a steady producer in terms of pressuring the quarterback, logging 81 total pressures over two seasons–far more than the 16 by his peers.

Still, Lawrence believes he has a lot more work to do to reach the elite level of play he considers.

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“Just speed rushes–things like that,” he said when asked what he’s been focused on improving. “Using my hands a little more in my rushes–those are some things I'm working on right now.”

As he’s done in the past, Lawrence credited Giants defensive line coach Andre Patterson with helping him take his game to a whole new level, going from settling to be good to aspiring to be great.

“Honestly, Coach Dre (Patterson) kind of shifted my mindset to work on things I wasn't good at,” Lawrence said. “Kudos to him for helping me think about things that I wasn't necessarily – you know, you go to your natural habits to do what you can to improve in the game.”

Patterson admitted that he puts a lot of Lawrence in because he knows it can get even better for as good as his current game.

“I tell him all the time, I'm never satisfied. I want his game to continue to grow,” Patterson said. “And he still has a lot of areas in his game that he can still get better and improve.”

Patterson said he’s always emphasizing to Lawrence that the second he thinks he’s reached the summit in his game, it’s just a matter of time before everyone else starts to catch up with him, and his decline begins.

To keep Lawrence moving forward, Patterson revealed that just when the two-time Pro Bowler appears to be comfortable, Patterson changes things up to keep him on his toes.

“That's the thing that I stay on top of him about. There's part of his game that he's great at that I take away from him and say, ‘Right now you can't use it, and if you do, I'm gonna find you,’” Patterson said.

“So to get him to understand that he has to continue to add different elements to his game if he wants to be as great as he wants to be.”