NY Giants DL Dexter Lawrence Omitted from Top 10 NFL DTs Since 2019

Dexter Lawrence II has been widely regarded among the best players in the entire NFL, but one new ranking doesn’t seem to agree.

Nov 28, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II (97) lines up during the first quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Dieb-Imagn Images | Andrew Dieb-Imagn Images

Over the past half decade of the NFL, it's not an easy feat to think of more than a handful of players who demand the utmost respect from their opponents whenever they take the gridiron to compete.

One of those names that shouldn't be up for debate is New York Giants captain and defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II. The 6-foot-4, 340-pound gap stuffer is an absolute behemoth at his position on the interior and has been one of the few players that everyone across the league talks about when they are preparing to face off with the Giants.

In his first six seasons in East Rutherford, Lawrence, the Giants 2019 first-round choice out of Clemson, has aged like a fine wine, improving his statistics and becoming a larger problem for opposing offensive linemen to deal with, given he can both clog the running lanes and thwart some of the game's best passing attacks with a bulldozing pass rush.

Despite how much of a rollercoaster unit the Giants defense has been, Lawrence is typically the one piece that remains impactful with 310 tackles, 30 sacks, five forced fumbles and 266 total pressures. He has been the glue that keeps the team together and fighting through the toughest seasons they've experienced.

It would be crazy to think that someone wouldn't see Lawrence as being among the best players in the entire league. Still, to our dismay, a new analysis by Pro Football and Sports Network has decided to be bold and deviate from that opinion of the All-Pro Giants leader.

More specifically, the outlet kept Lawrence and his metrics completely off their list of the 10 best defensive tackle seasons recorded since the 2019 NFL season, a strange move that comes just months removed from what was a career-setting 2024 season before an elbow injury cut it short.

Oct 20, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II (97) celebrates after a sack during the first half against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

No excuses for snubbing Lawrence

While we find it hard to fathom that PFSN would snub Lawrence in such an absurd fashion, there could be two justifiable reasons why they arrived at that outcome on one of the Giants' best defensive players of the past decade.

The first point is that Lawrence didn't complete a full season last fall, which meant he couldn't reach his impressive numbers, but injuries are just an unfortunate reality in football.

The other and more important aspect seems to be that despite his efforts, the Giants have not been able to turn it into a serious amount of winning throughout his tenure.

What is more interesting is that the outlet's list included two players with excellent resumes from the 2024 campaign--Pittsburgh's Cameron Heyward and Denver's Zach Allen--who both contributed to playoff teams yet ended up beneath Lawrence in the sacks department by the final game of their journey.

Regardless of how one spins it, Lawrence's latest campaign could have still made a strong case for inclusion in this group. He played in just 12 games before suffering the season-ending elbow ailment, but still found his way into best campaign since joining the franchise as the 17th overall pick in 2019.

Lawrence tallied his fifth straight year with at least 40 tackles and paired them with a career-high nine sacks, which finished off as the Giants' lead number at the end of the season, 36 pressures, eight tackles for loss, one forced fumble and one pass deflection.

That whole stat sheet would only rank 12th on the Giants' defensive leaderboard and second in the defensive tackle room behind Rakeem Nunez-Roches. 

New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II (97), New York Giants defensive tackle Jordon Riley (95), and New York Giants defensive end Elijah Garcia (90) walk together during day one of the New York Giants training camp at Quest Diagnostics Giants Training Center in East Rutherford on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. | Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On the other hand, it ranked second in the entire NFL for his position group behind Miami's Zach Sieler and earned him a third consecutive 89.0+ defensive grade and 81.9+ score in both the pass rush and run stop categories.

In the previous two seasons, Lawrence collected 128 combined pressures, 15 sacks, 36 quarterback hits and a 92.0 overall grade with 73 total stops at the line of scrimmage. 

He has been one of the league's biggest players with a frame that can swallow up multiple rushing lances at once, catch running backs from behind, and hasn't let up more than five missed tackles in five of six seasons as a pro.

And Lawrence was racking up his most recent basket of sacks at a ridiculous rate, securing six of his nine within the first five games and his single-game high of four, which he accumulated in the Giants' Week 5 road win against the Seattle Seahawks.

The Giants were eating up opposing offenses in that same stretch, and despite injuries slowing down their pace, finished in the top half of the NFL with 45 sacks and the 13th highest pass rush win rate as a unit.

It's fair to wonder how much more damage Lawrence would have done if the elbow didn't start barking and require him to take it to the sidelines for the final stretch of what was otherwise a dismal season for the Giants organization.

Perhaps he would have landed on PFSN's list had he played in all 17 games, and rightfully so, as there is no denying that Lawrence adds a unique element to the team's defensive gameplan that is hard to be stopped without extra attention being paid to his assignment.

That's where Lawrence's greater value could show itself in 2025, as the Giants are set to boast a defensive front with four solid pass rushers who could each garner more one-on-one opportunities with all the focus centered on their immense teammate. 

He'll make his plays and then soak up the attention so that the other players can feast on the quarterback in the biggest moments.

The Giants have a prized possession in their locker room who will likely be a generational player that makes it into Canton one day if he keeps his pace going. He deserves all the recognition and the added pay that is undoubtedly coming his way soon.

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