Why the Giants are the Clear Winners of the Dexter Lawrence Trade

“A steal.”

That’s the short, sweet descriptor of the deal the Giants were able to pull off in trading disgruntled defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals in exchange for the tenth overall pick in this year’s draft.

Lawrence, as is well known by now, is coming off one of his worst seasons, one that started with him reporting to last year’s training camp not in the best of shape, the first sign, in retrospect, of what was to come.

Somewhere early on in camp, he aggravated the season-ending elbow injury, which had a snowball effect. It started with the head coach Brian Daboll drastically limiting Lawrence’s practice reps in the summer–Lawrence rarely did any team drills last year and did not appear in the preseason–and continued into the season.

Despite playing in 17 games–likely due to the $1 million play time incentive he received prior to the start of the season, Lawrence was not himself.

His injury issues kept him off the field during critical junctures in games, including the critical completion by the Denver Broncos in their game-winning drive that deflated the Giants' season.

Later in the season, interim head coach Mike Kafka admitted that Lawrence was laboring through an injury following a gut-punch overtime loss to the Detroit Lions when Lawrence, the team’s best run-stuffer, was not on the field for the game-winning 69-yard touchdown run by Jahmyr Gibbs.

And to add to all that, Lawrence's effort was famously questioned by legendary Giants linebacker-turned-broadcasting analyst Carl Banks, prompting Lawrence to angrily label Banks as “delusional.”

So when Lawrence, who was said to be fed up with having watched former teammates like running back Saquon Barkley, defensive lineman Leonard Williams, and safety Julian Love win a championship far away from East Rutherford, and quarterback Daniel Jones, who despite having suffered a season-ending Achilles injury with the Colts, get a big pay day, Lawrence wanted the Giants to either pay him or move him.

In the end, the Giants tried to make it work by making the arrival of head coach John Harbaugh a primary selling point. But nothing ever seemed good enough, leading Lawrence to become a former Giant.

That all said, here are several reasons why the Giants are the clear winners in this trade.

Cap Savings

Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence (97) dances while running out of the tunnel during a Thursday Night Football game between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Oct. 9, 2025. | Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Giants picked up $13 million in cap savings, according to Spotrac. Those savings include the $500,000 workout bonus that Lawrence forfeited when he decided to skip the team's offseason program and his base salary owed this season.

The transaction now boosts the Giants’ available cap space to $18.437 million, of which they’ll need $14.926 million to fit all of their now eight picks into the mix. The Giants will also need a few million to sign a veteran defensive lineman, of whom DJ Reader is believed to be the front-runner.

Locker Room Culture

Head coach John Harbaugh made it crystal clear when he was introduced as the new head coach of the Giants: if you don’t want to be a Giant, you won’t be here.

Lawrence, who famously had the Giants logo tattooed onto his arm, clearly didn’t want to be a Giant anymore, despite attempts by Harbaugh, general manager Joe Schoen, and vice president of football ops Dawn Aponte to make things work for both parties.

Although Lawrence at 50% is still a lot better than most defensive linemen at 100%, Harbaugh, who undoubtedly had to sign off on the move, sent a message to the locker room that if you don’t want to be here, you won’t, regardless of the value your resume projects you as having.

The Return

Sep 28, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence (97) reacts during the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Chargers at MetLife Stadium. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Albert Breer of SI pointed out that the last time a team acquired a top-10 draft pick for a non-quarterback was 21 years ago, when Minnesota sent receiver Randy Moss to the Raiders for the seventh overall pick and a seventh rounder.

In the lead-up to the Lawrence trade, there were numerous reports that no team was willing to part with a first-rounder, which was long thought to be a non-negotiable condition for any such trade that the Giants would agree to for the disgruntled defensive lineman.

That the Giants were able to send Lawrence out of the division and conference was one thing, but sending him to the Bengals, a team that rarely trades, is quite another.

That said, the Giants and Bengals have done business before. The last time they did so was in August 2021, when the Bengals traded offensive lineman Billy Price to the Giants for defensive tackle B.J. Hill. and a seventh-round draft pick.

Production vs. Value

It’s certainly fair to wonder if Lawrence, who appeared to peak during the 2022 and 2023 seasons after posting 12 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, and 13 sacks over that span, has begun his decline.

People will point to his 9.0 sack season in 2024 which he racked up in 12 games before the elbow issue ended that season as a counter argument, but a closer look at his stats suggests that he wasn’t quite as productive as he was earlier in his career, regardless of the injury of which, by the way, he still played through 17 games this past season.

Lawrence’s totals in 2025 were all well below his 7-year career average, including:

Tackles (a -22 difference)
Sacks (a -4.3 difference)
Tackles for Loss (a -2 difference)

Lawrence, who turns 29 by the time the 2026 season ends, can still be a very good player if healthy. But he has a lot of tread on his tires.

He’s played 4,990 defensive snaps over seven seasons, an average of 712.8 per year. That’s a lot of mileage for a man his size who, in a year or two, could even be looking at trimming some of his 340 pounds to extend his career well into his 30s, similar to what Giants Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and so many others like him once did.

That’s a lot to consider given Lawrence’s desire to be boosted back into the top three highest APY among defensive linemen. And on a glance, it just didn’t seem worth the big money that the Bengals are likely to give Lawrence assuming he passes his physical.

Post Script: The Ball is Now in the Giants’ Court

General Manager Joe Schoen and new Giants head coach John Harbaugh hold a NY Giants helmet during a press conference welcoming Harbaugh at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2025. | Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Now armed with, for now at least, the fifth and tenth overall picks in the draft, it’s up to Schoen to turn those picks into valuable contributors with upside.

The Giants have not had such good luck in two of the last three times in which they had multiple first-round picks.

Last year the Giants landed outside linebacker Abdul Carter and quarterback Jaxson Dart in the first round, two picks that as of now look to be very promising after strong rookie campaigns.

Prior to that, Schoen, who had that scenario in 2022, his first year as general manager, selected outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux, who has been good but not top-five good, as his draft position suggested.

The second pick in that draft, No. 7 overall, was offensive tackle Evan Neal, who, as Giants fans know, has not worked out and whose Giants career is now on life support even after he received a one-year veteran minimum deal to return to the team.

Before that, Dave Gettleman had three first-round picks in 2019: quarterback Daniel Jones (sixth), Lawrence (17th), and cornerback DeAndre Baker (30th). Of those, Lawrence was the only one who paid any sort of dividends.

The last time, in fact, that the Giants unquestionably hit on multiple first-round picks from the same draft class was in 1984 when New York snagged linebacker Carl Banks (third) and offensive lineman William Roberts (27th), two cornerstones of the franchise who helped Big Blue to their first two Super Bowl championships in 1986 and 1990.

Draft picks aside, the Lawrence trade does significantly weaken the Giants' defensive line, which was already in a state of flux before this whole debacle came to life. New York, as mentioned, will now sign a veteran defensive lineman–again, Reader seems to be the frontrunner.

They will also have to add a defensive lineman via the draft at some point. Given how their free agency period went, one cannot rule out the Giants signing two veterans and holding their water on drafting their next big man in the middle if the value isn’t there this year.

Time will tell if the Giants are indeed the winners in this trade, but there is enough initial evidence to suggest that they will benefit for years to come.

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