Ideally, the Giants would have acquired the Bengals’ first-round pick in exchange for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence when the pick was on the clock. That would have prevented the Giants from being potentially leapfrogged by a team that guessed right as to the player the Giants may have been eyeballing at No. 10.
That ultimately didn’t happen. Yes, the Browns traded down to No. 9 and took a tackle right before the Giants picked a player at the same position. And the Giants will never admit they would have taken Spencer Fano (whom the Browns drafted) instead of Francis Mauioga.
Still, the best way to do the Dexter deal would have been to do it when the 10th pick was on the clock.
Based on conversations with multiple league sources, it’s believed that the failed Maxx Crosby trade was a significant factor in getting the deal done early. As one source put it, both teams were concerned about Lawrence passing a physical. Pre-Crosby, that would have been less of a concern.
Consider the trade that sent receiver A.J. Brown from the Titans to the Eagles during the 2022 draft. The trade happened with Philly’s pick on the clock, preventing the Titans from being leapfrogged by a team that may have concluded they’d use the selection to draft Brown’s replacement. (The fact that receiver Treylon Burks didn’t pan out doesn’t matter. Plenty of players taken in round one don’t pan out, even if it’s become frowned upon to mention that reality, especially while the picks are being made.)
The Brown trade may not have happened that way, post-Crosby. While teams have access to the full scope of medical records (including the player’s exit physical from the prior season), all trades are done pending a physical. That’s what happened on Friday, with the Vikings and Eagles reaching a deal as to defensive end Jonathan Greenard and managing to keep it quiet until the physical was passed.
The stakes were much higher for Dexter Lawrence, the Bengals, and the Giants. Yes, there would have been a way to try to do it quietly, but it would have been difficult to pull it off. The decision was made to get it done and move on, even if every other team had five days to consider which player(s) the Giants were targeting at pick No. 10 — and possibly to cut the line in front of them. (Like the Eagles did in snatching receiver Makai Lemon from the Steelers on Thursday night.)
Lawrence and the Bengals also needed to work out a new contract. But the Eagles did that four years ago with Brown, and they also pulled it off on Friday with Greenard.
In the end, both the physical and the contract made it prudent for all involved to get the Dexter Lawrence deal done early.
That doesn’t mean no player will ever be traded for a pick that is currently on the clock. But those deals require clear contingency plans in the event the player doesn’t pass the physical. With the pick traded for the player already used, the team that lost both the player and its pick will need to get something else in return.
Even with the risk of having the player they planned to take at No. 10 plucked away by a team that could have traded up to No. 9, the move was still regarded as a win for the Giants. They knew Lawrence wasn’t happy. They believed his mindset manifested itself in his performance last season. And so they found an offramp, avoided paying him $20 million this year, and emerged with a top-10 pick who will be happy at least for the first few years of his career — even if their first choice at No. 10 would have become the player taken at No. 9.
The Bengals didn’t have a first-round pick, having traded the 10th overall pick to the Giants for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. They made their first pick of the 2026 NFL draft with the 41st overall selection.
The Bengals made Texas A&M edge rusher Cashius Howell a second-round pick.
It marks the second consecutive year that the Bengals have drafted an Aggie pass rusher, following the first-round selection of Shemar Stewart in 2025.
Howell was more productive in College Station than Stewart, with 27 sacks in his five-year college career. Twenty-five of those came in his final three seasons, including 11.5 in 2025 when he won SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors.
The concern is Howell’s 30 1/4-inch arm measurement — the shortest of any edge rusher since at least 1999 — could impact his ability to create separation in the NFL. He insists it won’t matter in the NFL.
The Bengals hope that’s true. They were among the worst defenses in the NFL last season, including ranking last in pass rush win rate.
Not that long ago, some media and fans would gnash their teeth and/or clutch their pearls at the notion that NFL players were acquiring the kind of power NBA players have.
Don’t look now, but NFL players are slowly but surely getting there.
The recent Dexter Lawrence trade from the Giants to the Bengals is the latest example of it. Lawrence, a “middle stone” player for the New York defense, wasn’t happy. He wanted out. He asked to be traded. Within two weeks, he was.
It’s a far cry from the days when the prevailing view among NFL teams was to not flinch when a player wasn’t happy. Instead, teams dug in. And some in the media (along with plenty of fans) would lead the cheers. “Honor your contract” was the mantra — even if NFL contracts are not true bilateral deals. The team can move on whenever it wants; the player cannot.
Now, maybe the players can get out. Because an unhappy player becomes a problem for the team.
The Giants knew Lawrence wasn’t happy. It wasn’t a sudden thing. They’ve been to the playoffs once in his career. They’ve gone 13-38 over the last three seasons.
Meanwhile, Lawrence had seen multiple former teammates go elsewhere and win — big. From Saquon Barkley to Leonard Williams to Julian Love, Lawrence has watched multiple teammates exit New York and win a Super Bowl ring with another team. (Hell, even failed Giants first-rounder Kadarius Toney won not one but two Super Bowls with the Chiefs.)
And so Lawrence wanted out. The Giants realized their choices were to deal with an unhappy player or flip his contract for a fresh start with a brand-new player who (at least for the first few years of his career) will be all in. Especially if the Giants choose wisely.
When former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin first uttered one of the best of his catch phrases — “we want volunteers, not hostages” — the sentiment had broad and potentially problematic application. If a player doesn’t want to be here, we don’t want him. That’s a blank check for a one-way ticket out of town, whenever the player wants to hop on that bus.
There was a time, not all that long ago, when the knee-jerk reaction to a player who tried to exit before his contract expired was to play hardball. To resist the player’s prerogative. To refrain from setting a “precedent” that others could be tempted to utilize.
The showdown between the Eagles and Terrell Owens from 2005 arose directly from the team’s refusal either to address his contract or to trade him to a new team after he had a stellar debut season in Philadelphia.
In the end, the Eagles “won” the battle of wills. But what did they really win? The 2005 season was undermined by the constant distractions that Owens created in an effort to get what he wanted.
Owens was, in hindsight, a trailblazer. He showed what can happen when a team chooses to stubbornly cling to a contract that applies unequal standards to the two parties. If the player isn’t playing well enough, the team cuts him. If he’s playing better than expected, too bad. You signed a contract.
The most encouraging fact is that Lawrence was able to get what he wanted without it becoming a bigger deal than it needed to be. To the point where the successful exercise of power by the player wasn’t even a major headline.
We want volunteers, not hostages. The teams that embrace this message are more likely to accumulate and maintain a locker room full of willing participants. They’ll be more likely to create an environment that will cause the best players to continue to be fully engaged.
It’s an important point to keep in mind during draft week, when all teams will emerge with a new class of de facto hostages who have been conditioned (or, more accurately, brainwashed) into thinking it’s an honor to be told where they’ll live and work, regardless of their preferences. From the moment they show up in the building for the first time, the challenge becomes getting them to want to stay for as long as the team considers them to be worthy of roster spots.
Ultimately, all players will leave. It’s always better, from the perspective of the employer, for the teams to be able to decide when it’s time to end the relationship. The best way to get there is to ensure that the players will want to stick around even after the team has decided that it’s in the organization’s best interests to move on.
The Bengals had some extra pep in their step when they reported for the start of the team’s offseason program on Monday.
Defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence joined the team in a trade with the Giants over the weekend and center Ted Karras called Lawrence’s arrival “a big jolt of energy” to kick off the team’s preparations for the 2026 season. Other players and head coach Zac Taylor echoed Karras’s feelings about how the trade has energized the team with Taylor adding that Lawrence’s presence “elevates everybody.”
Taylor also said that elevation means “we’ve got to go win” and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. also realized the change in expectations that came with the deal.
“There’s a ton of urgency,” Brown said, via Paul Dehner of TheAthletic.com. “They are very committed to getting it done. They understand the windows of some of our top players in their primes. I think the agenda is understood. It’s on us now as players to handle business.”
The Bengals paid a high price to get Lawrence by sending the 10th pick to the Giants and signing him to an extension, but missing the playoffs for three straight seasons increased the need to make a run this year and Lawrence will be central to everything that unfolds in Cincinnati this season.
The biggest question has been resolved. The trade that sent defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals gives rise to another question.
Lawrence has worn No. 97 during his time with the Giants. Shemar Stewart currently wears that number in Cincinnati.
“There’s been questions,” Lawrence said Monday morning during his introductory press conference. “There have been questions. I want to get it. I know Stewart, he had it last year or has it right now, but I’m going to speak to him and see what he wants to do.”
We’ll see where it goes. It wouldn’t be the first time a player paid for another number. It happens — even though the team owns the number and can do with the number whatever it wants.
In 2005, Washington running back Clinton Portis bought No. 26 from safety Ifeanyi Ohalete for $40,000. Portis paid $20,000 and stiffed Ohalete for the rest, after he was cut.
Ohalete sued. The case settled.
That’s just an example of how such transactions can fall apart. And it’s something for Lawrence and Stewart to keep in mind if such a transaction happens here.
The Bengals hadn’t traded away a first-round pick since 1989. And for good reason.
First-round picks become premium incoming players who are, regardless of their eventual NFL abilities, young and cheap. That became particularly true in 2011, with a new labor deal that restricted the contracts available at the top of the draft.
So why would the Bengals give up the tenth pick in the draft for an aging, expensive player? Last year, the tenth overall pick (Bears tight end Colston Loveland) signed a four-year, $26.36 million deal. The Bengals will be paying Lawrence $22 million in 2026 alone. In 2027, he’ll get $25 million.
V.P. of player personnel Duke Tobin nevertheless called the opportunity to acquire Lawrence for the tenth overall pick “too good to pass up.” That perception comes from the reality that the Bengals desperately need to improve their run defense — especially with quarterback Joe Burrow becoming increasingly impatient about the lingering flaws on the roster.
The Bengals aren’t far from being good enough to make the playoffs. In their division, the other three teams have new coaches for 2026. And if the Bengals can get to the postseason, they can win. Burrow becomes even better in a single-elimination setting.
The run defense last year was as bad as it could have been. The Bengals surrendered 147.1 rushing yards per game in 2025. That was the highest average in the league. The Bengals also allowed 5.22 yards per carry. That was the second-highest per-play rate.
That said, the Giants (with Lawrence starting all 17 games) allowed 145.3 rushing yards per game. That was the second-highest average in the league, behind only the Bengals. And the Giants allowed 5.31 rushing yards per attempt — the worst in the league.
Regardless, the Bengals needed to do something to beef up the middle of the defense. They have that now in Lawrence, who presumably will be happier and more motivated in 2026. Whether he’ll do enough to help get the defense off the field and allow Burrow and company to move the chains and score the points remains to be seen.
If the Giants plan to use the Bengals’ first-round pick, it would have been better to acquire the selection in exchange for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence when the pick was on the clock. That prevents a team like, say, the Cowboys at No. 12, from trading up and guessing right as to the guy the Giants were waiting to pick.
But there’s one sound reason for having the tenth overall pick in hand as draft week begins. The Giants now have the ammunition to package the 10th and fifth picks together in an effort to move higher in round one.
Obviously, they won’t be trying to go all the way to No. 1, since the Giants have their quarterback. No. 2 becomes a possibility, as does No. 3.
That’s not to say any deal would be as simple as, for instance, No. 5 and No. 10 for No. 2 or No. 3. The Giants likely would get more in return than an increase by two or three spots. Still, having the ability to give a team two top-10 picks in return for one becomes a valuable enticement.
Either way, everyone knows the Giants now have two picks in the top 10. It’s possible that those picks could become the starting point for inching higher in the draft order.
Why does Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones prefer to bypass agents and negotiate directly with players? Because it works.
For that reason, the agents representing former Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence successfully prevented new coach John Harbaugh from speaking directly to Lawrence after Lawrence requested a trade.
Paul Schwartz of the New York Post reports that agent Joel Segal prevented Harbaugh from speaking directly to Lawrence. It’s smart; Harbaugh and his who’s-got-it-better-than-us? personality could have weakened Lawrence’s will.
Schwartz also reports that Segal didn’t want to deal with G.M. Joe Schoen. Instead, Segal reportedly negotiated with senior V.P. of football administration and strategy Dawn Aponte and senior player personnel director Chris Mara, with Schoen still involved in the situation.
The good news for Schoen is that it’s harder to blame him for the outcome. The bad news for Schoen is that, with Harbaugh taking control of the team (Aponte, for example, reports to Harbaugh), there will be a perception that Schoen has become further isolated.
The handwriting has seemingly been on the wall since Harbaugh was hired. He secured a direct line of reporting to ownership, turning decades of internal protocol on its head. The fact that Aponte, who has front-office duties, reports to Harbaugh and not Schoen has bolstered the perception that Schoen’s influence is diminishing.
Some will wonder whether this means a G.M. change is coming. While teams often change General Managers after the season, the more natural timeline for a front-office overhaul comes after the draft, when the reset button is essentially pressed on a year’s worth of scouting to come.
However it plays out, body language experts will have a field day with the coming images from the team’s draft room on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
The Bengals traded the 10th overall pick to the Giants for Dexter Lawrence and then signed the defensive tackle to a one-year, $28 million extension.
The Bengals are happy, and Lawrence is happy.
“I know they gave up a lot for me, and I appreciate that. I don’t take that for granted. I have a fire in me,” Lawrence, who is under contract through 2028, told Geoff Hobson of the team website. “I picked up a little turf on the field. I got chills when I went out there. I just see myself helping this team be where it’s supposed to be. . . . I enjoy pressure. I enjoy being under that type of light. I write down notes, and my notes are, ‘Let my light shine all the time.’ And keep joy. Don’t let anything steal your joy.”
There is joy in Cincinnati, too.
Coach Zac Taylor said he has received calls and texts from players — including Orlando Brown Jr. and Ted Karras — since news of the trade broke Saturday night.
“Which is a sign there’s a lot of excitement,” Taylor told the team website. “I fielded a lot of calls from our offensive linemen. They’re happy they don’t have to face him in a real game again. Training camp should be fun.”
The deal is done. And the Bengals are happy about it.
Cincinnati has announced the trade that brings defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence from the Giants, in exchange for the tenth overall pick in the 2026 draft.
“The opportunity to add a player of Dexter’s ability was too good to pass up thanks to the commitment by Mr. Brown, Katie Blackburn, Troy Blackburn, Paul Brown, and our player personnel staff,” Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said in a team-issued release. “Dexter fits the vision we have on our defense and will also elevate others around him. We are confident in Dexter and can’t wait to see the positive effects he and the other players we have acquired this offseason have on our football team. We are excited to turn to the draft and our remaining picks to further enhance our team.”
Coach Zac Taylor echoed Tobin’s enthusiasm.
“We are excited to add Dexter to our team,” Taylor said. “He has been a dominant player in the league since he was drafted, and he will be a tremendous presence on the field and in our locker room.”
The Bengals also announced that Lawrence has been signed to a one-year extension, which puts him under contract through 2028.
