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.
Giants Clips
Thirteen days ago, Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence asked for a trade. He has now gotten one.
He also has gotten a raise, with a one-year, $28 million extension. Given the new-money analysis that agents and teams apply to the vast majority of contracts, Lawrence’s new-money average moves to $28 million.
Are there guarantees beyond the $10 million roster bonus he’ll receive right away? No. Will the Bengals cut Lawrence before his $11 million base salary for 2026 becomes guaranteed as a practical matter at the start of the regular season? Why would they? They gave up the 10th pick in the draft to get him.
Given the investment, it’s unlikely he’ll be cut before 2027, either. Yes, it could happen. If it does, the Bengals would be admitting that they gave up a top-ten pick for very limited return.
If they cut Lawrence after two years, he still will have made more money over the next two seasons than the Giants would have been paying him. Under the prior deal, he would have gotten $39.5 million. Under the new deal, Lawrence is in line to make $47 million.
Here’s the real question. Would the Giants have given Lawrence the same deal he’s getting from the Bengals? No one knows the answer, because details regarding the negotiations haven’t been leaked.
At this point, it doesn’t matter. The Giants swapped the ability to keep Lawrence for the 10th pick in the draft. The Bengals have given up pick No. 10 for a three-year deal with Lawrence. Where it goes from here depends on how Lawrence performs — and what the Giants do with Cincinnati’s 2026 first-round pick.
Dexter Lawrence is headed to Cincinnati with a new deal.
The Bengals announced they’ve acquired Lawrence for the No. 10 overall pick on Sunday, meaning the trade is official.
PFT has confirmed Lawrence has agreed to a one-year contract extension, receiving $28 million in new money on the deal. He is now under contract through the 2028 season.
Here is the full breakdown of the contract, according to a source with knowledge of the terms:
1. Lawrence receives a $10 million roster bonus on the day of execution of the deal.
2. 2026 base salary: $11 million.
3. 2026 per game active roster bonuses: $1 million total.
4. 2027 option bonus: $8.25 million, to be exercised between the first and tenth day of the 2027 league year.
5. 2027 base salary: $15.5 million.
6. 2027 per-game active roster bonuses: $1 million total.
7. 2027 workout bonus: $250,000.
8. 2028 base salary: $21.75 million.
9. 2028 per-gamer active roster bonuses: $1 million total.
10. 2028 workout bonus: $250,000.
In all, it’s a three-year, $70 million deal with $42 million leftover and $28 million in new money.
The World Cup is coming soon. And it’s quickly becoming a pain in the posterior for the 13 teams playing in stadiums that will be commandeered for intercontinental soccer.
Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal recently reviewed some of the practical impacts of FIFA bigfooting the various venues where fútbol will be played. This week, for example, the Jets and Giants will move their annual draft parties away from MetLife Stadium to Manhattan.
In all, 13 teams are impacted by the World Cup: the Cowboys, Jets, Giants, Falcons, Chiefs, Texans, 49ers, Chargers, Rams, Eagles, Seahawks, Patriots, and Dolphins.
For the teams that have employees at the stadiums hosting World Cup games, many will be moved. Those who are staying put will be subject to FIFA credentialing to get into their workplaces. And the Giants will start training camp in West Virginia, since MetLife Stadium will be hosting the final match on July 19 on a grass field that will need to be removed and replaced with one of the worst artificial surfaces in the entire league.
That last part still has to be the most galling for NFL players. Owners with stadiums that don’t have grass have bent over backwards to do whatever had to be done to placate FIFA. Their regular employees, however, will still be stuck with a lesser (and far cheaper) playing surface.
The various sacrifices involuntarily made by the players and other team employees should prompt FIFA to give them all a phony, made-up award. Especially since FIFA has already done that, for far less.
If the handling of the Dexter Lawrence situation was the first real test of the John Harbaugh-Joe Schoen regime in New York, many will conclude they failed it.
They’re losing a premier talent who is still in his prime at age 28, in exchange for the tenth pick in the 2026 draft. There’s no guarantee the player they pick with Cincinnati’s first-round selection will ever become as effective as Lawrence was.
At the Scouting Combine, Harbaugh sang Lawrence’s praises in unequivocal terms. “He’s a cornerstone football player,” Harbaugh said at the time. “Not really a cornerstone. He’s more like the middle stone. He’s right in the middle. He’s a very big stone and he’s a very active athletic stone. So we want him in there being a big stone.”
Maybe it was puffery, aimed at getting more for the player in an eventual trade. Or maybe it was, you know, the truth. If so, something went haywire on the way to fixing a contract that he had outplayed.
That’s the reality of the out years of a multi-year deal. Once the significant guaranteed money is gone, the team can (and will) rip it up if the player isn’t deemed to be doing well enough. If the player overperforms and wants the deal to be fixed, there’s not much he can do about it.
Lawrence used the leverage available to him. And he got the trade he wanted. Presumably, the contract will come next.
Still, the next time Harbaugh and Schoen speak to reporters, they’ll be asked about more than what they did with a pair of top-10 picks. Someone will want to know why the situation went sideways. Lawrence wanted an adjustment that reflects the growth in the market and the ongoing rise in the salary cap, which has mushroomed from $182.5 million in 2021 to $301.2 million in 2026 — a 65-percent increase. The Giants didn’t get it done.
There will be internal dynamics that likely won’t be disclosed, unless they’re leaked. Harbaugh could blame Schoen for failing to get the deal done. And that could become another plank in the eventual case Harbaugh makes to hire his own G.M. Which felt inevitable even before the Lawrence situation failed to result in a new contract.
Much of the final analysis will depend on what Lawrence does with the Bengals this season. If he has a major impact on the Cincinnati defense, it could be another Saquon Barkley situation, with everything but the internal discussions broadcast to the world via offseason Hard Knocks.
The difference this time around is that the Giants got something in return. That puts extra pressure on the Giants to draft the right player at No. 10, and then to develop him quickly.
In 2025, every NFL team entered the draft with its first-round pick still in place. This year is a whole lot different.
The 2026 NFL draft now has six teams with two first-round picks and six teams with no first-round picks, after the Bengals traded their first-round pick to the Giants for Dexter Lawrence.
Of the teams with two first-round picks, the Giants are in the best position to make significant additions to their roster, as both their picks are in the Top 10: Their own first-round pick is No. 5 overall and the Bengals’ first-round pick is No. 10 overall.
The Dolphins have their own pick (No. 11) as well as the Broncos’ pick (No. 30) from the Jaylen Waddle trade.
The Jets have their own pick (No. 2) and the Colts’ pick (No. 16) from the Sauce Gardner trade.
The Cowboys have their own pick (No. 12) and the Packers’ pick (No. 20) from the Micah Parsons trade.
The Chiefs have their own pick (No. 9) and the Rams’ pick (No. 29) from the Trent McDuffie trade.
The Browns have their own pick (No. 6) and the Jaguars’ pick (No. 24) from the draft-day trade a year ago that allowed the Jaguars to move up to draft Travis Hunter.
A seventh team was poised to get a second first-round pick when the Raiders agreed to trade Maxx Crosby to the Ravens, but that trade fell through and the Ravens kept their first-round pick.
Six teams don’t have a first-round pick: The Bengals, Broncos, Falcons, Colts, Packers and Jaguars.
All of the teams with two first-round picks missed the playoffs this year. They’re looking to rebuild their rosters, and hoping they’ll look back in a few years and say having two first-round picks was a big part of turning their teams around.
Once the Dexter Lawrence trade is finalized, the Giants will have two picks in the top 10 of the NFL draft.
Again.
They have the No. 5 pick, which they earned the old-fashioned way: By being the fifth-worst team in the league last season. They’ll now inherit the Bengals’ pick, No. 10 overall.
That happened four years ago, when the Giants had their own pick (No. 5) plus the Chicago pick acquired when the Bears traded up in 2021 to get quarterback Justin Fields.
Last time around, it didn’t go very well. Defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux, the fifth overall pick, has performed well enough to have his fifth-year option exercised. The presence of Brian Burns and the selection of Abdul Carter with the third overall pick in 2025 clouds Thibodeaux’s future with the team.
Offensive lineman Evan Neal, taken with the seventh overall pick, has not panned out. He re-signed a one-year deal for the minimum salary after his four-year rookie deal expired.
This time around, Joe Schoen is still the G.M. But John Harbaugh is the head coach. They’ll need to nail at least one, and ideally both, of the selections. Pick the right guys, and then develop them the right way.
The fact that the deal was done five days before the draft becomes a complicating factor for the Giants. The teams picking behind the Giants will try to speculate on the player they want at No. 10. If a team guesses right and leapfrogs the Giants to the ninth spot (currently held by the Chiefs), the Giants will lose the player they may be coveting.
That’s why the best outcome would have been to keep the deal with the Bengals quiet until the pick was on the clock.
The Giants surely won’t admit to the world that they lost the guy they wanted, if someone jumps them in the pecking order and takes their guy at No. 9. Still, if it happens, they’ll know.
It’s possible, frankly, that the Giants have enough guys they want to take whoever is left after the first nine picks are made. If there are 10 players they’d be happy to have, they’re now guaranteed to get two of them.
Dexter Lawrence wanted out. And he’s getting his wish.
NFL Network reports that the Giants are trading the defensive tackle to the Bengals for the 10th overall pick in the 2026 draft. PFT has confirmed that the deal is in place.
Via Jordan Raanan of ESPN, the deal is subject to Lawrence passing a physical. Which means it won’t be final until he passes. That wrinkle needs to be resolved by Thursday, obviously.
The next question is whether the Bengals will address Lawrence’s contract on the way in. Our understanding is that it hasn’t happened yet, but that something is expected to occur sooner than later.
Lawrence was the 17th overall pick in the 2019 draft. Signed through 2027, Lawrence was due to earn $20 million in 2026.
He had been trying to get a new deal from the Giants, given the changes to the market for interior defensive linemen. Twelve days ago, Lawrence went public with his request for a trade.
Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence wants out. The Giants aren’t giving up yet.
As reported by Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, via SB Nation, the powers-that-be want to keep Lawrence in New York.
“We are working together to get the best outcome for the Giants team,’’ coach John Harbaugh told Schwartz. “We also respect Dexter fully as a person and player and want him to be happy. We are doing everything we can, as best we can, as responsibly as we can.”
Schwartz writes that the Giants are “willing to give [Lawrence] a significant financial upgrade” over the $20 million he’s due to make in 2026. Lawrence, however, “is dug in on what he wants.”
“Significant” is in the eye of the beholder. The Giants may think it’s “significant.” Lawrence apparently doesn’t believe it’s “significant” enough.
Per Schwartz, the Giants are willing to trade Lawrence. They want a first-round pick in the 2026 draft.
If that’s the way it goes, here’s how it should unfold. One, the Giants and Lawrence find a team that is willing to satisfy both the trade requirements and the contract expectations. Two, Lawrence quietly submits to a physical in the coming days. Three, the trade happens when the team acquiring Lawrence is on the clock in round one.
That’s the best way to position the Giants to acquire a first-round pick without getting leapfrogged by another team that may accurately predict the player the Giants would want in that spot. But it requires, above all else, extreme discretion by everyone involved.
Most teams have a clear starting quarterback, obvious contenders for the job, or (at a minimum) concepts of a plan for the position.
The Cardinals, by all appearances, have none of the above.
G.M. Monti Ossenfort made clear this week that the Cardinals don’t have a starter. And to the extent a competition will be unfolding during the offseason program, Jacoby Brissett won’t be there unless and until he gets a new contract.
The other in-house options, for now, are Gardner Minshew and Kedon Slovis.
Before free agency started, Jimmy Garoppolo was linked to Arizona. The Cardinals pivoted to Minshew when talks with Garoppolo broke down.
Garoppolo remains available. Aaron Rodgers is on the market, too. (It’s hard to imagine him having any interest in the team that is stuck in a division with the Seahawks, Rams, and 49ers.) Derek Carr has made noise about a possible unretirement, but he wants to play for a contender. The Cardinals can’t fairly be described with that label.
That leaves the draft. Unless the Cardinals trade up to No. 1 (which is highly unlikely at this point, but not impossible), the next best option is Ty Simpson. They could, in theory, trade down and take Simpson in a lower spot. And there could be a team that sufficiently covets running back Jeremiyah Love to try to leapfrog the Titans at No. 4.
Other available free-agent options with starting experience include Russell Wilson and Tyrod Taylor. Most of the others have signed contracts to be backups (Carson Wentz, Joe Flacco) and a bridge starter (Kirk Cousins, if/when the Raiders take Fernando Mendoza).
As the cliche-because-it’s-true saying goes, you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. At quarterback, there’s no indication that the Cardinals are getting better at the most important position on the team. And there’s no sign they have a clear plan for doing so.
Maybe the overriding plan, if there is one, is to accept reality for 2026 and allow nature to take its course. The prize could be dibs on whoever the top quarterback is after the 2026 college football season.
The popular assumption is that it will be Arch Manning. As we’ve seen, however, the player who emerges as the consensus number one for the next year could be a player no one is even thinking about currently. It happened with Mendoza. It happened with Joe Burrow.
Beyond the six games to be played within the NFC West, the Cardinals will face the four teams of the AFC West (which produced two playoff teams in 2025 and still includes the Chiefs), the four teams of the NFC East, and the Lions (who finished last in the NFC North). That’s a recipe for earning the first overall pick in 2027.
Not having a clear plan at quarterback becomes a key ingredient in the stew of factors that could position Arizona for its next shot at a generational talent without having to try very hard to make that happen, once the 2026 season launches.
