Shaq

Lawson

This will be Lawson’s third stint with the Bills. He was drafted by Buffalo and played for the Bills from 2016 to 2019, and again from 2022 to 2023. He last played for the Panthers in 2024. Lawson will start on the Bills’ practice squad but could see game action shortly as the Bills defense struggles to stop opposing rushing attacks.

Lawson signed with the Panthers after he visited the team on Tuesday. The Panthers defense is in need of a veteran presence after injuries and bad play have made them one of the weaker defenses in the league. The 30-year-old Lawson joins the team having last played for the Bills, totaling 13 tackles and a sack last season.

Lawson returned to the Bills last season after jumping around between the Dolphins and Jets in 2020 and 2021. In his first year back with the Bills, Lawson totaled 31 tackles and 3.5 sacks in 15 games. Lawson is little more than a situational pass rusher at this stage of his career, and will likely fill a role similar to last season’s.

Lawson spent his first four NFL seasons with the Bills before one-year stints in Miami and with the Jets. Lawson had his career-best 2019 season with Buffalo, posting 6.5 sacks and 32 tackles. The Jets released Lawson in January as one of several salary cap moves.

Lawson, 27, would have been a $9 million hit against the salary cap in 2022. Acquired from Houston last August in exchange for a sixth-round draft pick, Lawson started seven games and played in 14 this season as a rotational player in the terrible New York defense. He’ll likely sign a one-year deal with another team this offseason.

The Texans sent linebacker Benardrick McKinney to Miami in exchange for Lawson in March but their newly-acquired linebacker was listed as a backup on Houston’s initial depth chart. The team seeing Lawson as a rotational player likely made it easy to move on from him. New York was forced into exploring a trade for a pass-rusher after losing Carl Lawson to a torn Achilles’ tendon earlier this month. Shaq won’t be able to completely replace Carl’s presence as a threat to opposing passers but he has tallied 18.5 sacks over the previous four seasons. The Jets defense still projects to be among the league’s worst this year despite making some improvements during the offseason. New York released defensive back Bennett Jackson in a corresponding move.

Both are currently listed as backups on Houston’s depth chart. Bill O’Brien selected Johnson in the second round of the 2019 draft, seeing him record 117 tackles and seven pass breakups across 30 appearances (with 12 starts) in two seasons. Lawson just arrived in March in exchange for Benardrick McKinney and has yet to play a regular season snap with the organization. Lawson has some intrigue (despite consistently underwhelming) as a former marquee free agent signing.

The deal also involved a swap of late-round picks. Lawson signed a three-year, $30 million contract with the Dolphins last year but only managed to start seven games. He totaled just four sacks and 18 QB Hits as a rotational pass rusher. A former first-round pick with the Bills, Lawson has been unable to consistently make plays and hasn’t been able to push beyond the status of a premium backup. Lawson is two years younger than McKinney and the Texans look to be headed for a complete rebuild so a high-upside project makes sense for the direction they’re headed in. McKinney started nearly every game that he was healthy for during his six-year stint as a Texan. He’ll be a weekly contributor for an ascending team in Miami.

The teams are also swapping late-round picks. McKinney is coming off shoulder surgery and has been limited to 18 games the last two seasons, but this isn’t much of a salary dump for Houston, with McKinney due $28.5 million over the next three seasons and Lawson owed $20.2 million through 2022. Lawson has never been a full-time starter and took a step back with four sacks last year, though he’s two years younger than McKinney and had 18 QB hits for the second straight season. Lawson should see more early down snaps with Houston, while McKinney will step in as the starting inside linebacker next to Jerome Baker in Miami.

Van Noy has two sacks and two tackles for loss through five games this year. His loss in the pass rush could give Joe Flacco extra time in the pocket to find Jamison Crowder or Breshad Perriman, who is expected to return from an ankle injury this week. Lawson was absent from the Dolphins’ Week 5 contest with a shoulder injury. He notched at least one QB Hit in every game before that and has one sack on the year. Pressured or not, this news doesn’t make Flacco worth anything other than a desperation start exclusively in 2QB/Superflex fantasy leagues.