What’s Next: Giants Get a ‘Steal’ in Dexter Lawrence Trade, But Can They Replace Him?

If the Dexter Lawrence trade was the true beginning of the John Harbaugh era, it opened to stellar reviews. The New York Giants’ haul was “huge,” “stunning,” and “unbelievable,” several NFL sources told me. It was widely hailed as a “steal.” But as the initial praise of the shocking trade wore down on Saturday night, and everyone began to digest the fact that the Giants traded a three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle in Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for the 10th overall pick in the draft, those same sources kept asking the same question: “What are the Giants going to do on defense now?” It’s a fair question, with no immediate answer. It’s also why they didn’t really want to make this trade. The Giants could have done this two weeks ago, a source told me, when the Bengals dangled the 10th overall pick almost as soon as Lawrence’s demand to be traded went public. Because as surprised and thrilled as the Giants were to find someone willing to give up a top-10 pick for their disgruntled star, they knew that the deal would leave their defense with a gaping hole. “He’s a top-five defensive tackle in the league, and at his best, he might be the best,” one NFC scout told me. “Even in a down year, you see how other teams treat him. They constantly double- or even triple-team him. It doesn’t matter if it’s a run or a pass play either. His presence is the threat.” Harbaugh knew that. He had praised the 6-foot-4, 340-pound Lawrence as “not really a cornerstone” of the defense, but “more like the stone.” He insisted he needed Lawrence to fix a defense that ranked 28th overall and 31st against the run. So much of the hope and potential is wrapped in the edge-rushing trio of Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Abdul Carter. But even in what was widely considered one of his worst NFL seasons, Lawrence was at least the second-best defensive player on the team, and maybe the most important. That’s why Harbaugh and new Giants vice president Dawn Aponte were working so hard to try to convince Lawrence to stay. They were willing to sweeten his contract a little, a source told me. They also tried to make a direct appeal to Lawrence, but his agent, Joel Segal, insisted that all the talking would be done through him. But their full-court press didn’t work, so they felt they had no choice but to look at that top-10 pick “like a gift,” a team source told me, even if it left their defense dangerously thin in the middle of the front. Veteran defensive tackles Roy Robertson-Harris and Sam Roberts aren’t in Lawrence’s class. Neither is D.J. Reader, who was brought in for a visit last week. They are professional, solid veterans who can get the job done. But none of them has Lawrence’s ability to change a game. [Dexter Lawrence Trade Grades: Why Big Move Could Have Huge Payoff for Giants, Bengals] And the team’s pre-deal concerns went deeper than that, too. The Giants are well aware of the public perception that they struggle to keep their own players. Fans are still stung from watching stars like Odell Beckham, Saquon Barkley, Julian Love and Xavier McKinney get shoved out the door, still in their prime, over the last decade. Internally, the Giants attribute that to too much turnover in the front office and with the head coach — too many changes in leadership and philosophy over the last 10 years. But Lawrence felt different to them, especially after general manager Joe Schoen signed the Dave Gettleman first-round pick to a four-year, $90 million deal in 2024. He was popular and valuable, no matter how bad the team struggled. They truly seemed to want him to stay. Lawrence left them with no choice, though. Yes, the Giants could have sucked it up and given him the extra one year and $28 million that the Bengals gave him on Sunday. But a team source told me the 28-year-old never asked for that, leaving the impression that he just didn’t want to be a Giant anymore. He had grown tired of all the losing and didn’t seem willing to give a fourth coach a chance entering his eighth season in the league— not even if that coach was Harbaugh. And with Harbaugh as intent on building a new culture and rebuilding the defense as he is, the last thing he needed was a disgruntled star who wanted to be someplace else. The deal was slightly easier to stomach because there are legitimate questions about what Lawrence still is. His stunning drop to just a half sack last season is often attributed to constant double-teams. But as one scout told me, “You know, he can beat those double teams, too.” Meanwhile, there were internal concerns about his weight last season, a source told me, adding, “He’s a great guy, but his unhappiness was clear in everything he did.” Still, the Giants understood that as good as the deal was, it wasn’t what was best for them in the short term. There is a league-wide belief that there isn’t likely to be a plug-and-play impact defender available with the 10th pick — if there was, the Bengals surely would’ve kept it. There might not even be a defensive tackle taken in the first round. The Giants will surely take one with their second-round pick (37th). And it seems like a lock one of their two first-rounders — picks No. 5 and 10 — will be used on a defensive player, perhaps Ohio State safety Caleb Downs. The pieces will be there for Harbaugh and new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson to build a defense that at least ranks in the top half of the league. That’s something the Giants did only once in the seven years with Lawrence on their team. So they were bad with him and can be bad without him, and now they at least have a chance to rebuild the defense with younger, fresher, and less expensive bodies. What they replace Lawrence with, though, might not be better. They understood that. That’s why this isn’t something they wanted. It just turned into something they had to do.