No matter how much of an impact John Harbaugh makes on the New York Giants in his first year with the team, there will be no escaping the inevitable comparisons with the Cincinnati Bengals. In a blockbuster trade, the G-Men sent superstar defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II to the Bengals in exchange for the 10th selection in the 2026 NFL Draft, which became guard Francis Mauigoa.
The trade is already looking like a rare win-win move. The Giants are set to move into a new era defined by Jaxson Dart and his supporting cast, while the Bengals added a short-term piece to aid their Super Bowl push.
Matt Fitzgerald of Stripe Hype, FanSided's dedicated Bengals site, gave us some key updates and input on Lawrence's impact in Cincinnati.
Dexter Lawrence has Bengals fans thrilled after Blockbuster Giants trade
GMEN: Dexter Lawrence took a slight step back in his final season with the Giants, but he was the centerpiece of New York’s defense for years. Do the Bengals believe he can get back to being an elite DT?
Fitzgerald: I think the notion that Lawrence had some "down" season in 2025 is a little overblown. By many advanced passing metrics, the Giants were a top-10 defense with him on the field, and bottom five or thereabouts when he was off. Sack production, particularly for interior defensive linemen, fluctuates year over year. Maybe he was a tad worse than 2024 and years before, but he was also in a perpetual losing situation in New York. Now, he gets the chance to play with a real quarterback/offense to complement him.
GMEN: Looking back a few months after the move, has the perception of the Lawrence trade changed at all in Cincinnati?
Fitzgerald: Most of the fanbase (I hesitate to say "all" just to avoid generalizing) believed the move was a slam-dunk massive win at the time, and that hasn't really changed. Lawrence has ingratiated himself so well in Cincinnati. He immediately began participating in the voluntary offseason program and took on a leadership role on his own volition.
If anything, fans are more hyped, especially with the knowledge that it only took a one-year, $28 million extension to keep him on a rather stunning, team-friendly contract through 2028.
GMEN: How has Lawrence looked since joining the Bengals?
Fitzgerald: Hard to answer that exactly through OTAs and the one minicamp practice, but by all accounts, Lawrence has embraced his fresh start and seems to be having a real-time catharsis at the opportunity to, again, be complemented by Joe Burrow and an elite offense.
A lot of people talk about the pressure the Bengals are under due to their offseason moves. To me, Burrow is having a cathartic purging of his own. It's like, "Finally, I have the pieces at my disposal to take this team deep in the playoffs again." He's telling everyone to bring on the pressure. And he doesn't say things just to say them. Joe knows that this new-look defense, thanks in large part to Lawrence's presence as the anchor in the trenches, can back up that big talk.
GMEN: What impact do you think Lawrence can have on the Bengals’ defense? Can he make Cincinnati a contender in the AFC?
Fitzgerald: The Bengals had the NFL's worst run defense last year. Dexter Lawrence is double-teamed as much as anyone in the NFL. His presence will make it a lot easier for everyone else on the front seven to fit the run better than they did in 2025. Lawrence is also, by a country mile, the best pocket-pushing tackle the Bengals have had since Geno Atkins retired.
They've lacked anything close to a difference-making interior pass rushing threat in the ensuing years. Jonathan Allen, rotating snaps with B.J. Hill will add juice to the pass rush as well, and have a force-multiplying effect for defensive ends like Boye Mafe, Myles Murphy, and whatever Cincinnati can get out of Cashius Howell and Shemar Stewart. That's a long-winded way of saying that yes, Dexter Lawrence will absolutely make the Bengals an AFC contender.
GMEN: If you could choose to reverse the trade and pick a prospect for the Bengals at No. 10, would you? If so, who would you have picked?
Fitzgerald: That was the problem with this draft. I knew that, barring a trade, nobody was making it to the 10th pick who I would be thrilled about. They spent so many resources on safety/nickel types that drafting Caleb Downs would've been redundant, even though a lot of those players (Jalen Davis, Kyle Dugger, Ja'Sir Taylor) are on one-year deals, and Jordan Battle is in a contract year.
Downs would've been the logical choice, but the Bengals have had a frustrating tendency to draft contingency/succession plans in the first round, as opposed to immediate-impact players.
I mean, Downs would've probably beaten out Davis to start at the nickel, but still...any upgrade he'd provide there would pale in comparison to how much better Lawrence will make the Bengals' entire defense, not just up front. I proposed a Lawrence trade before the deal went down that would've allowed Cincinnati to move up high enough to draft Sonny Styles.
Their linebacker corps is still very suspect. Scoring Styles and Lawrence in one go, regardless of the future cost, would've been well worth it to me. But anyway, we settled for a less complex trade for Lawrence, which if nothing else, shows that the organization is finally serious about chasing a Super Bowl, and isn't afraid to take big swings to aggressively upgrade their roster shortcomings. They were so passive in years past. Credit to the front office.
They stepped up at long last. And I truly believe the Dexter Lawrence trade will be among the most impactful transactions in recent NFL history. It's a joke to me that these "best offseason moves" lists .
It's still too early to give a final verdict, but the Lawrence trade is looking like a success for both teams entering training camp.
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