It takes an unusually dramatic person to be vulnerable online, so here I am, sitting in front of you, admitting I was sweating bullets earlier this offseason. When Dexter Lawrence made his trade demands public, it felt like the sky was falling in East Rutherford.
General manager Joe Schoen and new head coach John Harbaugh were backed into a 6-foot-4, 340-pound financial corner. Caving in to Sexy Dexy's contract demands and paying the man felt like the easiest way out.
Instead, Schoen, Harbaugh, and Co. held firm. They believed they could glue together a front seven that didn't need the gravitational pull of a three-time Pro Bowler. They traded away their defensive cornerstone to the Cincinnati Bengals and bet the season on the rest of the roster figuring it out instead of overpaying him to keep him financially happy.
But take a look at how things have been going at training camp, and the energy around the team tells a pretty different story. The gamble to send him away might be paying off faster than expected.
DJ Reader is giving Giants exactly what they needed after Dexter Lawrence trade
Which brings us to defensive lineman DJ Reader, who was essentially signed to replace Lawrence. Nobody is saying New York will magically replace a superstar like Big Dex. But Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay recently named the 32-year-old veteran one of the biggest free-agent steals of training camp.
Even though he has yet to suit up for a preseason game as a Giant, the early returns are clearly promising. He has looked every bit like the top-15 lineman he was not too long ago. The 6-foot-3, 330-pounder has looked the part of a dominant, immovable space-eater.
During padded drills, Reader did his job, mucking up the middle and making life hell for the offensive linemen. During one camp session, he blew through the offensive line for a nasty tackle for loss before breaking through again for a sack. Run-stuffing defensive tackles typically age well, and maybe a change of scenery was all he needed to get back to those top-15 DT days.
He did exactly what they signed him to do: clog gaps and eat double teams.
The more space he eats, the more the pass rushers eat, too. If he's commanding double teams in the middle, we're talking more one-on-one opportunities for guys like Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, and Kayvon Thibodeaux. Say what you will about trickle-down economics, but trickle-down pressure works wonders.
Then there's the other part of the blockbuster trade. Big Blue was able to fleece the Bengals out of the 10th pick for Lawrence, which yielded offensive lineman Francis "Sisi" Mauigoa. The 21-year-old rookie is having an exceptionally strong first training camp.
The 6-foot-6, 330-pound pancake merchant has shown a rare combo of brute power and lightning-fast footwork, allowing him to stone defenders the second the ball is snapped.
It takes a lot of guts for a team to stand its ground like they did with Dex. Schoen and Harbaugh took plenty of heat for giving in to Lawrence’s trade demands, and it’ll take a lot more than a strong training camp to prove they made the right call.
But so far, the early returns couldn’t look much better. They saved a ton of money over the next two years, strengthened the run defense, and potentially found a future O-line star in Mauigoa. You can’t ask for a better trade-off than that.
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