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Transcript
I want to start with the Dexter Lawrence trade , Albert, in our business, always love like a Saturday night, uh, blockbuster.
I was a lacrosse.
I was putting 3 kids to bed, um, and, um.
You know, is it lacrosse and 40 degree drizzle.
How about that?
God bless you.
I'd already done T-ball that morning, so I was, uh, I was pretty cooked, um.
Uh, the initial thought from this is, holy shit, the Giants got a top 10 pick from the Bengals, and the Giants crushed this and the Giants won the trade.
I went back and I thought about it again.
I thought about it from Dexter Lawrence's perspective.
I thought about it from the Giants' perspective.
I thought about, I think, I think it's brilliant on all sides.
I really do.
Um, I think, I mean, yeah, at, at the risk of like making this and every, everybody wins thing.
Here's the, like, so I was talking to a GM last night, and he said to me that he thinks Dexter Lawrence is more talented than anybody in this year's draft, and he would take him even at his age with his mileage over any defensive player in this year's draft, and the reality of the situation is they're getting him now at $70 million over 3 years, which is less than $25 million a year, um.
It'd actually be 24, right?
I think that math is right.
Any, any kind of high wire math here is 23.5. You're asking me.
I'm a journalist.
I did this so I didn't have to do math.
Uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it really quick on my, OK, 70 divided by 3 equals 23.
333333333 endless threes, right, endless threes, yes, um, which is a, I, I, to me is like a bargain, right?
And I know like, so the Bengals looked at a couple of things here.
It's who are we gonna get at 10.
And like, I think their hope would have been Delane or Downs, right?
Like they get somebody to help their defense there.
Um, so I, their whole thing is when the offense breaks the huddle, like who is, who are they most likely to be worried about on a Wednesday?
Who are they most likely to be game planning around, and it's Dexter Lawrence, and those guys could be good players, and those guys are cheaper, but at like like a a touch over $23 million a year, you're getting a guy who was a Defensive Player of the Year candidate in 2024, had a down year this past year.
Um, but like I just think like I look at it from the Bengals' perspective and, and, and you see where they're at and what they need to do to create some hope and what they would be getting at 10 , and I just look at it like you gotta do something to like that defense needs a difference maker like that's really what it's lacked and This is a guy who I think can make Jamar Stewart better.
Like they have BJ Hill, TJ Slayton, um, you know, Chris Jenkins, uh, you know, they, they've got like a, a defensive tackle room.
Like this is like a legitimate weakness last year.
They brought in Jonathan Allen.
Like now it's probably one of the stronger the tackle rooms in the league, and that's gonna make the ends better.
Like, so do you wind up, you know, do you accelerate the Shamar Stewart's development a little bit here?
Um, and also, and this is something I didn't put in my column this morning, but I meant to.
I think the other thing they looked at, which is really an interesting thing.
Interior offensive line is suddenly a weakness for some of the contenders in the AFC North, right?
So like Baltimore, Cleveland's Cleveland's in flux in the middle.
They, they Teller and Joel Batonio are both gone, right?
The Ravens lose, um, lose, lose Tyler Linderbaum.
Uh, the Steelers are a little more solid in there, but they still lost Isaac Ciamala, so.
Like forever it's taking advantage of a of an issue in their division as well.
So I, I just like look at this all the way around and it's like.
I wouldn't do this every year, but given the price, right, given the history of defensive tackles, I mean, Chris Jones is still somebody team's game plan at game plan at 32 years old.
Aaron Donald was dominant into his thirties, 30, 31, 32.
Throughout his career, he was a dominant guy, but there's reason to believe that Dexter Lawrence is still gonna be like you're gonna get like 4, you could get 4 years out of him.
And that's the length of a rookie contract.
I want people to understand this.
So in 2022, uh, when the Giants were in the playoffs against the Eagles, I was doing like a game plan column and I was talking to some coaches, and I was like, hey, you know, what, what would you look out for?
Um, you know, when the Eagles have the ball, and one coach said, just watch how far out of their way they're gonna go to work away from Dexter Lawrence, and to trap him off the field, and to run as many plays as they can when he's not on the field.
And that's wild to say about someone who's 350 pounds and plays nose tackle, cause even he's a little different than Donald, where Donald played a lot of end, right?
Like, and he could, he could move to the edge because he was fast enough.
Dexter Lawrence is a pure 01, right?
Nose tackle.
And, you know, his pressure rate at that position is unmatched.
And so, I love it for the Bengals.
I love it for Dexter Lawrence, like you said, you now get, so in addition to what you said about the offensive line, Albert, who are the two of the highest sack rate quarterbacks in the NFL, Shado Sanders and Dylan Dylan Gabriel from last year, who was one of the highest sack rate quarterbacks in the NFL before that, Deshaun Watson.
So you got your 3 over there in Cleveland, and then you got Aaron Rodgers, who's 42.
If he ends up showing up, you know, and, um, and so if you're Dexter Lawrence, like, You know, you can play this out where I think you're gonna be able to eat again from a contract perspective, as long as you kick ass this year, and then you'll be able to renegotiate, and the Bengals are not gonna wanna be on the hook for a guy they gave a top 10 pick for, you know, and you're gonna be able to get that raise regardless, right?
And I know he got a little sweetener after he signed it, uh, to bring him up to whatever it was, but that was really kind of contract gymnastics a little bit.
And, and I think the other thing is kind of like, OK.
Like, what sort of player are you getting?
So the first thing I'd look at is like, why, like the, the, the, his original team's actions, right?
And the Giants, really the reason they didn't redo them last year was because they didn't want to set the precedent of doing a guy with 3 years left on his deal.
And the, the premise there is, well, if we do that, you know, like Brian Burns would be back at the table after the season he just had, you know, you'd have like guys just, And it would be an issue for you, right?
So they did the incentive package for him.
And then I think one interesting nuance in this, and this is in my column, is The 10th pick was on the table for a week.
And That, to me, shows the like it, it illustrates how the Giants were trying to keep this thing alive.
And the Giants were exploring ways to keep them there.
Now, they couldn't find a way to finish it, but the fact that they made an effort to keep him, you know, I think tells you something too.
So, I, you know, I, I just, I don't know.
I look at it like for Cincinnati, um, they've done a lot of things to try to fix their defense.
I don't know that much of it's worked.
Um, I think, you know, like you've got a defensive class that has some depth, so I think you should be able to get some players later, and I, and I don't know, no defensive tackles.
I mean no defensive tackles, no, no defensive tackles, and I, I don't think that the value of the 10th pick this year.
Like that, that was the other thing is they looked at their draft board and they saw the guy we're taking here is gonna have a mid to late 1st round grade, and that's sort of another piece of how they're valuing that pick because the 10th pick isn't the same value every year.
Now for the Giants, you, you, you move on from a guy that you had an issue with, you were gonna continue to have a contractual issue with, and now you've got two of the top 10 picks, which makes you a very real.
Like, uh, again, like, that's the flip side of this is that, a, and I looked this up last night, there has not been a veteran player, a veteran non-quarterback dealt for a top 10 pick clean, like without, like, not like a, there was like one for Matt Schaub where it was like a giveback scenario, like it was Schaub and 10 go to.
Um, go to, go to Atlanta for, for 8, you know, like the last time a top 10 pick got, got traded clean for a veteran player, period was Russell Wilson, um, 5 years ago.
The last time it happened for a non-quarterback was Randy Moss 21 years ago.
So this is also a rare.
You know, like this is a rare opportunity for the Giants to get a high-end piece, you know, and, uh, and we'll see how that one goes, right?
And it's not like, uh, it wasn't like the good Randy Moss trade.
It was the, it was the Yikes Randy Moss trade, and so I, you know, I don't want people to conflict.
It is like, this is like a generational occurrence.
It's like, no, this is just a confluence, perfect storm of a really bad draft, a, a, a team that needs to be good this year in the Bengals, and I, I think a Giants team that is, is starting over.
And that's the last piece of this, right ?
Albert, is like, we talk all the time on this show about the need to put your stamp on an organization, and John Harbaugh can't start training camp.
And run a really hard training camp and a really physical training camp with Dexter Lawrence sitting out , right?
Or, or Dexter Lawrence being out of shape, which he was last year.
Dexter Lawrence not giving you, you know what, which he didn't last year, right?
And so you can't have that.
You don't want it.
I'm sure you wanted him back at the right price.
And all that kind of stuff , but it's so much easier now to take two of your guys.
And I, I actually like, so, and we'll get to this in a second when we kind of fill out the first, the top 10 here and, and talk a little bit about what you're hearing, but I like 5 and 10, like, and the Giants could even go, come away.
Let's just talk about, like, with the Caleb Downs and Sonny Styles or whatever it is, you know, Caleb or Sonny Styles and, and Jordan Tyson or whatever, and, you know, you would say, wow, like, that's great.
Even in a, even in a bad draft, that's great.
It's great for them because they need stuff to fit, they need players to fit what they're doing now, and not what they had been trying to do for the last, you know, half decade.
If John Harbaugh is allowed to practice for 2.5 hours, Like, it's gonna go to 22959.
You know what I mean?
Like, like, and, and, and he has had, he's demanding, he's tough, he gets results.
And like he wants people who are, and the one thing about John that I think is really interesting that I, I, and I've always felt this way, like he genuinely wants people who are going to embrace it.
You know, who are going to, like, this isn't just, and I , and I think at the end of Baltimore, there might have been a little bit less of that than he had had, you know, and, but there, but for a time he really had that, you know what I mean, and having that level of buy-in from your best players is really important to running a program the way that he wants to run it.
Which is like similar to Belichick.
A certain, it took a certain type of guy to play with for Belichick.
It took us, it takes, you know, Nick Saban in Alabama.
They had a certain type of guy that would play there.
And I think it's the same sort of thing with John Harbaugh, and I think that kind of can be a guiding light as far as like what you're looking at them doing when it comes to the 5th and the 10th pick.
