The New York Giants haven’t seen the same dominant production that they are accustomed to out of All-Pro DT Dexter Lawrence so far this season.
Renowned as a dominant nose tackle, Lawrence has aligned over the center in the nose tackle position less often this season and has moved around to play different alignments instead.
As a result, there has been a dissection of Lawrence’s play by Giants faithful. But recently, renowned defensive line trainer Mark Hall (@MarkHall___Enterprises on Instagram) cleared up any controversy and praised the Giants’ usage of Lawrence — a valued client of his.
Renowned DL trainer explains Dexter Lawrence’s new role in the Giants’ defense
Giants fans on social media have called Lawrence’s usage and alignment into question this season. Lawrence has dominated over the past couple of seasons while aligned as a nose tackle. However, as uncovered by @clt_ny on X, Lawrence has been playing far less nose tackle through the first couple of games of this season:
However, there is a reasonable explanation for Lawrence’s varying alignment this season, as explained by renowned defensive line coach/trainer Mark Hall. Over the last four years, Hall has been working with Lawrence in the offseason.
In a recent exclusive interview with Fireside Giants and Empire Sports Media, Hall praised the Giants’ usage of Lawrence this season, saying that the defensive tackle’s movement on the line is a positive.
“It’s always a good thing when you can get an inside guy to play multiple positions,” Hall explained. “That increases his value, that increases his chances of creating a one-on-one matchup, that makes the [offensive] line get out of character and do things that they don’t want to do, it disrupts blocking schemes, it does a multiple amount of things.”
Lawrence has been moving all over the Giants’ defensive line this season, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Lawrence has the ability to dominate from multiple alignments, and that versatility is valuable to the Giants’ defense.
Dexter Lawrence is still making an impact, despite not having a sack yet this season
Lawrence hasn’t made the statistical impact this season that fans were expecting. Last year, he racked up a bunch of sacks early in the season, setting new expectations for fans. But, as Hall argued, just because Lawrence’s sack production hasn’t been there in 2025 doesn’t mean he isn’t making a significant impact in the Giants’ defense.
“So just because he hasn’t jumped out there and gotten all of these sacks like everybody want — people get spoiled by numbers — does not mean that he is not being productive in that defense,” Hall said.
“There’s multiple ways to impact the game other than sacks and I tell guys that all the time. When you start talking about pushing the pocket, making the pocket dirty, making tackles for losses, doing damage to offensive linemen, breaking them down, breaking them down.
“To try to block a guy like Dexter for four quarters, do you know what kind of attrition that game is going to impact on the offensive linemen?
“… I think the way they’ve been moving him around, they’ve been doing a really good job. As the season progresses, you’ll start seeing more and more opportunities for him to be able to attack because of those edges [Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Abdul Carter]. I never get concerned about that kind of stuff.”
As Hall highlighted, the Giants have plenty of talent on their defensive line. Lawrence anchors the middle, while Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and rookie first-rounder Abdul Carter man the edges in a fearsome rotation.
There are only so many sacks to go around, and that is going to result in numbers naturally being lowered for some of the Giants’ pass rushers.
But as this defensive line continues to gel and find its continuity, more opportunities will continue to open up for Lawrence and company to get after the quarterback.
Check out the full interview with Mark Hall Enterprises on the Fireside Giants YouTube Channel:
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