Among the many encouraging things from the fast 4-1 start of the New York Giants season is the breakout of fourth-year defensive tackle, Dexter Lawrence.
The Giants selected Lawrence in the first round of the 2019 NFL draft. At 24 years old, a new-look staff came in for the Giants this offseason and picked up the fifth-year option in 2023 that Lawrence was eligible for.
To this point, it looks like an easy call for the Giants to start preparing for a big, long-term contract extension.
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New York Giants DT Dexter Lawrence off to great start:
Consistent availability has been provided by Lawrence all four years of his career. He has started all five games for the Giants in 2022 and played 257 snaps. His 82% of the snaps played for the Giants’ defense far surpasses the amounts he played over the prior three seasons.
So far this year, Lawrence has three sacks and eight quarterback hits. He is more than set to shatter his past career bests of four sacks and 11 quarterback hits.
All three of Lawrence’s sacks have come over the last two games. He has also recorded a quarterback hit in all five games this year. Lawrence had three in the Giants’ Week 4 win, as well as two sacks in that one.
Lawrence recently had this to say about his growth and room for potential.
“I’m 24, I still got a lot of football ahead of me. I’m just learning my position better, and I got good coaches around me to help me develop my skills, my skill levels and get better,” “Got good guys around me like Leo (Williams), and Nick (Williams), and Jelly (Justin Ellis) who can also help me develop in different ways. I don’t think I’m at my peak yet.”
Despite his immense success as of late, Lawrence is still hungry for me. Very exciting to hear from a core Giant in the early phases of the Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll era. The humility of accepting coaching and wanting to learn from teammates in hopes of continuing to get better is great to hear from Lawrence. He is a talented, young football player the Giants will need to keep getting impactful production from.