The Bengals made one of the boldest moves of their offseason when they sent the 10th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft to the Giants for Dexter Lawrence II, and that’s the decision Sports Illustrated’s Eva Geitheim sees as the one with real long-term risk.
Geitheim singled out the trade as Cincinnati’s questionable offseason call in a roundup of one move for every NFL team, arguing that the price tag was heavy for a three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle.
“A week before the draft, the Bengals made an uncharacteristic blockbuster trade by acquiring Dexter Lawrence II from the Giants for the No. 10 pick,” Geitheim wrote. “Paying a top-10 pick for Lawrence was a steep price and could come back to bite the Bengals if Lawrence doesn’t rebound from a down season in 2025 or help the Cincinnati defense turn things around.
The Bengals notably could have used that pick on star prospect Caleb Downs, who was not selected until the No. 11 pick. If Downs proves to be a superstar and Lawrence doesn’t pan out, it could also be a blow to the Bengals.”
It’s the kind of swing that stands out because the rest of Cincinnati’s offseason was fairly clean. Letting Trey Hendrickson walk was already viewed as inevitable, and after the injury he dealt with, the Bengals may have timed that exit perfectly. Beyond that, the front office paid what looked like a solid market rate for its free-agent additions, and in a few cases may have even gotten deals at a discount.
That left Lawrence as the one major gamble.
His 2025 season was down compared with what he’s shown before, but even that level of production would have ranked well above anything Cincinnati got from its historically bad defensive front. The Bengals don’t need him to be the league’s best nose tackle to make the trade work. They need him to play like a top-10 force and lift the group around him, something that has been happening more and more as training camp has gone on.
The numbers help explain why Cincinnati is betting on the deal. B.J.
Hill was the only Bengals defensive tackle to top 20 quarterback pressures last season. Lawrence has never finished below 29 pressures, and since 2022 he’s averaged 49.5 pressures per season.
For a 28-year-old interior defender with that kind of track record, it would be a surprise if the Bengals end up regretting the move.
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