Analyst says Bengals need sacks to justify Dexter Lawrence trade originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Bengals get a three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle. Giants get the No. 10 pick back. Emmanuel Acho wasn't buying it.
"You don’t trade a defensive tackle for a first-round pick unless they are an elite pass rusher. Aaron Donald… JJ Watt… or Fletcher Cox in his time, pass rusher… a Jalen Carter pass rusher… You don’t trade a top 10 overall pick who you have the rights for, cheap in the next five years, or a defensive tackle unless they can give 10+ sacks. Dexter Lawrence half a sack last year, 9.5 the year before… But to me, I don’t think Dexter Lawrence was worth the top 10 overall pick, but he’s nice, make no mistake." Acho said.
Lawrence posted just 0.5 sacks in 2025, down from nine the prior year.
He played through an elbow injury all season, but that's still the version the Bengals attached a top-10 pick and $28 million to. The extension runs through 2028.
Lawrence told reporters Sunday he knows what Cincinnati gave up and doesn't take it lightly. Wanting to earn it and actually earning it in games are different things.
Sack totals were never the right way to measure Lawrence. Since 2021, he's drawn double teams on more than half his rushes, the highest rate at the position in the league.
When two blockers commit to him every other snap, someone else gets a free rush. His 123 pressures since 2022 trail only Chris Jones among interior defenders.
That matters for a Bengals defense that ranked near the bottom of the NFL last year.
They signed Jonathan Allen this offseason too, and Lawrence makes that interior suddenly formidable.
"Dexter Lawrence is a top 5 defensive tackle, but YOU DON'T TRADE A FIRST ROUND PICK UNLESS THEY GETTING SACKS!"– @EmmanuelAcho is not the biggest fan of the Dexter Lawrence trade to the Cincinnati Bengals
Acho acknowledged all of it and still didn't like the deal. A half-sack season doesn't justify a top-10 pick, regardless of context. That's a fair position to hold.
The Bengals have missed the playoffs three straight years. Pairing Lawrence with Hendrickson should fix the front that's been the problem.
Everything else depends on how healthy that elbow actually is.
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