The NFL has a pedigree among each position group. Over the last half decade, the defensive tackle position has seen Kansas City's Chris Jones as the premiere player along the defense's interior. Just behind Jones, though, sat a pair of New Yorkers. The Jets Quinnen Williams and the Giants' Dexter Lawrence had been considered as the premiere players at the next rung down.

Now, after the Dallas Cowboys acquired Williams midseason 2025 and the Giants shipped Lawrence off to the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday night, neither player resides in Gotham any longer. The two players who were linked by sharing a building now will be linked by the compensation paid by their acquiring teams. The natural progression is to wonder about the cost each paid and which player required the heavier price.

This is a developing comparison — contract structure and draft-class value will be added shortly.

The total cost of the Cowboys' acquisition is still unknown, but it does fall within a range that is highly estimable. The trade with the Jets sent them Dallas' second-round pick in 2026 along with the better of their two first-round picks in 2027. Dallas has their own and the Green Bay Packers' pick, by virtue of their trade for Micah Parsons.

This is fairly straight forward on the surface. The 10th pick is worth 1300 points on the JJ chart, and 369 points on the Hill chart.

While Lawrence's trade demands centered around feeling underpaid on a contract he signed in 2023, the two defensive tackles have remarkably similar contract details. Lawrence has two years remaining that will pay him around $42 million through 2027. Williams, although the Cowboys got an extra half-season of his play, will get paid around $46 million through 2027.

A fuller comparison of the trades – including how the contract details and draft-class value impact the outcome – is in the original version of this article.

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Better Trade? Giants-Bengals for Lawrence or Cowboys-Jets for Williams