EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — With the retirement of Aaron Donald after last season, there’s not much to debate when it comes to who enters the season as the NFL’s best defensive tackle.
It’s either Chris Jones of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs or Dexter Lawrence of the New York Giants.
Giants players are biased when they pick the 26-year-old Lawrence. The first-round pick out of Clemson in 2019 is their leader. He’s not a rah-rah guy. Players follow him because of the way he plays. He is never satisified.
“I think that comes from within and watching yourself and seeing things that you can improve on,” Lawrence said Friday after a two-hour practice on a brutally hot day. “Never a perfect player out there, so I’m hard on myself. Every day I come out here and I mess up on a little thing, and I write it down, and I correct it the next day, just so I’m making a new mistake every day type of thing. That’s kind of my thought process.”
Lawrence said the mistake can be a small as a technique error when the ball is snapped. The time lost could prevent him from making a play.
“You’ve got to keep earning that respect, and I think that’s what legends do,” he said. “At this point, I want to keep earning those respects, and keep having people feel my dominance and see the type of player I am.”
Lawrence had 32 solo tackles, 21 assists, 4 1/2 sacks and two passes knocked down at the line of scrimmage last season. Six of his tackles were for losses or no gain.
The 30-year-old Jones had 20 tackles, 10 assists, 10 1/2 sacks, four passes knocked down and seven stops for a loss or no gain. He’s also a two-time All-Pro and a three-time Super Bowl champion.
Tackle Rakeem Nuñez-Roches is entering his second season lining up next to Lawrence and says the video doesn’t lie.
“Dex wins 90% of his rushes,” Nuñez-Roches said. “He’s dominating the block on the run almost over 95% of the time. So what he’s doing may not show up in the stat sheet, but I’ll be danged if we don’t feel it as a defense.”
Guard Jon Runyan Jr., who was signed by the Giants as a free agent, has gone against Lawrence every day in training camp and said he needs to be perfect on every play. If his hands are out of position or his footwork is wrong, No. 97 will take advantage.
“One of the best D-tackles in the NFL,” Runyan said. “I think he has capability of being the best of all time. He moves so well for being whatever weight he’s at and how big he is.”
Lawrence is 6-foot-4 and 340 pounds but has impressive quickness.
“I’m telling you, God must have blinked when he was making me, but he had everybody in the lab with Dex,” Nuñez-Roches said. “Extra on the arms, extra on the legs. Don’t forget the speed. Super powerful. Then he’s extra big. Come on, that’s what I’m playing with. It’s just crazy. I take off running, he’s running right beside me. I’m like, there’s no way, there’s no way.”
Lawrence’s biggest goal is for the Giants to succeed. He has been to the playoffs once (2022) in his first five seasons. He has been to the Pro Bowl twice, in each of his last two seasons.
“I think that’s my role on this team, is to push everybody,” he said. “I don’t want to be at the Pro Bowl by myself. That’s what I’ve been telling everybody. I wear some of my stuff, but I don’t want to be there by myself. I think the mindset for me is just to push everybody. If I’m on the field, run, push them. Just work hard and it translates to everybody.”
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