Giants Country

Giants Counting on the "Twins" to Anchor Defense

Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams give the Giants a dynamic duo up front in their defense.

SI Editorial

Giants Counting on the "Twins" to Anchor Defense
Giants Counting on the "Twins" to Anchor Defense /
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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - New York Giants defensive line coach Andre Patterson smiled when asked about Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams.

"They're like twins, you know?" Patterson said before the team's first mandatory minicamp practice. "They, they can finish each other's words."

That's a good thing for the Giants, who are counting on Lawrence and Williams to continue leading the defense up front.

Paired with Williams since the former Jets first-round pick was traded to the Giants midway through Lawrence's rookie season, it wasn't until last year that Lawrence finally had his breakthrough season, posting a career-high 7.5 sacks and 28 quarterback hits to go along with 68 total tackles and seven tackles for a loss.

Although Williams, who dealt with injuries that caused him to miss games for the first time in his career last season, posted career-low numbers--in 12 games, he had 45 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and 12 quarterback hits--the shine isn't off the Williams-Lawrence duo.

“We're top tier," Lawrence said with a smile. "We've been playing together four, going on five years now. Sometimes we look at each other, know what's about to happen, and know what we want to do in that play. So, I think, you know, we both stayed healthy and grew through this time off and come back in the best shape of our lives and do something special.”

Defensive line coach Andre Patterson beamed with pride when speaking about Lawrence.

"I'm proud of him. You know, he came in and worked hard to try to master the technique and fundamentals that we were teaching him and continue to grow more and more through the course of the season," he said. 

And yet, Lawrence, who begins the first year of a new four-year, $90 million contract, making him one of the top-five highest-paid interior defensive linemen in the league, still has room to get better, according to both Patterson and Lawerence himself.

"It's just the beginning, so it's not the end. And I know he understands that. And he's out here working hard to continue to improve and get better." 

Like where?

"He's got a lot of room to get better," Patterson said with a smile, declining to get specific. "That's the beauty of this game. You know have to continue to have your game to grow to be a really good player for a long length of time. 

"If your game stays the same, the offensive coaches and the offensive lining figure it out. So you always gotta add to your game each year to continue to play at a high level," he added.

 One of the biggest advantages Lawrence has going into this season is another year in the same system. Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale is well-loved by his players, including Lawrence. Martindale is one of the people who helped get Lawrence to where he is right now.

“I'm excited to have the second year with Wink--that's my guy. It's good to continue not to change it up again but to grow everyone and is more comfortable out here in OTAs. Last year, it was like --, but now everybody knows what to call when to call it, and it looks fluent.”

Lawrence is also happy with how Patterson has approached teaching this year. The 63-year-old veteran coach picks out a specific player's film to use as a teaching tool, an approach Lawrence has found useful.

“I like it personally, just to see myself, see my body do something good, and then see this is why I did it bad," Lawrence said, chuckling when asked what he thought of his own film. 

"Stay humble in a sense, you know, you can have all this rah-rah highlight stuff like that, but at the end of the day, you still have plays you need to fix. I respect that. He does that for the whole group. He shows us our good, and he shows us why it was good, and he shows us our bad and why it was bad.”

 He also enjoys getting the chance to watch Williams.

"Yeah, today we watched Leo, and seeing how he did certain things to win, how he wanted and why he wanted, it was good to see," Lawrence said. "He took it outside today and worked on it in practice, so things like that help us develop and grow as a group."

 

 

 

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