New York Giants IDL Dexter Lawrence II Earns Midseason Award Recognition

The Giants' best defensive player was chosen as one of the top guys at his position midway through the 2024 regular season.

Oct 28, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; New York Giants guard Jon Runyan (76), defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II (97), and wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette (87) take the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The New York Giants might not have the privilege of boasting some of their recent draft selections since the start of the 2019 season, but none should make them more proud and blessed to have than All-Pro defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, who is chasing defensive greatness.

Lawrence, the team’s 17th overall selection from that year, is building one of the best pass-rushing campaigns by a Giants interior defender in recent memory. After eight games, he has been running away from the bulk of his position’s competition with 28 tackles, ten sacks, and 32 total pressures in 240 pass-rushing snaps, good for the third-best stat line among the NFL’s elite defensive tackles.

The 340-pound gap stuffer is still a long way off from capturing the glory of the Giants' single-season sacks record of 22.5 held by legend and Super Bowl champion Michael Strahan, but is outpacing the work from his previous five seasons in blue that’s seen over 4,000 snaps and two straight 90.0 plus defensive grades on PFF. 

In those seasons, Lawrence had been active for 2,383 pass-rushing snaps and tallied over 232 pressures, including at least three sacks and six quarterback hits. He also has 30+ stops in four seasons and achieved a pass rush win percentage of at least 11.7 percent that jumped as high as 20.7 during the 2023 season to make him the game’s best nose tackle.

Whenever he steps onto the field, Lawrence is simply dominating at a rate that has both earned the rest of the league’s respect and elevated the Giants defense to the highest sacks accumulated of 35, the most by any team entering Week 9 of the NFL season since the 2017 Jacksonville Jaguars.

At the midway point of the 2024 campaign, that is all getting paired with his latest recognition for outstanding play—being nominated to PPF’s annual NFL midseason All-Pro team for the top performers at each position group as one of two defensive tackles with Pittsburgh Steelers veteran Cameron Hayward. 

While making the distinguished group with Heyward, Lawrence’s current stint finds him ranked sixth among interior defensive linemen with an 84.9 grade on 241 passing snaps. The selectors had their share of names to pick from, but the main reason they called him for the honor roll boils down to how much his incredible impact is making the Giants' defense a competitive and durable unit.

On the individual level, the 26-year-old is getting after the quarterback and causing instant stress on the opposing front with the most consistency. His 32 pressures and 19 total stops paces any player on New York’s defensive line and has resulted in the highest pressure win rate of 13.6 percent for the same group. 

In four games this season, Lawrence has pressured the backfield at least five times and made 17 pressures and 12 combined hurries in the Giants’ last three contests. His sheet size and brute strength make it nearly impossible for the offensive linemen not to get dragged back like a rag doll, which helps close up the running lanes and forces the quarterback to avert the bull rusher, often into the arms of his fellow henchmen up front.

Dexter Lawrence has been double-teamed on 63.3% of his pass rushes this season, the highest rate faced by any player since at least 2018 (min. 100 pass rushes).

Lawrence currently leads the NFL in sacks (9).@Giants | #Giants100 pic.twitter.com/eimnjegPZc

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) October 21, 2024

Led by Lawrence’s efforts, the Giants' defense is set to chase the record books as the fifth franchise in 20 years to record 4+ plus sacks in five straight games. They are also taking down the opposing gunslinger at a 13.3 percent chunk of their weekly plays, which has taken the podium as the best percentage for any defense (798 total) dating back to the 2000 season. 

What makes it all the more impressive is that teams have been trying to subvert his presence with the use of double teams on the Giants pass rush attempts this fall. , Lawrence came into Week 8 holding the most double teams on a minimum of 100 pass rush snaps at 12 for a whopping 63.3% of his overall reps.

That concern has made Lawrence deal with the highest double-team percentage for any defensive player since the 2018 season and leads the second-highest victim of the party, Green Bay’s Karl Brooks, by nearly 10 percent in the race. 

Still, he has overcome the extra attention and repeatedly deemed the reinforcements irrelevant, including notching at least two recorded pressures on double teams in Pittsburgh's 26-18 loss last Monday night.

The unfortunate part of Lawrence’s season is that his production hasn’t been attached to very many wins. The Giants offense has struggled at home and lost five contests with less than 15 points to their side. 

Without it, they wouldn’t have been able to stay afloat with some of the better teams in the league and possess game-winning opportunities like the ones seen in their recent matchups with the Bengals and Steelers. 

As New York moves forward with the final nine games of the regular season, their defense will look to keep feasting off the prowess of Lawrence and the pass rush as the emphasis of their game plan. 

They stand seventh in pass rush win rate and have limited teams to the same ranking in both total points and yards, respectively, a product of challenging the pass and shutting down the run response with the immense presence of their big bodied stuffer in the middle.  

By the time the year ends, if it continues, Lawrence could find himself joining the best players on the full version of the NFL’s All-Pro squad and cementing a legacy as a forever Giant. One that could eventually beat out Strahan and become the next Big Blue great to don the golden jacket.

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