Cincinnati Bengals nose tackle Dexter Lawrence was one of the first players on the field every day of training camp. During camp, cornerbacks coach Charles Burks saw Lawrence training before practice with the defensive backs.
“He was working on his press technique,” Burks said. “He really wants to be a DB at heart.”
Working out with the defensive backs allowed Lawrence to work on his hands, which paid off when he intercepted a pass in the joint practice against the Chicago Bears. More importantly, doing all of those press technique drills was a chance for Lawrence to reach out and connect with the Bengals’ secondary.
“From a football aspect, he’s a monster every day,” safety Bryan Cook said. “His character speaks for itself. Knowing what he’s about, it adds fuel to the fire. I know why he’s here. He also knows my story. Because he knows the guys around him, he knows what to say and how to push guys. That’s stuff money can’t buy.”
The 2026 Bengals feel like a completely different team, and the biggest reason why is because they traded the No. 10 overall pick in the draft for Lawrence. With one of the most aggressive moves in franchise history, the Bengals’ defense added a center piece, a tone setter and a star.
Trading for Lawrence represented belief.
“That’s an honor,” Lawrence said. “One of my best friends told me how important it was. I understood, but he put it into perspective for me. They expect me to be that guy. I don’t feel pressure. I enjoy these types of moments to prove myself right. It gives me more edge. It’s fun to have that hanging over your head a little bit.”
Is that a different feeling for the eight-year veteran?
“No, I’ve always tried to create that competitive advantage no matter the situation, but this is one where you know what your purpose for this team is,” Lawrence said.
The New York Giants drafted Lawrence in 2019. In Lawrence’s seven years in the NFL before this season, the Giants averaged 11 losses per year. The “high-point” was a nine-win season in 2022, and that season ended with a 31-point loss in the playoffs.
“I’ve lost a lot of football games,” Lawrence said. “It only helped me get better and prepared me for this moment. I want to do the best I can to take advantage of it.”
This year, Lawrence plays for a Bengals team that has a real shot.
“I think we’re special,” Lawrence said. “We have a lot of experience. We have a lot of stars. A lot of guys that accept their roles. A lot of guys working every day to get better at whatever they can get better at. That’s the most important thing.”
The Bengals traded for Lawrence in April. The day that he reported to his new team happened to be the first day of OTAs. The Bengals introduced all of their new additions in a team meeting that day, and the new guys passed around the mic for a few words. When Lawrence took the mic, he said, “I’m here to do one thing.”
He’s here to win it all.
“It was the feeling I had that day,” Lawrence said. “New people have to know who you are and how your mind goes. You have to let them know that you’re about business, you’re about getting better and helping this team win. Everyone wants to win. That’s the only way a lot of people keep jobs. It’s the only way you keep playing with people you enjoy playing with.”
That was just the start of Lawrence embracing what his addition meant to the 2026 Bengals.
He never left Cincinnati during the spring, reporting for every single day of offseason workouts. Lawrence being named a team captain on Monday was the culmination of four months of leadership and communication that Lawrence has already been doing behind the scenes.
His presence has already impacted the entire defense.
“His intangibles are underreported,” linebackers coach Mike Hodges said. “His intangibles will be a factor in our success this year. His leadership, consistency, work ethic. All of those things, man, to have that from our leader, I’m sure he’ll be a captain, that’s incredibly important. He took that lead, he took that step as soon as he got into the building.”
Bengals veteran linebacker Oren Burks won a Super Bowl with the Eagles in 2024, made two deep playoff runs with the 49ers in 2022 and 2023 and spent four years before that in Green Bay.
Burks puts Lawrence on a short list of best leaders he has ever been around.
“He changes everything,” Burks said. “He’s one of those guys who can wreck a game. If you try to single him, good luck. He’s really picking up the young guys. As a leader, he has elevated anyone. Very similar to Aaron Rodgers. Team-first. That’s very much Dex’s approach. He has shown day-in, day-out that he’s that type of leader.”
Lawrence backed it up on the practice field where he had the most dominant performance that a defensive player has in Zac Taylor’s tenure as the head coach (supplanting Chidobe Awuzie’s training camps in 2021 and 2022). His presence impacted every snap.
One day, the Bengals’ offensive line would double team him often and then see the defensive ends create havoc. Another day, Ted Karras would have to block Lawrence one-on-one more often. Karras had an admirable camp, but Lawrence definitively won that matchup.
Lawrence played like the type of player who you trade the No. 10 pick in the draft for.
“You just have to give so much attention to him,” Taylor said. “He just affects about every play, and it gives other people a great opportunity for one-on-ones that they’ve got to take advantage of, and they have.”
On Sunday, Lawrence will put that level of stress on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“It puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback and the offense in general,” Taylor said. “It’s something the coordinator has got to focus on the whole game. Where is he? Is he in? Is he out? Who else is in the game? It gives us a lot of opportunity to have success on defense.”
When the strengths of most nose tackles are broken down, the most important piece of the puzzle is typically what they can do laterally. Teams want nose tackles who can fill multiple gaps, who have the range to follow the running back across the formation for tackles and who can simply take up a lot of space.
Lawrence does all of that very, very well.
He’s also a three-dimensional nose tackle. As Al Golden breaks down Lawrence’s game, he emphasizes what Lawrence can do “vertically.”
That ability creates headaches for offenses.
“It’s a problem because the pocket gets pushed,” Taylor said, “And so now you have to change a little bit of your protection plan on play actions and third down.”
In the run game, Lawrence should make the job of linebackers Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr. much more manageable. Last year, when Bengals’ defensive tackles were blown off the line of scrimmage, the gaps were so wide that the running back had the runway to make Carter and Knight miss in space.
This year, with Lawrence’s immovable presence in front of them, the linebackers will finally get to play downhill.
“Schematically, it gives us a ton of help,” Hodges said. “I could make some plays behind that man. I couldn’t make the tackle, but I could get in the right spot.”
For the last several years, the Bengals have barely gotten any pass rush from the defensive tackle position. Lawrence should change that immediately, giving the Bengals their best pass rushing defensive tackle since Geno Atkins.
Lawrence recorded a ridiculous nine sacks in just 12 games in 2024 — last season, all six of the Bengals’ defensive tackles combined to produce 8.5 sacks over the entire season.
Lawrence missed the final month of the 2024 season with an elbow injury. In 2025, while playing on a terrible Giants team, Lawrence only recorded one-half sack in 17 games.
He feels like his game is in a much, much different place entering 2026, and his training camp performance backs that up.
“I call it almost like making music,” Lawrence said. “It’s a flow. I’m a lot healthier than I was last year. I feel good.”
The trade looks like it’s really energized him.
The move has made an even bigger impact on the players around him.
“He has changed the feeling of the room,” cornerbacks coach Charles Burks said. “First, he’s a proven player. An elite player. He’s a damn good leader. He has made us better. It’s about players. Dexter Lawrence, he makes the secondary better.”
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