NFL personnel director thinks Giants' Dexter Lawrence II should've won major award despite injury

The 2024 New York Giants fell to 2-10 on the season the same day that star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II went down with what became a season-ending elbow injury. 

While Lawrence made just 12 starts for what became a 3-14 club, league executives, coaches and scouts surveyed by ESPN's Jeremy Fowler for a piece published on Tuesday ranked Lawrence as the best defensive tackle in the NFL this summer. 

"I thought he should have been [Defensive Player of the Year] with the season he had," one unnamed NFL personnel director said about Lawrence while speaking with Fowler. "He's a true zero-technique nose who can occupy doubles and neutralize the run game. I think he took his pass rush to a different level, and I think he would have had double-digit sacks if [Brian Burns] and [Kayvon Thibodeaux] stayed healthy. A true three-down game wrecker who needs attention every single snap."

Burns made 17 starts during his first season with the Giants but dealt with groin, ankle and Achilles issues throughout the campaign. Thibodeaux started 12 contests and missed time this past fall after he needed surgery to repair a wrist injury.

As for Lawrence, he recorded nine sacks across his 12 games during what may have been the most impressive run, to date, of his career. Three of those quarterback takedowns occurred in New York's Week 5 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

Lawrence earned Pro Bowl nods for each of the past three seasons but was not a finalist for the 2024 Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award won by Denver Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II. The Giants signed Lawrence, a 2019 first-round draft choice, to a four-year, $90M extension in the spring of 2023. 

"Lawrence racked up quarterback takedowns while facing a 74.5% double-team rate, higher than any other interior lineman," Fowler added in Tuesday's article. 

The Giants made edge-rusher Abdul Carter the third overall choice of this year's draft with the hope that having him, Burns, Thibodeaux and Lawrence on the field all at once will make things difficult for opposing quarterbacks this fall. If all four men stay healthy through early January, Lawrence could enjoy his best overall season and potentially help the Giants become one of the campaign's positive surprises.