When I was putting together my trade tiers column over the summer and listing all the players who might land a first-round pick or more via a deal, Dexter Lawrence II was the very last cut. The Giants defensive tackle was a preeminent force on the interior and coming off a nine-sack season, but there were plenty of coverage sacks or secondary pressures factored into those sack totals, and Lawrence was already deep into his second contract, a point at which teams around the league had grown reluctant to trade first-round picks for even standout players.
Well, the game has changed. We've seen organizations around the NFL establish and pay a new premium for veteran defensive linemen. Even leaving Micah Parsons' deal with the Packers aside, the Cowboys sent first- and second-round picks to the Jets for Quinnen Williams. The Ravens agreed to send two first-round picks to the Raiders for Maxx Crosby before walking that deal back for injury reasons.
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And on Saturday night, the Bengals stunningly became the latest team to go over the top for a veteran lineman, sending the 10th pick to the Giants to add Lawrence to their defensive line. The 28-year-old Lawrence had reportedly sought a new deal with New York, but once the two sides weren't able to find common ground, the Giants pivoted to the trade market.
What they received, frankly, is shocking. There's a reason that the reports on social media from NFL insiders had to include "straight up" to confirm that there wasn't a second-round pick or something substantial heading back to Cincinnati as part of this deal. This is a massive return, one that would have seemed completely stunning to me a year ago, even given that Lawrence was coming off a better season. If we look at the big takeaways from this trade, I have to start there.
Jump to a takeaway: The trade paradigm has shifted The league doesn't like this draft The Bengals see Lawrence as a game-changer The Bengals want Burrow to be happy
1. The NFL's trade paradigm has officially shifted.
Lawrence is now the fourth prominent defensive lineman to be included in a trade for a first-round pick over the past nine months after Parsons, Williams and Crosby (whose deal admittedly didn't come to fruition but still gives us a sense of how he was valued). The Parsons trade doesn't really belong with the other three, given that he was a younger player who hadn't even signed his second contract, let alone played through part of that deal.