Dexter Lawrence: 'Guys, I'm here for one thing. Win a Super Bowl'

Dexter Lawrence had a clear message for his new Cincinnati Bengals teammates when he walked in for his first workout at Paycor Stadium last spring.

After being introduced to the guys by a coach, the Pro Bowl defensive tackle said: "Guys, I'm here for one thing. That's to win a Super Bowl."

That's exactly why the Bengals drastically changed their organizational philosophy and traded a top-10 draft pick for the first time in franchise history to bring this 6-foot-5, 350-pound game-wrecking and culture-changing player to town. And why his teammates selected him as one of the captains for this season.

Lawrence is viewed as a critical figure in helping to fulfill late, football-pioneering Bengals founder Paul Brown's dream of bringing a Lombardi Trophy

to Cincinnati. Regarded as the most significant non-draft acquisition in Bengals history, Lawrence is the centerpiece of an overhauled defense previously plagued by poor leadership, woeful tackling and a lack of talent. All of those issues helped to cost the Bengals a playoff spot the last three seasons.

So, why did the Bengals move mountains to get this mountain of a man in a trade with the New York Giants? We asked coaches, teammates and others throughout Lawrence's football journey from high school to college to the NFL what made him a must-have player for the Bengals.

Here's what Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones and many others told The Enquirer about the man they call "Dex."

Wake Forest High School: Dexter Lawrence goes 'all in' on football, dominates from first play as freshman

Reggie Lucas has been head coach at North Carolina's Wake Forest High School since 2009. Lawrence graduated from there in 2016. Lucas and Lawrence still talk on the phone and text regularly.

Lucas: "Every year we go to middle school and meet with the incoming freshmen. The middle school coach pointed out Dexter. He said, 'He's a special kid.' Dexter was sitting in the back corner and looked uninterested. We knew he had a passion for basketball. He played on elite AAU basketball teams. It came easy for him and he was good at it. First day of summer workouts comes, no Dexter. Day 2, no Dexter. Day 3, no Dexter. We start at 6:30 in the morning. I called his mom. Dexter showed up the next morning, and he was dominant from Day 1."

Lawrence holds the Wake Forest school record for most games played. He started every game all four seasons.

Lucas: "The very first snap of his first game as a freshman, he's the starting nose guard. Quarterback drops back to pass. Dexter pushed the center back and tackled both him and the quarterback. I remember thinking, 'Hell yeah! We got us a star.' It set the tone for us and for Dexter as a player. Football became his love."

Lucas credits Blake Brooks, Wake's defensive line coach at the time, for helping Lawrence to become a fierce competitor. Brooks was old-school tough and wouldn't let players cut corners.

Lucas: "We’re making a run in the playoffs in Dexter's junior year (2014) and play Garner in the fourth round. Their student body was there when we were warming up. They’re harassing our players, saying all kinds of stuff. Right before kickoff, Dexter and Xach Gill came up and stood on both sides of me. Dexter said, ‘Coach, hear that student section right there? You will not hear that by halftime.’ He was so pissed off. He told the team in the locker room before the game, ‘You’re all in or you’re not.’ And then Dexter went out and just dominated that game."

Clemson Tigers: Dexter Lawrence becomes dominant immediately

Lawrence, one of the top recruits in the nation, went on to win two national championships in three seasons for Dabo Swinney's Clemson Tigers. Swinney has always marveled at how nice Lawrence is off the field, how good he is to his teammates and coaches and yet how he flips a switch into a completely different guy on the field.

Swinney: "The first time I ever saw him, he's got a kind spirit to him. He's a gentle giant. He's a great teammate. He’s a very unselfish guy, and he's always been that way. Dexter from Day 1, you just knew there was nobody else like him."

Then on the field ...

Swinney: "We had a really good team (in 2018, Lawrence's last season at Clemson). We had all those d-linemen, three of them went on to be first-rounders. But we kept having all these scuffles in practice, because guys were just so competitive. Dexter and (current Baltimore Ravens offensive guard) John Simpson kept getting locked up the first few days of camp. I thought, 'This is not going to end well. I have to do something. Otherwise, we're not going to get through camp.' It's like Day 4, and you saw Dexter and John lock up again. We still have a lot of practice left. I blew the whistle, and the whole team bear-crawled the rest of practice. ... Dexter loves to win."

Jay Guillermo is a former offensive lineman at Clemson and went up against Lawrence in practice during the 2016 national championship season, Dexter's freshman year. Guillermo is now Navy's offensive line coach. 

Guillermo: "He moved up the depth chart very quickly. I remember he was taking reps with the (starters), and they’ve got him at nose tackle. I had never really run into a wall like I did whenever I had to block Dexter Lawrence. It quickly became evident that he was going to be special."

Guillermo: “I remember very vividly his speed off the ball was something that you don’t usually see from a human that big, much less a freshman. This dude is so incredibly quick and light-footed. Usually those big, strong guys just stand there and you just can’t move them. You get the best of both worlds with Dexter Lawrence. Not only is he a big, strong guy who can hold the point of attack, but if you need to move him around, you can move him around."

Clelin Ferrell, now with the Miami Dolphins, was a teammate of Lawrence's at Clemson from 2016 to 2018. They formed the most dominant defensive line in college football, winning two national championships together. Lawrence arrived at Clemson during Ferrell’s sophomore season.

Ferrell: "The thing that made him different from the first day on campus was his mentality. Not a lot of people know Dexter’s on another level of intelligence in what it really means to be a hunter or to play this mental game with people. He really had the tools to break somebody down, and he used them."

Ferrell saw Lawrence as a go-to guy in the locker room for struggling teammates.

Ferrell: "People don’t understand just how dynamic a person he is. He can be an ear in the locker room for somebody to talk to. He can be someone who will stand up and say something. Dexter is one of those guys who gives so much back to the game. The way he helps his teammates and young guys, the way people just naturally rally around him. He has a light on him that he’s not afraid to shine. He’s a winner. That’s forever someone you can get behind as a leader."

New York Giants: Dexter Lawrence listens, changes positions, goes to 'another level'

Lawrence was selected 17th overall in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, one of three first-round picks by the Giants.

Art Stapleton is a reporter and columnist at The Record and NorthJersey.com in Bergen, New Jersey, and has been on the Giants beat since 2012.

Stapleton: "He never portrayed himself as the star of the room. He was a solid player (coming out of college), but he didn't do anything that made you look and say, ‘Wow!’ I mean, he moved well for his size. Then Andre Patterson came in as a defensive line coach (in 2022). The story is that he sat Dexter down and said, ‘Do you want to be great? I think you need to be at the nose (tackle) and over the center. We are going to use your hands, and we are going to make you a matchup that no one wants to play.’ And to Dexter's credit, he took the advice of a veteran coach."

Patterson spent four seasons with Lawrence as the New York Giants defensive line coach.

Patterson: "I talked to him about getting in a stance where he doesn't have to stagger his feet. When you look at most three-point stances, if I'm in a right-handed stance, my right foot is back deeper than my left foot. That's the stance you learn all the way from little league. I wanted to put him in a stance where his toes are parallel and little weight on his down hand. So, when he's over the center, he can explode with his hands and use all of his strength. He picked up the stance right away. I could tell he would work on it on his own. He was able to move people a lot easier than he was before. It took about three or four games. But once the light came on, there was no stopping him."

Patterson: "One of my favorite Dexter stories is we're playing the Indianapolis Colts. It's towards the end of the 2022 season. And they’ve got an offensive guard that's probably going to be a Hall of Famer (Quenton Nelson). They were making a big deal that he hadn't given up a sack in an NFL game in two or three years. It’s late in the game. I lined up Dexter over him. I was really trying to free other people up. I wasn’t doing it for Dexter to be free. He says, ‘Dre, I got this.’ And Dex hits this guy, walks him into the backfield and sacks him and the quarterback at the same time. It is one of the most impressive plays I've seen. Who he did it against just made it unreal."

On Oct. 9, 2022, the Giants played the Green Bay Packers in London. New York rallied from a 20-13 deficit going into the fourth quarter and won 27-22. After which, during an interview on the Pat McAfee show, then-Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers praised Lawrence specifically.

Stapleton: “I will never forget that game. From that point on, I realized that Dexter had taken his game to another level. That was really the first time that his profile jumped from nice player to, Oh, my God, we’ve got to watch what this guy is doing because he is kind of redefining not only where he is as a player but redefining the position.”

New York Giants: Dexter Lawrence 'hates to lose,' wrestles with media spotlight

The Giants finished 9-7-1 in 2022 and went to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. But they would go 13-38 in Lawrence's final three seasons in New York.

Stapleton: “Dexter is viewed two different ways in who he is as a player and a person. Because of the ‘Sexy Dexy’ dance, and because of that smile – which he knows how to turn on and off very easily – I think there are two versions of Dexter out there. Losing with the Giants certainly wore on him. I think he was put in a position where he had to be something that he wasn't necessarily comfortable being, and that was the person who's out there in front of the microphones. You can lead in the locker room by the way you play and the way you carry yourself. But in New York, especially, he was likely the most demanded player to talk to the media outside of Daniel Jones."

Stapleton: “It wasn't fair to (Lawrence) to have to be the guy who had to stand up and talk for all the losing. He knew his responsibility to talk every week, but it got to a point where the last two years, he really had given less and less of himself publicly to reporters because everyone was just kind of leaning on (him). I would imagine that got tiresome for him. In New York, if you're a captain – you know, the Jeters, the Messiers, now Jalen Brunson – everyone wanted Dexter to be that player. Everyone thought that Dexter would be that leader. In his mind, he felt as long as he was the leader in the locker room and spoke to his teammates when they needed to be spoken to, Dex is kind of fine with not being that guy. He wants to be the best player on the team. He wants to be the most dominant player in the league. But he doesn't need to be the guy who is on the microphone and speaking for his teammates."

Daniel Jones was also a Giants first-round pick in the same 2019 draft with Lawrence. They played together six seasons together before Jones signed with the Indianapolis Colts last year.

Jones: "We met in Nashville (draft) night. We were roommates during rookie minicamp and through OTAs that spring, so we spent a lot of time together right as we got to New York. He was friendly from the start. My grandfather went to Clemson and was a big-time Clemson fan, so when he heard I was rooming with Dexter, he was fired up about that. I just remember him going out of his way to be nice and kind to my family. I'd say we were really good friends from the jump and still stay in touch."

Jones: "He's a fun personality. Jokes around, but he's also extremely competitive and when it comes down to winning and losing, or doing the right thing, practicing the right way, making sure guys are following through on their assignments, he takes that extremely seriously. I always thought he did a good job of holding people accountable. You could tell how much that meant to him. You could tell how much it bothered him when people weren't taking it as seriously as he took it, and I always had a lot of respect for how he handled those situations."

New York Giants: Dexter Lawrence backs teammates, cares for coach battling cancer

In November 2024, Lawrence was public in his support for Jones as quarterback when he lost the starting job to Tommy DeVito.

Jones: “It meant a ton. I'll never forget it. It wasn't going great for us. I wasn't playing well, and things weren't going our way in a lot of areas, and he continued to support me when it wasn't necessarily the popular thing at the time. I really appreciated that and – not that he would ever need it – but I would certainly do the same for him, and he's a great friend, a great teammate, and supportive of all his teammates."

Patterson: “Dexter is a big-time competitor and hates to lose. It burns him when you lose games. But the thing I was impressed with is he never made it personal for guys who continually made mistakes. He would talk to them, ‘Hey, man, you need to do more film studies’ or ‘you need to stay late to master the technique.’ He tried to give them advice how to improve."

Jones: "After games, especially if we lost in a situation where someone made a dumb mistake or someone did something careless, it would drive him crazy. I remember that the more time we spent in New York, he'd get more vocal about the stuff that would bother him. He'll get angry. He's not afraid to get on somebody."

Patterson: “We drafted Kayvon Thibodeaux in the first round (2022), and Kayvon was struggling a little bit. Dex came in one time and said, ‘Hey, Dre, can you go over the things with me that you see that Kayvon could get better at, and then I'll help him?’ So, I did that. And then Dex would go out early or stay late with Kayvon. Kayvon would come over to his house, and Dex would sit and watch film with him and coach him up on the different things that I would have taught him as a pass rusher. And then Kayvon went on a roll at the end of the season."

Patterson was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer during the 2025 season.

Patterson: “Dexter would check on me during practice. ‘Dre, are you OK? Are you drinking, making sure you're getting your fluids?’ He was constantly checking on me. One time we were out there, and it was really hot in training camp. He could look at me and tell I wasn't doing good. And he went over to the trainers and said, ‘You need to go check Dre.’ Then they took me in the locker room, and my blood pressure was dangerously low. Dexter is thoughtful. He's caring. He's humble."

Leonard Williams was traded from the New York Jets to the Giants halfway through Lawrence’s rookie season in 2019. They played five seasons together.

Williams: "The day I got traded, he was the first message I received from someone inside the building. He reached out to me on Instagram and told me to reach out if I ever needed anything. He really welcomed me. Just this offseason, we went on a family vacation. The same personality he shows when he’s out there on the field and in the locker room, he’s the same person in his everyday life. That’s what I love about Dex. He’s not gonna fake who he is around anyone. He’s a fun, dancing and loveable character. I’m pretty sure he’s gonna be one of the most-loved guys in every room he’s in.”

Cincinnati Bengals: Fresh start, instant impact for 'polar bear' Dexter Lawrence

Bengals players and coaches, including center Ted Karras and former Clemson linebacker Barrett Carter, have seen Lawrence make a major impact since his first day of spring workouts at Paycor Stadium.

Karras: “I do have to go wrestle a polar bear every single day. It's very hard, and it's made me a lot better as a player. It's always nice when your leader is the best player. For a 380-pound guy, you'd be shocked how much bounce and energy he has every single day, every single play. Brings it every time, and that's something I respect very much. I've never met anyone so mean on the field and so nice off of it. He's an extraordinary man."

Carter: “I think it was the first day we had workouts here (this spring). It's me, him, B.J. Hill. We're eating breakfast together. We're all laughing. It was a really unserious conversation. It was my first time seeing Dexter in a while. Then, boom! He flipped the switch. We come to a workout, probably an hour later, and Dexter's as serious as can be. Coach introduced him and he said, ‘Guys, I'm here for one thing. That's to win a Super Bowl.’ "

Swinney: "I saw (Dexter) a lot this summer. I came home at 9 p.m. one night. He and (former Clemson defensive lineman) Christian Wilkins were hanging out in my den. Dexter talked about what he's hoping to do in Cincinnati. He's got a chance to win and he knows that. He’s got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder (after his time in New York), and that's probably a good thing for the Bengals. He cares about being the very best. You got a great one. He'll be a great Bengal."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Dexter Lawrence: 'Guys, I'm here for one thing. Win a Super Bowl'