The Cincinnati Bengals shocked the NFL world Saturday night when they landed All-Pro defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence in a trade with the New York Giants. It features the 10th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft going to the G-Men for Lawrence straight up, making this far and away the biggest trade the Bengals have ever made in acquiring a player.
This move will have massive ramifications throughout the roster and franchise as a whole. It not only makes the Bengals a stronger title contender, but it also
shows Mike Brown and crew mean business when it comes to building a team that can win championships.
Now, let’s take a look at the biggest winners and losers from this monstrous trade.
Winners
Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight
Last year was nothing short of a disaster for rookie linebackers Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight, who were thrown into the fire far sooner than they were prepared for, and their shortcomings were a key reason why the defense struggled so much.
But to be fair, the defensive line rarely did them any favors, and the defensive tackles were especially bad. Good defensive tackles make life soooooo much easier on the linebackers, especially when it’s a guy the caliber of Lawrence, a two-time Second-Team All-Pro selection.
With Carter and Knight both set to keep their starting jobs this year, getting them more help up front was imperative to do this offseason. Between Lawrence and the free agency addition of Jonathan Allen, life just got a whole lot easier for the young backers.
B.J. Hill
It was ironically B.J. Hill who was giving Bengals fans little bread crumbs that a big move was coming, and boy was he right on the mark. And it’s a move that will greatly benefit Hill, who primarily plays as a 3-technique, whereas Lawrence lines up often at nose tackle. Hill got far too little help from the other defensive tackles last season, but now he has as good a running mate as he’s had in his entire career.
We saw how good Hill was running next to D.J. Reader, and there’s no question Lawrence is a step up from what Reader was. As much as the rookie linebackers will benefit from this move, Hill also stands to have a big jump in production this year with less attention on him.
Zac Taylor
With Zac Taylor firmly on the hot seat, the Bengals weren’t exactly having the kind of offseason that inspired a lot of confidence in the Bengals doing enough to save Taylor’s job next year. But with this trade of Lawrence, it’s hard to see the Bengals not winning enough games to keep Taylor in town for 2027 and potentially beyond.
Plus, it’s not like the Bengals have been particularly good at drafting under Taylor. Sure, they got Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase with top-five selections, but there’s no one close to that caliber of player falling to No. 10 this year.
We’re not gonna see the Bengals draft a guy like Myles Murphy or Dax Hill who need several years of development. They just got an instant-impact starter who has a real chance of making a bigger impact in 2026 than any rookie in this class does.
Al Golden
While Taylor’s seat was hot entering next season, Golden’s was scorching after last season’s debacle. Many wondered if he’d even make it this far, but the Bengals opted to keep Golden, and now he has someone better than anyone the defensive coordinator worked with last season.
Between the additions of Lawrence, Allen, Boye Mafe, and Bryan Cook, Golden’s defense suddenly has some real potential heading into next season.
Joe Burrow
Joe Burrow had been adamant about wanting to see the Bengals be aggressive this offseason and get this roster back to one that not only makes the playoffs for the first time in four years, but also gets back to contending for Super Bowls.
I’m not sure even Burrow envisioned this aggressive of an offseason from a notoriously conservative organization. Bryan Cook, Boye Mafe, Jonathan Allen, and now Dexter Lawrence?
Burrow is grinning ear to ear as we speak.
Mike Brown, Duke Tobin, and the front office
This was exactly the kind of move owner Mike Brown, de facto GM Duke Tobin, and the rest of the front office needed to make after it felt like the same things that happened to the Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton eras was unfolding with the Joe Burrow era: The Bengals building a good core for a title contender but never aggressively looking to make that big move that got them over the hump and just ‘hoping’ it would all work out.
Thankfully, Brown, Tobin, and the rest of the gang made a game-changing move that pushes this roster from one that looks like an early-exit playoff team to one capable of claiming the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy.
Bengals Fans
Even if the Bengals nailed the 10th pick, we wouldn’t have been celebrating like this. This was amazing for soooooo many reasons, and it’s one that gives us Bengals fans the best chance of watching a special season unfold full of wonderful memories and thrilling performances like we saw in 2021.
Hope is a beautiful thing, and it’s something all of us have waaaaay more now than we did at just about any point last season.
And now we can actually brag about our franchise being progressive and proactive! Who would have even guessed that??
Losers
T. J. Slaton
The Bengals signed the 330-pound T.J. Slaton last offseason to be their jumbo-sized d-tackle, but the Bengals just got a big upgrade with the 340-pound Lawrence, who can play the run and the pass well, whereas Slaton is mostly limited as a big-bodied run defender, and he wasn’t particularly great there. Slaton stands to lose enough playing time from this move that it’s fair to wonder if he won’t be a cap casualty at some point.
People Excited About Pick No. 10
Unfortunately, losing the 10th pick means there will be no Sonny Styles, Caleb Downs, Rueben Bain, or Mansoor Delane coming to the Queen City. However, there was a very real chance all of those names would have been off the board by the time the Bengals went on the clock, leaving them to potentially draft someone like Jermod McCoy coming off an ACL tear or Keldric Faulk coming off a Shemar Stewart-esque season of little production on the edge despite freakish measurables.
This was a good thing, even though it’s going to be a tough pill to swallow for some who were rooting for one of those blue-chip guys to land in Cincy.
So, who would you say your biggest winner and loser was from the Dexter Lawrence trade? Sound off in the comments section!
