Dexter Lawrence II

3 sacks and 3 tfl in 3 games, a sack last week. the biggest guy on the field and still gets to the quarterback

2 sacks vs the steelers. 2 games and already 3 tfl, he's a freak for a guy his size. bengals defense needs him all the time.

Lawrence is the biggest swing on the defense. At his best, he is a 350-pound nightmare who can collapse the pocket like a much smaller player. He had nine sacks in 12 games in 2024. Then last season he played all 17 and finished with half a sack, which is too big a drop to ignore. I have him at an eight because the three Pro Bowls and dominant tape are recent enough to trust, but this is not an automatic 10 after 2025. If the elbow is fully behind him and Jonathan Allen keeps offenses from loading every protection his way, Cincinnati may have stolen an elite interior defender.

Strengths: Lawrence combines massive size, excellent balance and shocking lateral movement. He can two-gap against the run, split double teams and convert leverage into immediate pocket collapse when his body and get-off are right.

Weaknesses: His production crashed from nine sacks to half a sack, and the prior elbow injury makes that decline worth monitoring. Heavy snap loads can dull his first step, while his value drops if he is merely occupying blockers instead of beating them.