The Cincinnati Bengals shook up the NFL on Saturday night when they swung a blockbuster trade with the New York Giants for All-Pro defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. The only thing heading the other way to New York was the No. 10 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, which is a massive investment, especially when considering Cincy is going to have to hand Lawrence a new contract.
Many folks were surprised to see the Bengals part ways with the No. 10 pick in exchange for Lawrence, but the front office appears to feel confident in his ability to come in and immediately transform their defense. If you ask NFL analyst Bill Barnwell, though, he thinks Cincinnati was motivated to make this move for one key reason involving superstar quarterback Joe Burrow.
Bengals Want Joe Burrow Happy, Which May Have Led to Dexter Lawrence Trade
Burrow led the Bengals to Super Bowl LVI in the 2021 season, but since then, he has made it to the playoffs just once. A pair of injury-riddled campaigns deterred him in 2023 and 2025, but in 2024, he turned in arguably the best season of his career, which went to waste thanks to Cincy’s horrific defense.
Offensively, the Bengals are one of the best teams in the league when everyone is on the field. The combination of Burrow and wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins is lethal, and Chase Brown has quietly emerged as a key piece of the offense as well at running back. The offensive line has had its struggles, but it generally held its own last season when Burrow was on the field.
The problem has always been the defense, which also just lost its best player, Trey Hendrickson, in free agency. Cincinnati has been aggressive in retooling this unit, though, with the addition of Lawrence being the biggest move of the bunch. With Burrow openly complaining about the Bengals being cheap in the past, Barnwell thinks that the Lawrence trade was partially made in order to keep the team’s star quarterback happy.
“This is a win-now move from a team that has a player who thinks he can win every year,” Barnwell opined in his latest column on ESPN. “If it doesn’t work, I wonder whether there’s anything else the Bengals will be able to do to convince Burrow that he’s in the right place to win on an annual basis. And if Burrow completely loses faith in the organization, well, we’ve seen how that’s gone before in Cincinnati.”
Bengals Take Big Risk with Dexter Lawrence Trade
GettyFormer New York Giants defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence
Lawrence will immediately come in and shore up a new-look Bengals defensive line that no longer has Hendrickson leading its pass rush. The main issue with this deal is what it took Cincinnati to bring Lawrence to town. The No. 10 overall pick is a big investment in a guy who just had a down year that saw him pick up only 0.5 sacks in 17 games of action.
Again, Cincy still has to hand Lawrence a new contract, which is the main reason why he wanted to get traded by New York in the first place. This is a big investment in a player who has shown some worrisome signs of decline in recent seasons, but you can’t argue with the fact that the front office has shown Burrow that they mean business. Time will tell whether or not this move will be enough to help the Bengals find their way back into the playoffs in 2026.
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