Bengals trade for Dexter Lawrence: Cincinnati sends No. 10 pick, goes all-in around Joe Burrow

The Cincinnati Bengals have gained quite the reputation around the NFL over the years: the Bengals are cheap, the Bengals don’t make big moves, the Bengals are going to waste away Joe Burrow’s prime. 

Well, I’m not so sure we can say that anymore. With one big move on Saturday night, the team might have just squashed all of that. In what might go down as the most shocking trade in franchise history, the Bengals sent the 10th overall pick in this week’s 2026 NFL Draft to the New York Giants in exchange for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. It is the first time in franchise history that the Bengals have traded a top-10 pick straight-up for a player. 

It is an all-in move by a team that never quite seems to go all-in and it’s a move that makes the Bengals a true Super Bowl contender. And it is fitting the deal went down at night, because it almost seems like the front office decided to wait until cost-conscious owner Mike Brown went to bed before they decided to pull the trigger on the deal. 

This definitely wasn’t a move that a “cheap” team makes. Not only did the Bengals give up the 10th overall pick, but they’re also going to have give Lawrence a hefty contract extension that will likely pay him nearly $30 million per year. Could they have given that money to pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson? Well, no. Hendrickson didn’t want to be in Cincinnati anymore, so they let him leave and they used the money they would have spent on him to beef up their defense with key additions like Bryan Cook and Boye Mafe. 

The Bengals don’t make big trades often, but if you throw in the Joe Flacco deal, the front office has now made two surprising moves in less than six months. It’s almost like the Bengals’ front office suddenly figured out that there are other ways to build a team and they’re now taking full advantage of that. 

Lawrence trade should pacify Burrow

Of course, the most important aspect of this trade is that it’s going to keep Burrow happy. After watching the Bengals miss the playoffs for the third straight season in 2025, the star quarterback closed the season with a clear message to the organization. 

“We want to be competing for championships every year,” Burrow said on Jan. 2. “We don’t want to be in the spot that we’re in now, so something’s got to change.”

That quote came roughly one month after Burrow had possibly the saddest birthday press conference of any quarterback in NFL history, and now, something has changed. Burrow wants to play for a winner, and for once, the Bengals seem to be doing everything they can to make that happen. 

If you watched the Bengals defense play at all last season (or the past two seasons), then you know how badly they needed to upgrade their roster on that side of the ball. Between free agency and this trade, it’s been mission accomplished so far. Not only have they added Cook and Mafe, but they also signed Jonathan Allen, who will be joining Lawrence on the defensive line. The Bengals also have B.J. Hill on their defensive line, who will be a familiar face for Lawrence because the two spent one season together in New York (2019).

Cincy’s 2025 defensive additions

The Bengals will still need to add a linebacker, a corner and possibly another pass-rusher in the draft, but Lawrence fills one of their most gaping holes. He can stuff the run, which is something the Bengals desperately need to improve at after a 2025 season where they gave up the most rushing yards in the NFL at 147.1 per game. 

Lawrence has been ranked as one of the top two interior defensive linemen in the NFL in three of the past four years. If you look at the numbers below, you can see just how much better the Giants were on defense with Lawrence on the field versus without him. 

If he can make just half that impact on the Bengals defense, that will set the stage for Burrow and the offense to carry the team to potentially double-digit wins this year. 

It might seem like an overpay, but the Bengals should feel good about what they gave up. Cincinnati simply was not going to find someone as talented as Lawrence at 10th overall in a below average draft that’s perceived to be weak on the defensive line. 

Cincy’s terrible draft track record makes this a good gamble

If the Bengals had kept the 10th pick, they likely would have used it on a defensive player, but based on their recent track record, it’s probably for the best that they got rid of the pick — especially in what is considered a weak draft. The Bengals have gone 15 years without drafting a homegrown Pro Bowler on defense (2010 Geno Atkins/Carlos Dunlap), which is the longest active drought in the NFL. Instead of taking a lottery ticket with their 10th pick, they decided to go with the sure payout by adding a proven veteran who just happens to be one of the best players at his position in the NFL. 

The Bengals have only had two Pro Bowl interior defensive linemen in franchise history (Geno Atkins and Tim Krumrie), and both were game-changers. Cincinnati went to a Super Bowl with Krumrie in 1988, and as for Atkins, they made the playoffs in five of his first six seasons with the team. A dominant interior linemen can change everything for the defense and assuming the 28-year-old Lawrence is healthy, he should be able to do that for the Bengals. CBS Sports gave Cincinnati a ‘B’ grade for the trade because of the high price Lawrence will command and that he is coming off the worst statistical season of his career. 

The Bengals decided to steal the Rams’ philosophy of “F them picks,” a philosophy that has worked out pretty well for Los Angeles. Five years ago, those two teams met at Super Bowl LVI in SoFi stadium, and it would be fitting if the Bengals got back using a strategy made famous by Les Snead and the Rams. 

Cincinnati has made at least one first-round pick in 36 straight drafts (1990-2025), which is the second-longest active streak in the NFL (behind only the Steelers at 52 straight drafts). This is a team that has historically hated the idea of parting ways with a first-round pick, but when you’re trying to “win now,” sometimes you have to do things differently and that’s what the Bengals are doing now. These tigers did change their stripes. The old adage was wrong.