The Los Angeles Rams didn’t make an offer for Dexter Lawrence that we know of, but even if they had dangled the 13th overall pick to the New York Giants for him the answer still would have been “No”. Not even the 13th overall pick in 2026 draft for Lawrence.
That says more about the 2026 draft than it does about Lawrence.
The Cincinnati Bengals traded the 10th overall pick to the Giants for Lawrence on Saturday and then immediately gave the star nose tackle a one-year, $28 million extension. It wasn’t the $100 million contract that many were expecting, just a little bit more security for the big fella.
The contract begs to ask the question, “If that’s all he wanted, then why didn’t the Giants just pay him?”
In most years the answer would be that the 10th overall pick is so valuable, but that’s also why those picks never get traded for players: The last non-quarterback to be traded for a top-10 pick was 21 years ago.
Yet more evidence now that most NFL teams consider the first round of the 2026 draft to be historically bad.
Compensation update: Now that he has passed his physical and the trade is official, newly-acquired DT Dexter Lawerence is signing a one-year, $28 million contract extension with the Bengals, per @WinSportsGroup So in the end, Lawrence gets the trade he wanted while being… pic.twitter.com/GHT2HbAGah
Being the NFL’s best nose tackle is sort of like being the best actor on UPN. It’s an accomplishment, but there’s going to be some question of relative value.
Don’t get me wrong, Lawrence is a beast. He’s also turning 29 this year and didn’t get to 1 sack last season. Typically, teams are able to draft better pass rushers than Dexter Lawrence in the top-10 of a given draft class.
This makes it sound like someone like Rueben Bain, most people’s EDGE3 in the class, isn’t that enticing because otherwise it would be sensible for the Bengals to simply wheel and deal their way up a few spots if necessary. Or take EDGE4.
Because there are none in this class worthy of an early pick. We might not see a defensive tackle drafted on day one.
In that sense, trading for Dexter Lawrence makes sense because of the defensive tackle class, but the 10th overall pick? Many teams wouldn’t draft that player top-10 even if he was a 22-year-old rookie with the same skillset.
"I was just STUNNED it's straight up for the tenth overall pick."Josh is trying to connect the dots on the Dexter Lawrence trade 👀 pic.twitter.com/5Ues1KoDEH
— Underdog NFL Draft – Josh & Hayden (@UDFootballShow) April 19, 2026
No, it’s not an unreasonable request for a two-time All-Pro cornerback who is 25. Although McDuffie is not the same as acquiring Jalen Ramsey (for two first round picks), he’s arguably worth a late first round pick.
The biggest impasse there is that the Rams also had to make him the highest-paid cornerback in the league. And he might have a bit of an injury concern.
If the draft had cornerbacks like McDuffie in the late first (himself just the 21st overall pick), would they have rather just drafted one? Perhaps not, given that you don’t know what you’re going to get or how quickly he’ll be ready for the NFL.
But teams were not readily giving away first round picks for players in the last four years. Now for this particular class it’s been handing them out like candy.
The Falcons traded their 2026 first round pick to the Rams all the way back in 2025 when they wanted to move up for James Pearce.
The fact that the Rams finagled a 2026 first round pick for that pick tells us that the Rams were happy to get it and Atlanta was willing to part with it, when in the past a second round pick could have been enough.