The national spotlight continues to shine on Dexter “Sexy Dexy” Lawrence. On Friday, the New York Giants’ dominant defensive tackle landed at No. 6 overall on SB Nation’s list of the top 100 NFL players, the highest ranking of any interior lineman.
For a position that rarely gets the kind of recognition quarterbacks, receivers, or edge rushers do, Lawrence’s placement shows just how unique his game has become. The 6-foot-4, 340-pound lineman isn’t just a run-stopper. He’s a one-man wrecking crew who generates edge-rusher level production while often being double-teamed in the middle of the line.
Here is what SB Nation’s Doug Farrar wrote about Lawrence:
It is usually an exaggeration to call an NFL player truly unique, but in the case of Dexter Lawrence, we’re not gilding the lily when we do so. In 2023, his last fully healthy season, Lawrence lined up 63% of the time as a true zero-tech nose tackle right over the center, or as a one-tech shade tackle to the center’s shoulder. And when he did that, Lawrence had five sacks and 45 total pressures.
In 2023, the second most prolific pass-rusher from nose tackle alignments was Jarran Reed of the Seattle Seahawks, who tallied three sacks and 21 total pressures. Certainly in recent NFL history, there’s nobody else who can put up halfway decent edge-rusher stats as the most interior of interior defensive linemen, especially when he’s double-teamed most of the time, because if you don’t double-team Sexy Dexy, your offense is going to die.
Lawrence got off to a similarly hot start in 2024, with 10 sacks and 36 total pressures in the season’s first 12 weeks, before a dislocated elbow ended his season. The Giants put the 6’4, 340-ish pound Lawrence out at three-tech tackle more of the time, and Lawrence responded as he’s responded to everything else in his NFL career — with total destruction on an epic scale.
The 2025 Giants are obviously loaded for bear along their defensive line with Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and rookie Abdul Carter on the edge. But anybody in the know will tell you that Dexter Lawrence calls the shots, and it all flows through him — because he is the best and most unique interior defensive lineman in the game today, with a pace to add “ever” to that description over time.
The ranking recognizes Lawrence among the true elites in football—listed ahead of superstars like Micah Parsons (No. 7) and just outside the league’s top five players overall. Only two non-quarterbacks were ranked higher on Farrar’s top 100 players list than the Giants’ star defensive tackle. Cleveland Browns edge defender Myles Garrett was No. 2, and Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley No. 3.
For Giants fans, it’s no surprise. They’ve seen Lawrence disrupt games in ways few defensive tackles ever have. Nationally, though, this recognition underscores what New York already knows: Lawrence isn’t just one of the best defensive linemen in the league—he’s one of the best players in football.
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