Bengals' Dexter Lawrence making double teams look helpless, career season inevitable

When the Cincinnati Bengals acquired Dexter Lawrence in a trade that sent the 10th overall pick of the 2026 NFL draft to the New York Giants, we immediately knew what that would be for Al Golden's defense.

We also knew Lawrence would draw the most attention from opposing offenses, since he was already one of the most double-teamed defensive linemen before coming to the Queen City.

Through four games with the Bengals, Lawrence is once again one of the most double-teamed players, but it hasn't slowed his impact at all, as he is on pace for the best season of his career.

Teams are doubling Dexter Lawrence for a reason

Lawrence’s time as one of the most double-teamed defensive linemen continues in earnest now that he is with the Bengals. And teams will be wise to keep double-teaming the disruptive defensive tackle.

On the rare occasion that opposing offenses decide to block him with one player, he is going to come out on top substantially more often than not. If it doesn't, we can guarantee it's because the center or guard held on a play. We can almost guarantee that, despite the flagrant infraction, the referees won't see it, even though it plays out right in front of them.

Nevertheless, only Keeanu Benton, Travis Jones, and Byron Murphy II have a negligibly higher grade when facing one-on-one matchups than Lawrence.

Opposing offensive coordinators seemingly don't have any other choice but to double-team Dexter Lawrence if they want a chance of slowing down his disruptiveness. 

Yet, there is no guarantee that multiple blockers on Lawrence are going to slow him to the degree that offensive coordinators hope for this year.

Despite facing the third-highest double-team rate in the league, Lawrence is still able to dominate in those situations as one of the best-graded players when facing extra attention.

Lawrence putting up career-year numbers

Lawrence has the third-highest pressure rate among defensive tackles. Bengals defensive tackle Jonathan Allen has the sixth-highest pressure rate at 13%.

Through four games, Lawrence has three sacks, which is 2.5 more than he had all of last year with the Giants.

Cincinnati's new defensive tackle is on pace to have 12 sacks, which would be a career high and reach double digits for the first time as a pro. His nine sacks in 2024 are currently his season high.

Furthermore, Lawrence already has five tackles for loss this season. His season high in that category is eight, also from 2024. He appears poised to surpass that number by a large margin.

Bengals defense could get even scarier after bye

Now with the bye week upon us, the defensive coaching staff must come up with a plan to take even more advantage of Lawrence's dominance than they have thus far this season. Al Golden’s staff must find the right mix of scheme, personnel, and timing to maximize the impact of such a dominant interior force. 

Furthermore, the players around Lawrence have room to step up and take advantage of opposing teams’ attention on Cincinnati’s most impactful offseason addition.

But for now, Lawrence has been everything that the Bengals could have hoped for and then some. Hopefully, after the bye, everyone involved will find a way to ride his dominance to another level.

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