The New York Giants will be without arguably their best player for the rest of the season as defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence has landed on season-ending injured reserve Monday. The team announced the move.
Lawrence, 27, sustained an elbow injury during the team’s Week 13 loss to the Cowboys in Dallas on Thanksgiving day. The two-time Pro Bowler entered Week 13 leading all defensive tackles with nine sacks. It’s a single-season career high in only 12 games with his previous best coming in 2022 with 7 1/2 sacks in 16 games.
The 2019 first-round pick has lived up to the lucrative contract he garnered this offseason. He inked a four-year extension worth $90 million with $46.5 million fully guaranteed.
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Giants’ tough season takes another hit
In a season of how bad can it get, the Giants unfortunately keep having misery stacked upon more misery. While the Giants had been relatively healthy considering how bad things got in 2023, the team lost its stalwart left tackle Andrew Thomas for the year in mid October. Over a month later, they added Lawrence to that list. Both are critical to their respective lines.
“The reality of it is we’re going to miss him,” outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux said Monday. “But this is going to be a great test and a great evaluation on everybody around him, the back end, the front end. We kind of joked about it as, ‘Dex can’t be the crutch. Dex can’t be our excuse on why we’re playing well or why we’re not playing well.’ We all kind of got to each step up to the plate knowing that one of our top guys isn’t there anymore. And as far as leadership goes, it’s up to us in the front end and the back end to continue to step up, where he’s now missing.”
Another detail to note in the transaction: the Giants are down to just two active captains. They started the season with five: QB Daniel Jones, Thomas, Lawrence, inside linebacker Bobby Okereke and long snapper Casey Kreiter. Now with the injuries and Jones’ departure, only Okereke and Kreiter remain. Lawrence had stepped into a leadership role this season so his absence will be critical to monitor for a locker room that showed quite the fire just a week ago after an embarrassing Week 12 loss. — Charlotte Carroll, Giants beat writer
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(Photo: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)
