Giants Now: Dexter Lawrence named to PFF Team of the Week

Dexter Lawrence named to PFF Team of the Week

Over the last two seasons, Dexter Lawrence has developed into one of the NFL’s top interior defenders, evidenced by his back-to-back selections as second-team All-Pro.

In his first game of the 2024 campaign, the 26-year-old picked up right where he left off last year.

Lawrence has been named to the Pro Football Focus Team of the Week for his performance against the Vikings.

Despite playing just 37 of the team’s 55 defensive snaps, the sixth-year lineman led the team with six total pressures, including the defense’s only sack, along with two run stops. It was one of Lawrence’s most efficient games as a pass rusher in his young NFL career. The 6-foot-4, 340-pound lineman was able to get pressure on Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold and hit his arm, which led to rookie linebacker Darius Muasau’s interception.

His average get-off of 0.89 seconds would have tied him for fourth among all defensive tackles with 250+ pass rush snaps last season, according to Next Gen Stats, who also marked Sunday’s outing as Lawrence’s highest single-game pressure rate of his career.

Lawrence was PFF’s fourth-highest ranked defender overall on the week. Joining him on PFF’s Team of the Week along the defensive line was Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward and Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson.

“I’d say the pressure was really good inside with Dexter when he was lined up in there,” coach Brian Daboll told the media Monday.