The NFL world felt a tremor on Saturday night when the risk-averse Cincinnati Bengals opted to trade for the New York Giants' behemoth defensive tackle, Dexter Lawrence. There had been rumors percolating that the Browns were actually in on the sweepstakes, but the Bengals blew away the competition with an offer no other team was willing to match.
By parting with their first-round pick, No. 10 overall, the Bengals sent an unmistakable message. They are in peak "win-now" mode. Lawrence is an exemplary player, to be sure. Had the Browns been able to acquire him, joining forces with Myles Garrett and Mason Graham would provide endless nightmare fuel for offensive coordinators league-wide.
Perhaps the Browns missing out however is for the best. EssentiallySports' draft guru Tony Pauline delivered a scorching jab Lawrence's way, providing Browns fans with some relief — and a simultaneous cold sweat down Bengals fans' backs.
"There’s also the concern that, while Lawrence has shown himself to be a great player at times, he’s not a very hard worker from Monday through Saturday, [which is] part of the reason he wanted to be traded away from John Harbaugh."
This Dexter Lawrence concern explains why Browns may have dodged a mistake
Todd Monken came to Cleveland like a swashbuckling outlaw. His frequent profane slips and no-nonsense attitude became trademarks of his interviews, a development welcomed by the Dawg Pound after years of Kevin Stefanski's milquetoast demeanor. Don't confuse his blunt nature for a lack of discipline, though.
When he met with ESPN's Kevin Clark for the This Is Football podcast, Monken described what he wants the 2026 Cleveland Browns to look like, in his usual colorful terms:
"Your physicality, your effort, and your execution pop off the tape ... That's just a core principle ... As much as I love winning and I hate losing, I despise [crappy] football. [I] absolutely despise [when] it doesn' look like you want it to look like."
With Pauline's description of Lawrence freshly in mind, does he necessarily sound like a fit for this new regime? I'm leaning no. The Browns have had enough players with questionable work ethics, and the results speak for themselves. If the team's latest regime change is to bear any prolonged success, something has got to give.
It's also worth noting for Browns fans that the dilemma of trading a premium draft pick, such as pick No. 24, for Lawrence wouldn't have been as simple as comparing him to the player selected at that position in a vacuum. The true comparison would be the 29-year-old Lawrence at $28 million per year versus a 21-year-old Caleb Lomu (as an example) who would receive a four-year slotted contract in the range of $17–18 million total.
All things equal, it's probably for the best that the Browns struck out on this one. Fans will have to settle for a Madden simulation to see the kind of havoc a defensive line featuring the Browns' impressive incumbents plus Dexter Lawrence could wreak. If nothing else, it can help pass the time until draft day on April 23.
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