Amp'd up Bengals players react to Dexter Lawrence trade: 'He's one of a kind'

CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati Bengals pulled off the most shocking trade of the offseason over the weekend with the addition of Dexter Lawrence and the electricity was still in the air on Monday when the team opened up its offseason training schedule with their first workout session. 

Several players spoke to the media and the message was unanimous: The time is now for the Bengals. 

Right tackle Amarius Mims offered a quick summary of how everyone in the locker room is feeling after the trade. 

"Everybody's happy about it, everybody I talked to is happy about it," Mims said. 

With Joe Burrow in his prime, the Bengals need to win now and everyone in the building seems to be aware of that. 

"There's a ton of urgency. You know they're very committed to getting it done," left tackle Orlando Brown said of the front office. "They understand the windows of some our top players in their primes. I think the agenda is understood. It's on us now as players to handle business and help put us into great position."

The front office has been busy this offseason, adding several key defensive players, including safety Bryan Cook,  pass-rusher Boye Mafe and defensive tackle Jonathan Allen, but Lawrence is the crown jewel. 

Zac Taylor got bombarded with texts over the weekend from players who wanted to talk about the move. The Bengals coach said there's officially a new energy in the building.  

"I felt it with the amount of players that communicated with me through calls or texts Saturday night, Sunday," Taylor said. "You feel that energy from them. You just feel it around the building. It's indescribable a little bit. You can't really put it into words. 

The offense has provided plenty of fireworks for the Bengals, but now, the defense might be able to carry its own weight -- literally -- with addition of the 340-pound Lawrence. 

How Lawrence will make the defense better

For the past two seasons, the Bengals have had one of the worst defenses in football, but now, they've added a wrecking ball who should completely change the dynamic of what the team should be able to do on defense. B.J. Hill, who was teammates with Lawrence in New York back in 2019, said the Bengals' new star is someone who is going to make life easier for everyone. 

"He's one of a kind," Hill said. "He's truly one of a kind. He's going to make everyone's job easier. If you leave him one-on-one, good luck. If you double him, good luck. You're going to shoot yourself in the foot trying to block him."

During his introductory press conference on Monday, Lawrence echoed Hill's sentiment, saying he wants to make life easier for everyone on defense, especially for Cincinnati's young linebackers Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight, who were both forced to start as rookies last year. 

"I can't wait to talk, get real with them and say, like, I want to make their job easy," Lawrence said. "I know it's a learning process in this league, so my job is to make their job easy and allow them to flow and allow them to be comfortable."

Hill is close friends with Lawrence and the two were actually together on Friday, just 24 hours before the trade went down. Hill, who turned 31 on April 20, was holding an early birthday celebration and you could say his birthday wish came true because he's always wanted to reunite with Lawrence. 

"We had some talks before," Hill said. "We always talked about playing together again and this time, it actually happened."

Hill was one of several players who took Lawrence out to dinner at a popular Cincinnati steakhouse on Sunday night. Safety Jordan Battle was among the group that went to the restaurant, and he already seems to be one of Lawrence's biggest fans. 

"He creates chaos," Battle said of how Lawrence plays. "Beats double teams very often, big factor in the run game and the pass game. One of the most explosive [defensive tackles] against the pass game in the league."

If Lawerence is rushing the passer, that gives the quarterbacks less time to throw, which makes life easier on the secondary, so it makes sense that Battle is happy to see Lawrence in town. 

Why Lawrence is so good

If you want to know what makes Lawrence so good, it makes sense to ask an offensive lineman. They're the ones who have to face him on the field and based on what the Bengals offensive line had to say, Lawrence is a nightmare matchup. 

"Your whole interior [line] is basically locked in on him and it forces the tackles to be one-on-one," Mims said. "With a guy like that, we have him, we have Jonathan [Allen] coming in, we have [Boye] Mafe coming in, I'm like, who you going to focus on?"

The Bengals defensive line has been somewhat of a weakness for several years, but now, it feels like a strength. 

"We got a lot of dudes who can ball, [other teams are] going to have to pick their poison," Mims said. "Who you going to slide to and who you going to double team? Good luck blocking the rest of them one-on-one."

When it comes to Lawrence, Brown explained why he's such a tough matchup. 

"He's strong as hell and he's got a very unique frame," Brown said. "He's got long arms and a big chest, so it creates its own set of issues."

Center Ted Karras, who last faced Lawrence back in 2024, said you can't push Lawrence off his spot after the ball is snapped, which is one reason why it's so difficult to go up against him one-on-one. 

"In football, there's guys that have strength, there's guys who are big, and then there's guys that, when you feel them, that's his contact strength, it's so powerful," Karras said. "Hard to move, hard to stop and excited he's putting on orange and black."

At 6-foot-8 and 350 pounds, Mims is one of the biggest players on the Bengals' roster, but even he was taken aback by Lawrence's size after meeting him for the first time. 

"I met him [Sunday] night, went to dinner,"  Mims said. "I just shook his hand, I'm a big dude, so I shake his hand, like how big guys shake hands, like bring it in, I went backwards. I'm like 'Ohhh man, alright.'"

According to Brown, the addition of the mammoth defensive tackle is a move that should put the Bengals over the top. 

"Having a nose tackle, it's hard to be a great football team without one and we got the best," Brown said. 

The Bengals gave up the 10th overall pick in the NFL Draft to get Lawrence, but that was a no-brainer because of what the three-time Pro Bowler brings to the table. 

"You've seen it on tape for the last seven years, so there's really no question on what he's gonna bring, and with any first-round pick, there's always going to be questions," Taylor said. "You think you know the value but until they're integrated in an NFL locker room and go play against other NFL players, there's a little bit of an unknown there."

The Bengals decided to forgo the mystery of the unknown to bring in one of the best defensive tackles in football. If defense wins championships, then this team is ready to compete for a Super Bowl. 

"They brought in a lot of defensive guys. That's what you do when you want to win," Lawrence said. 

The Bengals have plenty of offensive firepower, but in 2205 they were let down by a defense that allowed the second-most yards in the NFL. If Lawrence can get things jump-started and turn the team into just a top-20 defense, then this is a trade that could go down as a turning point in franchise history.