CINCINNATI — The sense of optimism and urgency was palpable the minute you stepped inside Paycor Stadium Monday morning.
The acquisition of arguably the most dominant true nose tackle in the game tends to get the attention of a roster, coaching staff and fan base that was desperate for the Bengals to make a move that signaled they were all in remaking the defense.
Mission accomplished. One look at Bengals social media confirms that fans are convinced that the team – for better or worse – has pushed all their chips to the middle. Lawrence’s new teammates are certainly on board, given how much attention he will command when he’s on the field. And the smiles on the faces of head coach Zac Taylor and defensive coordinator Al Golden Monday certainly told the story that they have one of the best the game as a new chess piece on the playing field. The urgency to now go out and win is there.
“I felt it with the amount of players that communicated with me through calls or texts Saturday night, Sunday,” Taylor told me. “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. I was out and about, all over the region and all over the community yesterday. I had I think six sporting events in Cincinnati yesterday that I was at, and you could feel the buzz about it. I was in Chicago Saturday night. There was a lot of Cincinnati teams there in the gym I was in. You could feel the buzz there.
“So it’s one of those things that just elevates everybody. And we’ve got to go win. You add Dexter, you add all these guys on defense that we’ve added. Again, credit to upstairs, to personnel and those guys for getting these guys down here in the locker room because you can just feel the presence of everybody we’ve added on top of the guys that we already have — young and old. We’ve got a really great collection of guys. We’re in a tremendous position going into the draft this weekend to just add pieces on either side of the ball that can help us win. I’m really excited about the position we’re in.”
Perhaps the biggest acknowledgement from the player side came from offensive captain Orlando Brown Jr.
“There’s a ton of urgency, man,” Brown said. “They’re very committed to getting it done. They understand the windows of some of the our top players in their primes. But, yeah, man. I mean, I think, I think the agenda is understood. It’s on us now as players to handle business and help put us in great position.”
The offensive tackle knows that after all the posturing and calls for ownership and management to step up, led by the franchise quarterback himself Joe Burrow, the Bengals have stepped up this offseason.
They knew they had to address the defense. And so far, their answer has been adding Pro Bowl safety and two-time Super Bowl champion Bryan Cook (3 years, $42.5 million), defensive edge and Super Bowl champion Boye Mafe (3 years, $60 million), two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jonathan Allen (2 years, $28 million), playmaking strong safety Kyle Dugger (1 year/$1.42 million) and now Dexter Lawrence (1 year extension/$28 million), arguably the best defensive tackle in the game.
The Bengals had committed $131 million in new contracts before the trade for Lawrence and extending him a third season on the two years left on his contract. The Bengals had roughly $47 million (per overthecap.com) in cap space before free agency. They have spent most of it in an aggressive push to fix what was ailing them.
“We had cap space and everybody challenged us to use it, and boy, have we used it,” defensive coordinator Al Golden quipped Monday at his press conference to talk about Dexter Lawrence and the new-look defense.
“They brought in a lot of defensive guys. That’s what you do when you want to win,” Lawerence himself said. “You fix the problems and that was a problem. And these guys I had dinner with last night — Cook, Battle, BJ and a couple o-linemen — it just felt good. It felt home. They wanted me here. They said they was in here talking like, ‘Hey we need to get that guy.’ It felt good to be wanted and I’m ready.”
Lawrence celebrated by burning off some of the meal from Jeff Ruby’s Sunday night in his first workout Monday with his new team. His physique is hard to miss.
“He’s strong as hell, man. And he’s got a very unique frame with his long arms and big chest, so it creates its own set of issues,” Orlando Brown Jr. added.
Amarius Mims, no small individual at 6-8, 350 pounds, went to shake hands and was amazed at Lawrence’s size in person. Mims is also more than aware of Lawrence’s ability.
“You’ve got to understand this is a once-in-a-lifetime player,” Mims said. “This guy is a game-changer, not only on the defense, he can change the whole team dynamic.”
Ted Karras has had his battles with Lawrence over the years, including the Sunday night game in New York in 2024.
“Probably best nose tackle in last 30 years,” Karras said. “He’s got a combination of size, speed and agility. He’s another big guy from Clemson, reminds you of Refrigerator (Richard) Perry. Maybe we should give him the ball a little bit too. … I am excited that we have a guy that elicits fear in opposing (offensive) lines. That’s just what it is. He’s an intimidating guy to play against.”
This sets the table for the Bengals to add to their roster Friday and Saturday with seven picks starting now in Round 2.
“We still have a lot of work that we have to do but there’s a very real confidence that exists right now that we’ve acquired these guys who can come in and help immediately,” Taylor said. “We believe in guys that are already here in this locker room in conjunction with guys we’ve added, so it’s just a great marriage of all the pieces we have. Whether it was existing veteran players, we had, some of these new guys that were maybe a year or two in that we’re kind of counting on to step up and the free agents we’ve added. Just a tremendous collection of guys, and now the next part is just making sure they gel and the communication, and I like what I’ve seen in the last three hours just from being around these guys already.”
And now the Taylor and Bengals don’t have to worry about what they’ll be getting in the first round and whether that player will produce. There is the expectation that production will follow with Lawrence, despite a falloff with a down team in New York in 2025.
“You know the value of Dexter,” Taylor said. “You’ve seen it on tape for the last seven years,” So there’s really no question on what he’s going to bring. With any first-round pick, there’s always going to be a question. You think you know the value, but until they’re integrated into an NFL locker room and go play against other NFL players, there’s a little bit of an unknown there. He’s a known commodity.”
