Why Dexter Lawrence is the NFL’s best nose tackle
The position of nose tackle is not glamorous. There has never been a glamour position like nose tackle. In the 1970s, 3-4 base defenses were a hot NFL trend. Interior defensive linemen used to hunting on four-on the-floor fronts had adapted to eating in the middle to allow other linemen to eat. On every play, the big man who was aligned straight over the head or to the right or left shoulder of the center was going to be attacked.
“A lot of the time it’s very difficult,” Hall of Fame nose tackle Curley Culp told Sports Illustrated in 1979, “because as defensive linemen we want to get to the quarterback, but we have to be team-oriented first. Psychologically, it affects you if you let it, because you get off one blocker and there’s another one waiting for you, and it’s like that the whole game. So you just got to try and try and try and try.”
In today’s NFL defenses, when nickel is base, dime is second base, and base is the odd structure out, nose tackles can make gains in hybrid fronts. But it’s still a relatively thankless job. Over the last five seasons, per Sports Info Solutions, the top defensive linemen in pressures from a 0-tech alignment (head over center) are generally good for about 10 pressures per season — what a top edge-rusher might have in one really good game. From 2017 to 2021, Larry Ogunjobi, now of the Pittsburgh Steelers and then of the Cleveland Browns, had the highest total pressures from a true-0-tech alignment with 19. More often, if you’re getting 8-12 quarterback disruptions from that slot in a full season, you’re cooking with gas.
Dexter Lawrence is a New York Giants defensive lineman who demolishes enemy lines from within as only he could.
In the Giants’ 31-24 wild-card win over the Minnesota Vikings, Lawrence was unblockable from everywhere, but mostly and specifically when he was on the center.
This has been the case all season long, and it really doesn’t matter who the center is.
Lawrence’s ability to take the same double teams that frustrate other big men and throw them aside is perhaps even more amazing. This is in part because Lawrence understands leverage and angles so well — he’s less inclined to stay in the middle looking for a wrestling match, and more prone to look for open space on the outside of either blocker. It happened at 12:02 in the first quarter of Vikings’ game. Minnesota center Garrett Bradbury was able to have Lawrence one-on-1 with him, then Ed Ingram, right guard joined the play. Didn’t matter, because Lawrence just sifted his huge frame across Bradbury’s body for the win.
Lawrence was ahead with a different combination of ideas and concepts at 2:40 in the second half. It was Bradbury and Ezra Cleveland, the left guards, who were coming at him from both sides. This also didn’t matter, because Lawrence just moved Bradbury out of the gap with a killer rip move, and ignored Cleveland’s efforts on the way to Kirk Cousins’ neighborhood.
Lawrence might use his pure power to subdue a blocker, but there are other situations where he may not choose the technique. Cleveland experienced this particular phenomenon with 9:44 left in the third quarter — out of a three-man rush with a late blitzer.
There’s also Lawrence’s ability to beat up running backs in the middle of the defense, which will be Job One against the Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional round. Lawrence had two tackles for loss against the Vikings on running plays; the Dalvin Cook one yard loss was another example of Lawrence being double-teamed and then pinballing from the middle for the reduction. Lawrence’s ability to shock blockers with power moves and then explode into the backfield might be unmatched in this league.
It didn’t take Giants defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale long to realize what he had on his hands with Lawrence in his first year coaching Big Blue’s defense. Wink knew everything he needed and had seen all that Lawrence, at 6 feet 4 and 345lbs, did to chase Baker Mayfield, the then-Carolina Panthers’ quarterback, with 36 seconds to go in the first quarter.
“I told the whole defense on Monday, the play where he chased Baker Mayfield down and got him short of the sticks on that scramble, I don’t know [if] in my career I’ve ever seen a big man like that make a play like that,” Martindale said soon after. “And that’s the kind of effort and leadership that he brings to the defense.”
Lawrence was more circumspect about the play — to him, it’s what’s to be expected.
“One of my goals is to never let a quarterback outrun me. That’s kind of like a competitive little thing I just have in my head all the time. I was just trying to go get him, really.”
Make the impossible seem easy Dexter Lawrence’s visibility is another reason.