The Dexter Lawrence Trade Was Good. The Media Just Hates the Bengals.

The Bengals smashed the narrative that they were afraid to make big swings when they traded for star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence.

When the news broke on Saturday night that the Cincinnati Bengals had traded the #10 pick to the New York Giants for Dexter Lawrence, the Queen City erupted with so much force the Ohio River itself nearly changed direction.

This.  This was the move Bengals fans young and old had been begging for – the all-in, no excuses, take-no-prisoners move that re-affirmed the Bengals position as bona fide contenders in the AFC.

Sure, it might have been a little bit of an overpay to send a top-ten pick for a nose tackle coming off his worst (but still very productive) season.  But, given how massive an upgrade he is, how desperate the Bengals were for a game-changer on defense, and the uncertainty of the draft, it was the right call.

It was the rare trade that – at face value – looked smart for both sides.

Unfortunately, that’s not how many people saw it.  Some of the more prominent talking heads in the sports media business torched the move.  And sadly, it has more to do with the Bengals than the move itself.

Stephen A. Smith is probably the most well-known and recognizable member of the sports media complex.  He’s been a staple at ESPN for years, and has slowly but surely become the face of their media empire.  His opinions have become so valuable that they dedicate literal hours and hours of content to his takes alone.  From his appearances on the debate show First Take to his podcast Know Mercy, Smith is ESPN.

And if there’s one thing Smith cannot stand, it’s the Cincinnati Bengals – and he isn’t afraid to let anyone and everyone know.

Of course, how can you blame him?  He’s a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.  He’s been watching the Bengals bungle for decades.

So, while it was disappointing, it certainly wasn’t surprising to hear that Smith wasn’t a fan of the Bengals' big swing for Lawrence.  What was surprising, though, was his reasoning, and honestly, that was the most illuminating.

Why didn’t Stephen A. like the trade?  Well, basically, because he doesn’t like the Bengals.

Yup, that was about it.

Smith’s point on First Take amounted to trust.  He doesn’t trust the Bengals.  So, he doesn’t like the move.  Simple as that.

That wasn’t all.  Naturally, Smith used his pulpit to bash Bengals head coach Zac Taylor for failing to have his team ready for the start of the regular season, calling for an investigation into his preparation.  Of course, the Bengals actually started the 2025 season 2 - 0 before being derailed by Joe Burrow’s injury, but that's just an inconvenient fact for a blowhard like Stephen A.

To his credit, Stephen A. did own up to his mistake, but that just illustrates my point – he isn’t concerned with factual information.  He’s all about vibes, and he keeps getting the wrong ones from the Bengals, even when he’s completely misreading the situation.

Was there anything of actual substance in his point?  Any concrete football reason why professional sports’ most prominent spokesperson didn’t care for the trade?

No.

And frankly, that’s about as surprising as Cincinnati having bizarre weather.  Criticizing the Bengals’ decision-making rarely has anything to do with football – it usually comes down to personal bias and vendettas.

It’s hard to completely blame him.  For most of Stephen A’s professional career, the Bengals have been a laughingstock.  In the last twenty years, though, that hasn’t exactly been the case.

The sad part, though, is this bias has seeped everywhere and into everything.  Stephen A. isn’t alone.

Nick Wright, co-host of First Things First, made the point that this trade is how bad teams stay bad.  At least he had a football reason to dislike it, arguing that the #10 pick was far too much to give up for a defensive tackle coming off a 0.5 sack season.  He likened the trade to the infamous Randy Moss trade where the Oakland Raiders were fleeced out of the #7 pick by the Minnesota Vikings.  His co-host Eric Mangini, former NFL head coach, similarly argued that this was a mistake for the Bengals because they let Trey Hendrickson walk in the offseason.

But those arguments demonstrate incredibly flawed – and almost certainly biased – reasoning.

First, the Moss trade was far, far more costly than the Lawrence trade.  Second, the Lawrence trade wasn’t just about pass rush.  And third, for as many football reasons as there were to make the trade for Lawrence, letting Hendrickson go was one move that had almost nothing to do with football.

In 2005, when the Raiders traded for Moss, they thought they were getting an All-Pro caliber receiver, and they paid accordingly.  Not only did they send over the #7 pick, but they also threw in a 7th-rounder that year and a starting linebacker (Napoleon Harris).  The trade obviously didn’t work out, but that wasn’t because Randy was washed – it was because the Raiders didn’t have a competent QB and Moss was completely checked out.  Once Moss got to New England, he picked up right where he left off in Minnesota.

The situations couldn’t be more different.  To compare these two trades directly is silly.  Lawrence isn’t relying on anyone to do his job, and based on his massive smile and positive energy in all of his press conferences and interviews since he’s arrived in Cincinnati, it seems he’s pretty stoked to be here.

What Lawrence brings to the table that guys like Smith, Wright, and Mangini seem to miss, is his impact against the run.  The Bengals were dead-last in rushing yards allowed last year.  That won’t be the case with Lawrence in the middle of the defense.

Lawrence is routinely one of the most double-teamed players in the NFL.  Even in a down 2025 season, Lawrence led all interior linemen with a 71% double-team rate on pass rushes.  Of course, a lot of that is by virtue of being in the middle of the defense, but TJ Slaton was in the middle of the Bengals defense last year, and he most definitely wasn’t being doubled like Lawrence.

It’s a simple truth: Lawrence is about as high-impact as it gets from the nose tackle position.  His presence makes life easier for the rest of the Bengals defense in ways that someone like Slaton simply can’t.  Lawrence is a unique, and substantial, upgrade.

And with regards to Hendrickson, his departure was a foregone conclusion.  Keeping Hendrickson around was an impossibility, especially once he turned down an extension from the Bengals in August of 2025.

Sure, trading Hendrickson would have been smart, especially if the Bengals front office had precognition and knew Joe Burrow was going to get hurt, but since Duke Tobin isn’t Paul Atreides and this isn’t a sci-fi novel, the Bengals did what they thought was best: tried to win it all with their superstar QB and their best players.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work out – but that doesn’t mean they were stupid for trying.

Besides, this wasn’t an either or.  The option wasn’t Dexter Lawrence or Trey Hendrickson and the 10th pick.  Letting Hendrickson walk meant money was freed up to sign Boye Mafe, Bryan Cook, and Jonathan Allen.  The Lawrence trade was incidental to the Hendrickson saga.

Once Lawrence was in the building, the Bengals continued to defy expectations: they extended him on a one-year, $28 million deal, well below what was predicted.  Over his next three years in Cincinnati, Lawrence, who will be 29 in November, will average about $23.3 million per season.  Hendrickson, who will be 32 in December, will be due an average of $28 million per year over the next four years in Baltimore.

Not only did the Bengals get a better, younger, more well-rounded player, who is critically not coming off a wasted season due to back issues, they also got him at a more reasonable rate.

There’s no other way to look at it – this was a win for the Bengals in every conceivable way.

Of course, the Bengals will never get the benefit of the doubt from the national media.  The bias just runs too deep.  When people think of the Bengals, they don’t think about a Super Bowl and AFC Championship Game appearances – they picture misery and failure.  And until the Bengals finally get over the hump, that’s probably not going to change.

But this kind of move can make that difference.  The Bengals have been trying for three years to right the ship on defense.  They tried to rely on Hendrickson to be that galvanizing force, and he wasn’t up to the task.  Lawrence, though, just might be.