The 4 groups taking part in on the NFL’s Championship Weekend have been the league’s finest 4 groups at creating inside strain on quarterbacks this common season.
Denver Broncos defensive tackles John Franklin-Myers and Zach Allen (98 mixed pressures) mixed for essentially the most pressures created by any defensive deal with teammate duo, per NFL NextGen Stats. The Seattle Seahawks’ Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy (91 mixed pressures) ranked second.
The Los Angeles Rams’ Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske (88 mixed pressures) created the third most inside pressures. And the New England Patriots’ Christian Barmore and Milton Williams (87 mixed pressures) have been shut behind in fourth.
It’s no secret that pressuring the quarterback is a recipe for achievement within the NFL. It’s well-known that producing strain on the quarterback up the center, by means of the inside, is essentially the most disruptive type of strain for an offense to deal with.
However these 4 groups representing the NFC and AFC on this weekend’s championship video games is a reminder of simply how a lot elite gamers on the inside of a defensive position can separate and elevate a workforce.
And that’s the reason this statistic must be thrilling for the Giants. As a result of they have already got a star participant with the flexibility to create this type of havoc.
His identify is Dexter Lawrence. He’s a two-time second-team All-Professional. And at his finest, he’s the form of game-wrecker that would have the Giants on the prime of those inside strain rankings and again within the playoffs.
He already did it as soon as.
In 2022, Lawrence and Williams — who’s now main the Seahawks — mixed for 105 pressures as defensive deal with teammates on Wink Martindale’s protection, and the Giants went to the playoffs for the primary time since 2016 and received a playoff sport for the primary time since 2011.
John Harbaugh’s relationship with quarterback Jaxson Dart has obtained a whole lot of consideration for good motive. Having perception in Dart and constructing a workforce round him is a vital a part of this transition.
However Lawrence is the star participant most certainly to assist Harbaugh reshape a bodily and relentless Giants id. He’s the one the Giants’ new coach ought to spend essentially the most time with and round this offseason.
And he’s the participant Harbaugh and the Giants must help most throughout the offseason in free company and the draft.
Lawrence, 28, had a down yr in 2025 coming off elbow surgical procedure. He was mentally and emotionally drained from the workforce’s catastrophic 2024 collapse.
It was not simple to observe good associates and workforce leaders like Saquon Barkley, Julian Love and Williams go away to go win with different NFC organizations — outdoors of being completely happy for them personally.
Lawrence wasn’t coached as onerous or effectively as he had been in earlier years. And the Giants solely gave him a handful of potential incentives final offseason moderately than making a big improve to his contract.
Harbaugh wants Lawrence on this workforce, wholesome, completely happy, hungry and motivated. He must signal and draft extra defensive tackles to enrich his star defensive deal with with extra expertise so the Giants have a rotation of dependable inside linemen — moderately than an apparent and precipitous drop-off after they substitute.
Harbaugh is aware of how vital a participant Lawrence is.
One huge motive for the Baltimore Ravens’ struggles on protection this season was that their stud defensive deal with Nnamdi Madubuike performed solely two video games as a consequence of harm.
And the numbers present that the NFL’s finest groups at getting the quarterback up the center are the one 4 groups left standing right here on championship weekend.
Williams is one the Giants let get away. However they nonetheless have Lawrence — and the hope that he might at some point put them on this echelon of groups once more.
