One week ago, a source close to the Bengals responded to the idea of Cincinnati trading for New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence with a snarky dismissal.
“Dreams are fun,” the text said.
Right, of course, this concept is a dream.
These are the Bengals.
Sure, Lawrence represented 340 pounds of antidote for a Bengals defense lacking interior pass rush, star power and general intimidation for years.
But this Cincinnati front office giving up a premium pick and paying Lawrence his market value? Dream on, indeed.
These are the Bengals. They haven’t moved up in the first round since going from No. 5 to No. 1 for Ki-Jana Carter in 1995. Lawrence wasn’t even born yet. They hadn’t even moved up in the second round this century, except for one time. They advanced three spots to pick No. 60 in 2022. That’s it.
These are the Bengals. They treat draft picks and the controllable, cheap labor they represent like gold bars. Over the years, when referencing the idea of trading fourth-round picks, de facto GM Duke Tobin nearly always describes it being like trading away Geno Atkins, because that’s the round he landed the All-Decade defensive tackle 16 years ago. That’s how every pick is viewed — the next Atkins.
These are the Bengals. Repeatedly making headlines in the offseason because of contract fights and/or trade requests from star players like Trey Hendrickson, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins — not for acquiring star players seeking massive contract extensions.
These are the Bengals. A team that repeatedly spouts the importance of sustaining over the course of time, not jeopardizing future cap space to go all-in for one important season. A team that’s refused to structure most contracts like the rest of the league with guarantees and never restructured the deals of any of their stars to clear room.
Yet, on Saturday night, these were the Bengals. An organization giving away the 10th pick in the draft — their first top-10 selection since snagging Burrow and Chase in back-to-back years — for Lawrence, the 28-year-old game-wrecking defensive tackle, with his request for a $30 million-plus per year extension the reason for his exit from New York (all pending a physical, of course).
Mike Brown, Katie Blackburn, Tobin and the family ownership, the face of personnel conservatism, dropped a Dexter Lawrence cannonball-sized splash on the NFL.
Conversations with those associated with the team on Saturday night were filled with laughs defined by some mix of disbelief, excitement and relief.
The Bengals jumped out of character and went all-in, believe it or not.
Once the stunning nature of the Bengals being the team to pull off this move wears off, there’s a deeper understanding of why a team in their situation would. This understanding always existed; it was just suppressed, knowing this front office has no history of doing such a thing.
The urgency of this season has been palpable since the moment Brown issued a statement supporting the return of coach Zac Taylor and Tobin for another year. The pressure was on them to turn things around now.
In the end-of-season press conferences, the stars delivered messages.
“I mean, everybody pretty much knows what we need,” Chase said.
Burrow called this offseason and the free-agency period “paramount.”
Chase and Higgins went on Radio Row in San Francisco, verbally recruiting Maxx Crosby and Jeffery Simmons. Then Higgins, who won a national championship with Lawrence at Clemson, scored a touchdown in the Pro Bowl and did the “Sexy Dexy” celebration.
Tee Higgins scores the TD and does the Sexy Dexy dance 😂
Pro Bowl Games on ESPN
Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN App pic.twitter.com/drh2nCINdO— NFL (@NFL) February 4, 2026
Maybe Higgins was trying to tell us something, maybe he was trying to will a dream into reality. Either way, it worked.
Burrow’s future in Cincinnati continues to live under a bright spotlight of speculation, the AFC North is in upheaval with three new coaches starting over and the Bengals offense is returning every starter. If there were a fourth straight season outside the playoffs, then everybody’s getting fired and nobody in the organization is guaranteed to be around for 2027.
Their defense lacked star power, interior pass rush and intimidation. They were pushed around and embarrassed, giving up the most points in franchise history. In the last two years, the Bengals went 6-7 when scoring at least 33 points. The rest of the league was 159-13-2.
The offseason begged for a big move. Team legend and Amazon analyst Andrew Whitworth pointed out on the “Whit and Fitz Podcast” in February that the one thing the Bengals had never done was go all-in for a team they believed in. He pleaded for one from his former team. They’d never done what Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead became famous for, saying, “F— them picks.”
The talk then surrounded Crosby (“Go get Maxx Crosby at all costs,” Whitworth said), but in actuality, Lawrence was always the ideal fit for what the Bengals lacked. They invested in edges. Their interior lacked personnel that kept offensive coordinators up at night.
Signing Boye Mafe for $60 million over three years and Jonathan Allen for $25 million over two was a start, but it felt concerningly unfinished.
Then, as the draft drew closer, the top defensive prospects felt destined to be off the board by the time the Bengals picked at No. 10. If they wanted a true, impact defensive player, he wasn’t coming with that pick. They certainly weren’t finding a real interior defensive lineman.
The real value of the pick for the defense shifted to dealing it. A team in the Bengals’ situation doing so is as smart as it is jaw-dropping.
As the Saturday night fever dream became a reality, I couldn’t help but think back to this remarkably insightful piece written by our Mike Sando after the Super Bowl. He pointed out that this is the era of the bold general manager in the NFL. That’s been the case for half a decade.
The teams consistently around at the end weren’t afraid to take on risks, give up picks, trade aggressively, make all-in moves. Snead and the Rams, Brett Veach and the Chiefs, John Schneider and the Seahawks, John Lynch and the 49ers, Howie Roseman and the Eagles. The growth of aggressive general managers winning championships changed the math and dynamics of roster acquisition season.
Boldness is the name of today’s game.
Cincinnati fans could only swallow that realization with a loud gulp and depressed laugh. These are the Bengals, after all.
Then, Saturday night changed everything. Suddenly, the Bengals are capable of not just hoping to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl, but truly going after it.
All the factors came together to push this trade along. The dynamics of the draft, Burrow’s future, the continued frustration on defense, the direction of the league and, more than all that, the urgency of this season.
If this hits and Lawrence becomes the dominant nose tackle he’s been since entering the league in 2019, finding happiness reuniting with former Giants teammate BJ Hill and college teammate Higgins, the Bengals are among the top tier of contenders to capture the Lombardi Trophy.
Nothing ensures it hits, and maybe giving up the 10th pick for Lawrence will be considered an overpay in retrospect.
That doesn’t matter a lick right now in Cincinnati.
The Bengals went for it. They changed their philosophy. They dared to not only be bold, but more importantly, be different from what they’ve been.
Meet the Blockbuster Bengals, I suppose, where dreams come true.