Giants' Dexter Lawrence 'excited' to make second straight Pro Bowl
Dexter Lawrence II of the Giants tackles Kyren Williams of the Rams at MetLife Stadium on Dec 31, 2023. Credit: Mike Stobe
A day after making the Pro Bowl for the second consecutive season, Dexter Lawrence called the achievement “a special time.”
He added that he was excited to reach that goal again. He was particularly honored because it was the voting by coaches and players that put him over the top. (Fans also can vote.)
“I’m excited to get this award again,” said Lawrence, the Giants’ lone Pro Bowler. “It just shows the hard work and the respect that I’m earning around the league. That just goes from my play on the field and what people see on tape.”
Lawrence is a dominant presence. His move to nose tackle has changed his career. That was under the tutelage of assistant coach Andre Patterson and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
Asked to compare his game now to last year, which was the first year of the new coaching staff, Lawrence said, “I think I got better in some areas. Still got room to improve, still got to continue learning my position and crafting it up. There are things that now I get all this attention, it’s different things that I’ve got to learn how to play through and different schemes I’ve got to learn how to play through, stuff like that. All I can do is just keep going out there and giving everything I’ve got every time I step on the field, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Asked how much Patterson’s coaching has helped him, Lawrence said, “A lot. He’s helped me craft things that I didn’t know I had or didn’t know how to use.”
Martindale lauded Lawrence for his character, especially after he was rewarded with a four-year, $90 million contract.
“I think Dex has stayed Dex since I’ve been here,” Martindale said. “He was a really good player before we got here, and then he had a great year last year. He hasn’t changed his work ethic. He hasn’t changed anything about him. I think sometimes he might put too much pressure on himself, but that’s what all the great ones do. Like I said, I’m really happy for Dex.”
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
