Giants' Dexter Lawrence in a rush to be Defensive Player of Year front-runner

PITTSBURGH — They play different defensive positions, but Dexter Lawrence said there are plenty of things he can take from T.J. Watt’s game.

“He doesn’t beat you with much,” Lawrence said of the Steelers’ All-Pro linebacker. “He has his platinum move that he’s skillful at and he’s crafted it to be the best at it and nobody can stop it. That’s what you see him doing every week. He keeps the game simple for himself and that’s what the great ones do.

“You learn from that,” Lawrence added. “You don’t need a whole bunch of things to help you win each week. You craft what you are good at and you make it so that it is second nature to you.”

Here’s something else Lawrence may be able to take from Watt:

This season’s NFL Defensive Player of the Year award.

The two game-wreckers will both be on the field Monday night when the Giants face the Steelers and with a little more than half the season left they are among the leading elite candidates to receive that distinction. With Detroit’s Aidan Hutchison out for the rest of the season with a broken leg, Watt, who already won the honor in 2021, is considered by many to be the favorite. But Lawrence’s case for his first such recognition is growing by the week.

“Hell yeah,” Giants teammate Brian Burns said when asked if Lawrence deserves to win.

Giants backup quarterback Drew Lock agreed . . . eventually. His first instinct was to say that Watt is more dangerous and difficult to game-plan for because with Lawrence rushing up the middle “you can see him coming.” But then Lock reconsidered and gave his unofficial vote to his teammate because of Lawrence’s play against the run and the anomaly of his position.

Lawrence leads the NFL with a career-high 9.0 sacks. That’s the most by a Giant in the first seven games of a season since Hall of Famer Michael Strahan had 12.5 in 2001 and went on to set the single-season record. With 6.0 of those sacks in the past three games, he is the first Giant to do that since Jason Pierre-Paul in 2014.

That he is doing this as a 340-pound nose tackle makes it all the more astounding. Only three other interior linemen have ever led the league in sacks: John Randle with 15.5 in 1997, La'Roi Glover with 17.0 in 2000, and Aaron Donald with 20.5 in 2018.

“Dexter Lawrence is a problem, he is,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “He’s a problem in the running game, he’s a problem in the passing game. I think he leads the NFL in sacks, but he’s just a dominant, dominant player.”

Lawrence shied away from any talk about winning the season’s highest honor for a defender. “I don’t know, man,” he said. “My focus is on winning and helping the team.”

He is a big reason why the Giants lead the NFL with 31 sacks, their highest total at this point in a season since 1985. Last year the Giants had 11 sacks through seven games and finished the season with 34.

But Lawrence was less coy when asked if he believes there is anyone in the league who can block him at the level he is playing right now.

“The answer is always no,” he said. “You have the confidence in yourself to where you believe nobody can and you have to prove it each and every week. Obviously we’re pros and we get got sometimes and that’s the nature of the business, but my mindset is, ‘I’m going to get you more than you get me.’ ”

He also laughed at the “Instagram moves” that gain social media fame while his sacks generally result from overpowering people.

“This game is meant to be played dirty,” Lawrence said. “You have to play hard and dirty.”

Lawrence said he has not felt this unstoppable since high school. He dealt with a number of injuries during his college career at Clemson and was a two-time Pro Bowler in his first five NFL seasons, but he’s never played like this in the league.

“I got married,” he chuckled when asked if he did anything different this offseason to precipitate the evolution. He also said he is more driven as he has matured. “I don’t want to let anyone down,” he said. “That’s how I play the game.”

The biggest change, really, is simply getting accustomed to the NFL.

“In the pros you have to learn the game,” Lawrence said. “You have to learn who you are as a person first and foremost, who you are as a player, and then learn the knowledge of the game. I think that’s what I’ve been doing.”

And so now the NFL has to get accustomed to this version of Lawrence. If it can.

Notes & quotes: After missing practices and being listed as questionable with a hip injury, Jermaine Eluemunor started at right tackle . . . With cornerback depth an issue for the Giants — Adoree’ Jackson (neck) and Cor’Dale Flott (groin) were out and Tre Hawkins dealing with an ankle injury — they elevated Greg Stroman from the practice squad for the game.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.