Dexter Lawrence has widely been regarded by many in the NFL as one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL. His name gets mentioned with guys like Chris Jones, Jalen Carter and Quinnen Williams.
However, former Giants lineback Carl Banks made comments about him on Monday, saying that nobody respected him anymore.
Lawrence was asked about those comments on Wednesday, and he had a fiery response to the Giants legend.
“He’s delusional,” Lawrence told reporters. “Those were strong words. If that’s how he feels, f**k it.”
Those comments from Lawrence were after Banks said the following on Monday after the Giants loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
“Dexter Lawrence, nobody respects you anymore. Nobody,” Banks said on his “Bleav in Giants” podcast with radio partner Bob Papa after Sunday’s loss to the Eagles. “Your opponents do not — the pre-injury Dexter is not there in their heads. They don’t respect you. And there’s a difference. You’re on the field, they’re blocking you with a [five]-year backup center. You’re not making a difference. The old Dexter would. There are a lot of things that go into your performance, only you know what that is. Whether you’re still recovering or not, I’m just telling you now, I’m looking at enough tape to know that your opponents don’t respect you, not like they used to.”
Banks said that Lawrence isn’t being double-teamed like he has in the past, but Lawrence said he is seeing even more blockers than he ever has.
Lawrence isn’t quite putting up his normal numbers, as he has 20 tackles and 0.5 sacks on the season. One reason why his statistics aren’t quite as high though is because of the play of star defensive end Brian Burns.
Burns is currently tied with Myles Garrett for the lead-league with 10 sacks, and is putting together an NFL Defensive Player of the Year type of season.
While Lawrence might not be putting up his normal numbers, Giants players and coaches have come out in support of him. Giants DT Rakeem Nunez-Roches, who lines up right by Lawrence told reporters that teams block him different than they do other defensive tackles.
Coach Brian Daboll echoed those statements, saying he is extremely happy to have him on the team.
Being a former Giant, maybe Banks is saying this to try and light a fire under Lawrence and get him to take his game to another level. No one wants to be called out by anybody, let alone a legend of the team you’re on.
The Giants are in action against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 9, and that provides Lawrence a great opportunity to send a reminder to the rest of the league how good he really is.
