\u201cFor him to do what he did in the game, most guys I\u2019ve been around would\u2019ve tapped out in his situation,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cI had to put him in situations where he could at least defend himself. He kept trying to fight through it for his teammates and he couldn\u2019t move the arm. <\/p>\n
\u201cI got him through the first half just letting him rush on third down. In the second half, it was the same way: \u2018Just let me know when you can go.\u2019 He\u2019s got the heart of a lion.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/new-york-giants-defensive-tackle-115563419_6dcb79.jpg\")
New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II (97) and New York Giants guard Jon Runyan (76), walk off the field after the Giants gave up a 2-point conversion in the 4th quarter. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
Lawrence continued to refute the idea that his elbow has been in pain all season after he suffered a dislocation on Thanksgiving 2024. <\/p>\n
It would help explain his dip in production from nine sacks in 12 games to a half-sack in 12 games while remaining the most frequently double-teamed defender in the NFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust aggravated something else in the elbow,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been hitting recovery hard, so I feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawrence said that his availability for Monday was never in doubt, despite the Giants (2-10) being out of playoff contention.<\/p>\n
Whether he plays a full snap load or exclusively rushes the passer remains to be seen \u2014 the Giants have the NFL\u2019s worst rushing defense \u2014 but Patterson balked at the theory mentioned by WFAN radio analyst Carl Banks during the broadcast and echoed by fans that Lawrence was rotated out on the first snap of overtime when Jahmyr Gibbs ran for a 69-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n
![\"Giants](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/giants-defensive-tackle-dexter-lawrence-110037406.jpg\")
Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II (97) walks off the field after practice in East Rutherford, N.J. Bill Kostroun\/New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had nothing to do with a rotation,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cTo be honest with you, I kind of take that as a slap in the face. I\u2019ve been doing this for so long and been on great teams and had great players that you would think that I would be rotating my best player on the first play of overtime? It\u2019s not my first barbeque.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interim head coach Mike Kafka said that Lawrence was nearly \u201cin tears on the sideline\u201d about not being able to contribute more. <\/p>\n
Is that true?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more of a figure of speech,\u201d Lawrence laughed. \u201cObviously I want to be on the field as one of the better players on the team, but that wasn\u2019t the plan in that moment. <\/p>\n
\u201cMe and Dre had something good working and they so happened to break it on the first play. But I love playing football, and I\u2019m going to be on the field when I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo behind the scenes with Big Blue\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Giants by Paul Schwartz, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The one-year anniversary of Lawrence\u2019s broken elbow passed Friday, as Lawrence sat out a practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few people brought it up,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it didn\u2019t give me any icks or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dexter Lawrence is elbowing his way back into the lineup. Lawrence will play Monday for the Giants against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4508,9,2683,11,10,22,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-56053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-dexter-lawrence","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-giants","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}