![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761809470_197_raanan_jordan.png&h=80&w=80&scale=crop.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Jordan RaananOct 29, 2025, 05:06 PM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Jordan Raanan covers the New York Giants for ESPN and can be heard hosting on ESPN Radio. Raanan joined ESPN in 2016.<\/p>\n EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Dexter Lawrence<\/a> handled criticism from New York Giants<\/a> legend Carl Banks much like he does undersized offensive linemen.<\/p>\n He brushed it aside as if it barely existed, using brute force.<\/p>\n Banks, who is a radio analyst for the Giants, was extremely critical this week of Lawrence on his Bleav podcast with play-by-play announcer Bob Papa. Banks’ comments came after New York’s 38-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> on Sunday, when Lawrence had three tackles and was credited with half a sack.<\/p>\n “Dexter Lawrence, nobody respects you anymore. Nobody,” Banks said, before going on to say the star defensive lineman wasn’t playing at the same level as previous seasons.<\/p>\n Lawrence strongly disagreed with Banks’ assessment, noting that numbers don’t always tell the full story and citing the rate at which he gets double-teamed. That alone spoke of the respect he receives.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks 1 Related<\/p>\n “Those are strong words,” Lawrence said Wednesday when asked about Banks’ criticism. “That’s how he feels? F— it!”<\/p>\n Lawrence is getting doubled at a league-high 74.9% rate on his pass rush opportunities this season. He was doubled-teamed at a 74.5% rate last year.<\/p>\n Banks won a pair of Super Bowls during his 1984-92 stint as a Giants linebacker. It didn’t matter to Lawrence that those words came from a player with Banks’ pedigree.<\/p>\n Why not?<\/p>\n “He’s delusional,” Lawrence said.<\/p>\n Lawrence said he thought he was playing well this season. He has 20 tackles (1 for a loss), 0.5 sacks, an interception, 10 initial pressures and 4 quarterback hits. He has a pass rush win rate of 5.4% and run stop win rate of 36.3% through eight games.<\/p>\n The production doesn’t quite match the previous season, when Lawrence had 44 tackles, 9 sacks, 18 initial pressures and 16 quarterback hits in 12 games before suffering an elbow injury.<\/p>\n Lawrence isn’t using the elbow or a light summer workload as an excuse.<\/p>\n “My elbow is not an issue,” he reiterated on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n The double-team numbers seem to indicate that Giants opponents are still putting a lot of resources toward blocking Lawrence, which opens things for other players. New York edge rusher Brian Burns<\/a> is tied for the NFL lead with 10 sacks.<\/p>\n Defensive line coach Andre Patterson took exception several weeks back to the idea that Lawrence wasn’t having the same impact he had in the past.<\/p>\n “Call our opponents. Call everybody we play and ask them if Dexter Lawrence is still playing like Dexter Lawrence,” Patterson said. “There’s no other D-lineman in this league that gets as many double-teams as he does. Not even close. He gets them on passing downs. The reason that [Burns] is getting the production he’s getting and [Abdul Carter<\/a>] is getting the production he’s getting is because they’re putting two dudes on Dex.<\/p>\n “So we got two guys getting one-on-ones because they’re putting two guys on Dex. And so as a football player, and what he does on Sundays, he’s playing like Dex.”<\/p>\n It was curious for the harsh words about Lawrence to come from a former Giants player and current team employee.<\/p>\n It took Lawrence and a lot of New York’s players by surprise that Banks, who is in the team facility on a fairly regular basis, chose his podcast as the platform to air the criticism.<\/p>\n “I mean, as an in-house guy, maybe it’s like a coded message where he’s trying to light a fire under Dex, you know what I mean?” middle linebacker Bobby Okereke<\/a> said. “But for a guy who works in-house, it doesn’t take much to find a guy and have a conversation with him one-on-one or get his phone number and call him.<\/p>\n “So I don’t necessarily think there’s any ill intentions with it. Maybe he’s just trying to light a fire or in his own way motivate Dex. But Dex, like I said, is an incredible pro, and if anyone needs to be critical of his play, I think he’d be the first one to step up and do that if it’s necessary. So I think Dex is doing a great job, obviously incredible leader for us, inspires a lot of us and he’s going to keep being him.”<\/p>\n Lawrence, 27, has been named to three Pro Bowl and two All-Pro teams in his seven-year career. He once had quarterback Aaron Rodgers<\/a>, then with the Green Bay Packers<\/a>, publicly declare him one of the best players in the league.<\/p>\n Now, he’s perhaps getting coded messages from a former player such as Banks. If the lack of production this season eventually means fewer double-teams, Lawrence is all for it.<\/p>\n “Let’s say this, I hope people start trying to disrespect me,” he said. “Let’s say that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordan RaananOct 29, 2025, 05:06 PM ET CloseJordan Raanan covers the New York Giants for ESPN and can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-260335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/r1567375_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
<\/a>![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/r1567324_2_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCarl Banks said “nobody respects” Dexter Lawrence due to the star defensive tackle’s poor play this season. Lawrence responded Wednesday, saying that the Giants legend is “delusional.”\u00a0AP Photo\/Bill Kostroun<\/p>\n