Why Bengals trade for Dexter Lawrence was their 'worst' offseason move

The Cincinnati Bengals came into the 2026 NFL offseason with a very clear goal of upgrading the defensive side of the ball, and ideally, that would involve additions at every position.

They made a ton of additions, with the headliner being the blockbuster trade for Dexter Lawrence, sending the No. 10 overall pick to the New York Giants.

While it was an exciting move for the fanbase to finally see their franchise swing such a big deal, ESPN's Bill Barnwell called this trade their "worst" move of the offseason. And unfortunately, there's a good reason for this claim.

"Worst: Trading the No. 10 pick for Dexter Lawrence II," Barnwell writes. "... I'm still blown away that a team traded a known top-10 pick for a veteran for only the third time in the past 25 years, after the Raiders did it for Randy Moss and the Broncos did it for Russell Wilson."

The Bengals are swinging big for Lawrence, and while it's an exciting move to acquire such a talented player, he's coming off the worst year of his career in 2025 and is very expensive.

Dexter Lawrence trade was worst move of offseason for Bengals

But, it's not just his new contract worth a total of $70 million that's why this was expensive; the 10th overall pick was a lot to give up for Lawrence.

One of the reasons why this move might be a massive mistake is that the narrative after the deal was the uncertainty about which defensive players would be on the board at No. 10 overall.

However, if the Bengals had been stuck at No. 10, they could've had Caleb Downs or Ruben Bain Jr., two incredible defensive players the Bengals could certainly have benefited from.

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What makes things look even worse is that the Bengals could've landed Christen Miller in the second-round of the 2026 NFL Draft.

The Georgia DT would've been a solid option who, if paired with Downs or Bain, might've been a better combination than Lawrence and Cashius Howell.

The Bengals are taking a huge risk with this trade, and Barnwell believes this was their worst move of the offseason. The cost of the trade was too much for Barnwell, and with the alternative not being bad at all, it certainly makes sense why this trade is criticized.

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