On Thursday, Pro Football Focus named their All-Rookie Team for the 2019-2020 season. With the New York Giants being one of the most youthful teams in the league, there were multiple players who likely received consideration.
In the end, defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence was the lone Giant who made the list. Lawrence was impressive all year long and certainly deserves a spot on the list.
Lawrence was selected by Big Blue 17th overall in last year’s draft and may be the one Giants’ rookie with the most promise. PPF graded Lawrence a 76.1 overall on his rookie season.
There were a handful of interior defensive linemen taken in the first round of this past year’s draft, but Lawrence was the only one to put together a season with 500 or more defensive snaps and an overall grade higher than 70.0. He’s been at his best as a run stuffer in the middle of the Giants’ defensive line. Lawrence’s 76.3 run-defense grade ranks 21st among 117 qualifying interior defenders this season.
Lawrence being the lone Giant on the list isn’t surprising. But it is a little surprising to see the quarterback selected over Daniel Jones was Gardner Minshew and not Kyler Murray. Minshew was the highest-rated quarterback according to PFF and interestingly enough, earlier this week Minshew made a point to make sure everyone knew he had a better year than Jones.
Darius Slayton had a really nice year for Big Blue, but the wide receivers who made PFF’s all-rookie team had better stats than Slayton.
Lawrence showed he was worth the 17th overall pick with his performance in his rookie year. Big Blue has plenty of work to do in acquiring more talent on defense. However, it looks like Lawrence can be a piece for the Giants to build around for the future.
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