Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence: 'I'm playing . . . don't worry about that'
Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence walks off the field after a game against the Green Bay Packers at MetLife Stadium on Nov. 16. Credit: Ed Murray
Dexter Lawrence practiced for the first time this week on Saturday and said he always intended to face the Patriots on Monday night despite his year-old elbow injury that was aggravated last week against the Lions.
“I’m playing,” the defensive tackle said after the workout. “Don’t worry about that.”
The Giants concurred. Lawrence did not receive any designation on the final injury report before the game.
How much Lawrence actually can play remains, well, questionable. “I don’t know the plan right now,” he said.
Last week he was absent from the field on the first — and what turned out to be the only — defensive snap in overtime in the loss to the Lions when Jahmyr Gibbs scored on a 69-yard run. It was at the end of a game in which he played sparingly, limited mostly to pass-rushing downs, because he took two direct hits to the elbow he dislocated on Thanksgiving Day in 2024 and needed surgery to repair.
Interim head coach Mike Kafka said Lawrence was “like in tears on the sideline, just wanting to be out there with the players and gave us his all.”
Lawrence clarified his emotions as “more a figure of speech” with a laugh but added: “Obviously, I want to be on the field as one of the better players on the team, but that wasn’t the plan.”
Defensive line coach Andre Patterson praised Lawrence for playing as much as he did.
“For him to do what he did in the game on Sunday, he’s a warrior,” Patterson said. “Most guys I’ve been around would have tapped out in that situation . . . He’s got the heart of a lion.”
Patterson also disputed the idea that Lawrence was being rotated because of his relative lack of production this season. This was the second key play late in a game in which Lawrence was not on the field; he was on the sideline for the last snaps against the Broncos, too. Former defensive coordinator Shane Bowen, fired this week, said after the Denver loss that Lawrence needed to be on the field at the end of the game.
“I take that as a slap in the face that you would think I would be rotating my best player on the first play of overtime,” Patterson said of the Detroit circumstances. “It’s not my first barbecue.”
It was just about a year ago in Dallas when Lawrence suffered the initial elbow injury. This year on Thanksgiving, he and the Giants had the day off, so he spent the holiday with family.
“A few people brought it up,” he said of the anniversary, “but it didn’t give me any icks. I just enjoyed the time.”
Thibodeaux out again
Linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux (shoulder) was ruled out for a third straight game. Kafka said it is “too soon to tell” if the injury will be season-ending . . . CB Paulson Adebo (knee) was limited in practices all week but did not receive an injury designation for the game and is expected to play. Adebo has not been on the field since he hurt his knee in Denver on Oct. 19. He was expected back two weeks ago against the Packers but aggravated the injury in pregame warmups.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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