The four teams playing on the NFL’s Championship Weekend were the league’s best four teams at creating interior pressure on quarterbacks this regular season.
Denver Broncos defensive tackles John Franklin-Myers and Zach Allen (98 combined pressures) combined for the most pressures created by any defensive tackle teammate duo, per NFL NextGen Stats. The Seattle Seahawks’ Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy (91 combined pressures) ranked second.
The Los Angeles Rams’ Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske (88 combined pressures) created the third most interior pressures. And the New England Patriots’ Christian Barmore and Milton Williams (87 combined pressures) were close behind in fourth.
It is no secret that pressuring the quarterback is a recipe for success in the NFL. It’s well known that generating pressure on the quarterback up the middle, through the interior, is the most disruptive form of pressure for an offense to handle.
But those four teams representing the NFC and AFC in this weekend’s championship games is a reminder of just how much elite players on the interior of a defensive line can separate and elevate a team.
And that is why this statistic has to be exciting for the Giants. Because they already have a star player with the ability to create this kind of havoc.
His name is Dexter Lawrence. He is a two-time second-team All-Pro. And at his best, he is the kind of game-wrecker that could have the Giants at the top of these interior pressure rankings and back in the playoffs.
He already did it once.
In 2022, Lawrence and Williams — who is now leading the Seahawks — combined for 105 pressures as defensive tackle teammates on Wink Martindale’s defense, and the Giants went to the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and won a playoff game for the first time since 2011.
John Harbaugh’s relationship with quarterback Jaxson Dart has received a lot of attention for good reason. Having belief in Dart and building a team around him is an important part of this transition.
But Lawrence is the star player most likely to help Harbaugh reshape a physical and relentless Giants identity. He is the one the Giants’ new coach should spend the most time with and around this offseason.
And he is the player Harbaugh and the Giants need to support most during the offseason in free agency and the draft.
Lawrence, 28, had a down year in 2025 coming off elbow surgery. He was mentally and emotionally drained from the team’s catastrophic 2024 collapse.
It was not easy to watch good friends and team leaders like Saquon Barkley, Julian Love and Williams leave to go win with other NFC organizations — outside of being happy for them personally.
Lawrence wasn’t coached as hard or well as he had been in previous years. And the Giants only gave him a handful of potential incentives last offseason rather than making a significant upgrade to his contract.
Harbaugh needs Lawrence on this team, healthy, happy, hungry and motivated. He needs to sign and draft more defensive tackles to complement his star defensive tackle with more talent so the Giants have a rotation of reliable interior linemen — rather than an obvious and precipitous drop-off when they substitute.
Harbaugh knows how important a player Lawrence is.
One big reason for the Baltimore Ravens’ struggles on defense this season was that their stud defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike played only two games due to injury.
And the numbers show that the NFL’s best teams at getting the quarterback up the middle are the only four teams left standing here on championship weekend.
Williams is one the Giants let get away. But they still have Lawrence — and the hope that he may one day put them in this echelon of teams again.
