NFL Tiger ‘Rewriting What Was Thought to Be Possible’ at His Position - Former Clemson DL Ranked High Among Top 50 NFL Players

This week, a national outlet unveiled its list of the NFL’s best players heading into the 2024 season.

One Clemson pro made the 2024 PFF50 – Pro Football Focus’s ranking of the top 50 players in the NFL, based on multiple factors including past performance, future potential and overall impact.

Former Tiger defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence came in high on the list, just missing the top 10.

PFF ranked the New York Giants stalwart as the 11th-best player in the league entering 2024, with PFF’s Sam Monson stating that Lawrence is “rewriting what was thought to be possible at the nose tackle position.”

“Over the past two seasons, his resume includes 81 quarterback pressures when lining up either head-up over the center or shaded to either side of the center,” Monson wrote. “The next-closest player has 16. Lawrence disrupts the game from a true nose-tackle alignment better than any player PFF has seen over the past 18 seasons. He is a truly unique athlete who is only getting better.”

That’s very high and well-deserved praise for Lawrence, who earned his second consecutive All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors last season.

The 6-foot-4, 340-pounder was once again dominant over 16 games in 2023, when he stuffed the stat sheet while racking up 21 quarterback hits, 4.5 sacks, 53 tackles (32 solo), seven tackles for loss, two passes defended and 60-plus total pressures.

Lawrence is now entering his sixth NFL season after being selected by the Giants in the first round (17th overall) of the 2019 draft. He has racked up 266 total tackles, 28 tackles for loss and 21 sacks in 80 career games (73 starts) thus far in his NFL career.

Prior to establishing himself as one of the NFL’s best at his position, Lawrence completed his three-year Clemson career (2016-18) with 162 tackles, 20 tackles for loss, 11 sacks, 43 quarterback pressures, five pass breakups, a caused fumble and three recovered fumbles over 40 games (36 starts). The two-time national champion was a three-time All-ACC selection and a first-team All-American in 2018.

In the PFF50 ranking, Lawrence is the second-highest ranked interior defensive lineman behind only five-time All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowler Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs (No. 6), while Lawrence is ranked directly ahead of star quarterbacks Josh Allen (No. 12) and Lamar Jackson (No. 13).

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