This time, and this season, Dexter Lawrence won’t fly under the radar.
The stats from 2022 are a reason for that.
The massive numbers next to his name on the Giants’ salary cap — due to a four-year, $90 million extension signed in May — only added attention.
Opponents will make him the center of their scouting reports, starting Sept. 10 when the Giants open the year against the Cowboys on “Sunday Night Football.”
Everything associated with the defense will always connect back to Lawrence, too.
The continuity from Year 2 in coordinator Wink Martindale’s system is supposed to pay dividends.
Lawrence’s production will be judged from that.
The Giants are supposed to take another step forward — perhaps inching closer to the NFC East’s top — and prove their 2022 success wasn’t a fluke.
Lawrence’s role will be pivotal, and anything short of matching that standard could lead to him holding some responsibility.
But even after the contract, and even after the breakout campaign in which he recorded 7.5 sacks (after nine his first three seasons) and 28 quarterback hits (after 30 between 2019-22), Lawrence said he just wants to keep “proving myself everyday.”
If that works out, and if it coincides with the Giants taking a step forward, too, Lawrence’s contract that made him the third-highest paid defensive tackle in the NFL will be more than worth it.
“I know that a lot more eyes, quote-unquote pressure, that people try to put on you and my position,” Lawrence told The Post after practice Thursday, “but I don’t really buy into that. I know who I am as a player, and I know the things I need to get better at. And I know what to do to get better at those things.
“So I think for me, it’s just endless. I want the plays that I made last year and the ones I missed.”
Though Lawrence tried to downplay the pressure Thursday, he vocalized earlier in training camp that the Giants needed to be done with “building.”
That started happening when he arrived as first-round pick in 2019, and the Giants won just four games in Pat Shurmur’s final year. The Joe Judge experiment didn’t pan out, either.
And four weeks after Lawrence’s comment, after his theory that the Giants should progress beyond the construction phase and mold their core pieces into something sustainable, he told The Post that signs have emerged that, in fact, this could actually happen.
“I think this team has came into work everyday and just tried to be better,” Lawrence said. “Not make the same mistake that we made the day before and grow, and just hold each other accountable. And just the leadership is just amazing on this team, and I respect a lot of guys on here.
“A lot of guys been here through all the losing, and to have one good season, it felt good. But we all know that we can do more and we’re excited to just keep working and prove ourselves week in and week out.”
His claim that the Giants could accomplish more in 2023 — not quite the lofty proclamation from wideout Sterling Shepard that the Giants want to hang a Super Bowl “banner,” but close —- marked a stark contrast from what general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll publicly declared ahead of the season.
And even after Schoen’s comments at the end of last season — when he admitted there was a “talent gap” among the Giants, Cowboys and Eagles atop the NFC East — the second-year GM opted to take the “we’ll see” approach during his press conference Thursday.
Schoen pumped the brakes on the Giants’ 2023 expectations.
He wouldn’t admit they could, or should, compete for the NFC East title. Wouldn’t say that Cowboys and Eagles games matter more than others — referencing the Giants went 1-4-1 in the division and still made the playoffs last year — since they could be litmus tests.
Wouldn’t even say that the Giants’ offense should have more big-play potential than last year.
“I’m not gonna say we’re gonna do X, Y and Z,” Schoen said, “but I think if we focus on our process, we’ll see results.”
Lawrence said the measuring sticks will arrive when the Giants “hit adversity during the season.” In the earliest days of his career, they’d slam into those obstacles and never recover. Nine- and five-game losing streaks in 2019 and 2020, respectively, derailed Lawrence’s first two seasons.
This time, though, the Giants have the potential to reverse their recent history. And this time, Lawrence will be at the forefront of that quest.
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