Bill Barnwell Apr 19, 2026, 12:10 AM ET

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Bill Barnwell is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. He analyzes football on and off the field like no one else on the planet, writing about in-season X's and O's, offseason transactions and so much more.

He is the host of the Bill Barnwell Show podcast , with episodes released weekly. Barnwell joined ESPN in 2011 as a staff writer at Grantland.

When I was putting together my trade tiers column over the summer and listing all the players who might land a first-round pick or more via a deal, Dexter Lawrence II was the very last cut. The Giants defensive tackle was a preeminent force on the interior and coming off a nine-sack season, but there were plenty of coverage sacks or secondary pressures factored into those totals, and Lawrence was already deep into his second contract, a point at which teams around the league had grown reluctant to trade first-round picks for even standout players.

Well, the game has changed.…