Sexy Has Left The Building
Sexy Dexy is a Bengal.
I am not happy about it, but the result seemed somewhat inevitable.
The Joe Schoen era has been marred by a distinctive history of letting good players go and watching them be a massive boon to other teams. Many of these decisions made some sense in the moment, but they always seem to come back to kicking the Giants in the dick. Leonard Williams came over from the Jets and was a massive boost to a strong interior line with Dex. But he was going to be pricey to keep, so they sent him to Seattle for picks. Leonard Williams made bank in Seattle and became a staple on the line for the newest defending champion.
Julian Love, who was not the caliber player Williams was but was still a good safety, walked in Free Agency to the same team, and both got to celebrate this year.
Saquon Barkley’s exit from the team has been so thoroughly documented we don’t need to rehash it here.
Xavier McKinney, a stud safety and one of Gettleman’s better picks, walked in free agency to the Packers the same year as Saquon. He immediately became an all-pro on an excellent (but so far underachieving) Packers team. Saquon’s contract dispute was complicated and his exit was the result of a lot of compounding factors. There was no such excuse for letting McKinney walk. They should have paid him.
And our newest “Escape From New York” success story comes with Daniel Jones. Much maligned, barely respected, overpaid, and unceremoniously jettisoned to save cap space on their own mistake. He goes to Indianapolis and plays like a new man on the best offense in football until his injury.
I absolutely believe Dex is the next one and it makes me sad. Paying Dex was one of Joe Schoen’s early wins. One of Schoen’s first big moves was locking Dex up long-term on a deal that was lucrative AND team-friendly. When all else failed, we could take solace in our big sexy bowling ball in the middle, putting unheard of pressures on QBs.
Dex dislocated his elbow in 2024 and had a down year in 2025. A down year for Dex was still better than most NTs in the league, but now that his contract’s guaranteed money was up, that fact was being used against him in extension negotiations. I don’t know what happened but it seemed like they reached an impasse. He was traded to Cincinnati for the 10th pick in the draft, a pick that would become Miami OT Francis Mauigoa.
Unless Mauigoa becomes an all-star himself, this was a loss as far as I’m concerned. Players like Dex are very hard to come by. You are supposed to keep them. It especially hurts since the Giants didn’t spend any draft capital on the now extremely weak interior until round 6, and then recently signed veteran run stuffer Shelby Harris. The Giants needed run defense because they sucked even with Dex on the field, but Shelby Harris (and potentially DJ Reader) isn’t Dex. At least Arvell Reese should help.
Dex adds an instant boost to Cincy and I’m happy he at least went to a team I can root for. As much as I wanted to keep him, it seems like he just ran out of patience with the franchise and there isn’t much you can do when a player just doesn’t want to be there. Can’t say I blame him. His tenure here has been marked by failure, farce, and one fluke playoff win. I’m glad the Giants got something for him instead of letting him waltz out the door Saquon/McKinney style.
Godspeed Dex. Go rip up the AFC North. I almost bought your jersey, and now I’m once again glad I didn’t spend money on a jersey for a modern Giant. I hope Harbaugh can generate a culture that players want to stay for. He’s off to a bad start.
Not to nitpick, but I think Mauigoa went to Miami, not UoF.
You right, I’ve always had some weird tendency to blend those two together in my brain
It sucks to lose Dex, he was so good. I’m not sad about him leaving from the reports on how upset he was that he wasn’t getting an extension halfway through his contract. He had a down year, he shouldn’t then be asking for more money when he is still on a relatively new contract. We don’t need guys who may be locker room disasters during a new coaching staffs first year and our first full year with Dart. Let’s get everyone on the same page.
I 1000000% agree. I will never fault a player for wanting money, but I don’t think they should always be given it. The ‘unofficial’ reports I heard was that this one had nothing to do with money… dude just didn’t want to stay with the team. So what were the options? Pay a shit ton of money to keep him sorta-ok-enough-to-stay, and now we have a malcontent in the locker room, like you said? F@#%# NO!
I think this is a PERFECT first move for the John Harbaugh era. He’s walking the walk. He said he wanted players who WANT to be on this team and talk football football football. Dex wasn’t all-in, fine. Go somewhere else, we got a Top 10 pick for you, that’s a win, considering in the past Schoen would have tag’n’dragged it out until he just left and got nothing in return. This is very different from McKinney or Barkley. Those were guys who still seemed all-in, but just wanted some money. Dex seemed all-out. You can talk about the elbow all you want, that MFer didn’t even try last year, I don’t care how many double teams he got, there was clearly a disconnect in his level of effort.
I will never doubt Dex’s talent, but I’d rather have a guy with half the talent who is happy to be a Giant than an all-pro who just can’t be bothered to GAF.