After 11 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, DeMarcus Lawrence joined the Seattle Seahawks to chase a championship.
The veteran defensive end has had a significant impact on the Seahawks’ defense, both on and off the field.
Lawrence’s leadership has been credited with elevating the performance of younger players on the team.
The Seahawks, with a dominant defense, earned the NFC’s No. 1 seed and are favored to reach Super Bowl 60.
This is why DeMarcus Lawrence came to the Seattle Seahawks. After 11 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys – and one playoff disappointment after another – the veteran defensive end is in his best position yet to chase a championship.
The Seahawks, bringing a dominant defense that Lawrence impacts in multiple ways, will host the San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 17 as the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. Having tied a franchise record with 14 regular-season victories, they are favored to ultimately reach Super Bowl 60.
“Being in one place for 11 years and now to come out here to Seattle, even though it’s dark and rainy all the time, it’s definitely refreshing,” Lawrence told USA TODAY Sports, chatting after leaving the Seahawks headquarters during the bye week.
“It’s so special. All I can do is pray about it, put one foot in front of the other and continue to work while chasing dreams.”
You don’t have to remind Lawrence – nursing an Achilles injury that Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald downplays as a concern – that nothing is guaranteed. Lawrence played in eight playoff games during his Cowboys tenure, yet his teams never advanced past the divisional round.
Yes, he’s been on a team that earned a No. 1 seed. But that didn’t quite pan out as the 2016 Cowboys were upset by the Green Bay Packers in their playoff opener.
Now he’s the so-called “old man” on a unit decidedly light on playoff experience. It’s no wonder Lawrence maintains, “Being where I am right now, it’s a great opportunity for me to have more clarity.”
In other words, don’t squander the moment. As the team’s elder statesmen, the 33-year-old is well-equipped to underscore the urgency.
“For a guy to be in this position at this stage of his career, he’ll tell you – he’s told me this – he understands the moment much more than he did in some of those Dallas years,” Leslie Frazier, the Seahawks assistant head coach and defensive specialist, told USA TODAY Sports. “You don’t know how many more times you’re going to be in this position.
“He’s capturing the moment and making sure everybody else understands that this doesn’t happen all the time. You need veteran guys like that. So, it means a lot to him, obviously, in so many ways. And then to make the Pro Bowl? At this stage of his career? He’s savoring these moments. It’s a special year.”
Lawrence’s free-agent signing an immediate impact for Seahawks
As Frazier alluded to, Lawrence’s impact on one of the NFL’s best defenses has been all-encompassing. Part of a deep defensive line rotation, the left end has led so well by example. His rich stat line from the regular season includes six sacks, 11 tackles for loss and three forced fumbles that tied for the league lead.
In Week 17 at Carolina, he punched out the football from Chuba Hubbard for the turnover early in the second half that set up a touchdown and ignited a significant momentum shift – one play after a Sam Darnold interception. In Week 10 against Arizona, Lawrence returned two fumbles for touchdowns that contributed to a rout and NFC Player of the Week honors.
To Frazier, a former defensive back who was part of an historic unit that led the Chicago Bears to a Super Bowl 20 crown, those highlight moments only begin to tap into the value Lawrence has demonstrated since he joined the Seahawks in what has proven to be one of the best offseason free agent signings (three years, $32.5 million) in the league. It helped that GM John Schneider and Macdonald had an edge in luring Lawrence, who followed defensive coordinator Aden Durde from Dallas. Durde was Lawrence’s position coach with the Cowboys.
“He gets in our building and we’re going through Phase 1, Phase 2 of the offseason program, and you immediately see the transformation in some of our young guys, like Byron Murphy (II) and (Nick) Emmanwori,” Frazier said, referring to the second-year defensive tackle and rookie safety, respectively. “The influence that he had on their performance in practice, and then that’s kind of carried over to what we see now in the games.
“It’s just that his influence goes beyond the impact plays, but also in the meetings, how he handles himself in practice. It just raises everybody else’s level. He’s a pro in so many ways. What he’s in practice, and in the locker room and the meeting rooms, those are the intangibles that the fans don’t see. He’s helped raise everybody’s play.”
Seahawks’ ‘Dark Side’ defense embraces Lawrence’s mentality
Emmanwori can vouch for that. The versatile South Carolina product has had an impressive debut campaign, but it began with adversity. He missed three games after suffering a high ankle sprain during the Seahawks’ season-opening loss against the 49ers. By his account, he was a bit timid when he returned nearly a month later.
The attention from Lawrence, an Aiken, S.C. native, made a huge difference; he implored the rookie to “stay hard.”
“My mental wasn’t really all there,” Emmanwori told USA TODAY Sports. “I was trying to figure out how my body felt. He could kind see me visibly kind of going through it.”
Lawrence: “Me and Nick, we’re from the same dirt, man. That’s my South Carolina guy. It’s beautiful to see the kind of talent that Nick has at a young age. I reminded him, ‘The injury is there and gone. Now it’s about the mindset.
“‘How hard are you going to approach things? When it starts to ache, are you going to stay strong or are you going to punk out?’ So, it was really about just keeping him mentally strong in those moments. And he’s been handling it so well.”
Of course, that mentality has worked across the board for the Seahawks defense. Seattle’s sixth-ranked defense has allowed an NFL-low 17.2 points per game, while yielding the fewest yards per rush (3.7) and lowest third-down conversion rate for opponents (32.1%) in the league.
And the unit has its own nickname, the “Dark Side.”
“We never hit anything alone,” Lawrence said, referring to the swarm mentality. “That’s how we roll, man.”
And if it’s up to Lawrence, the Seahawks will keep rolling – all the way to Santa Clara.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell