Two years ago, it looked like trading up to draft Lawrence was going to turn out to be a great move. After moving and adjusting to playing left end, Lawrence was becoming a terror against both the run and the pass in 2015, consistently in the backfield, after missing a lot of his rookie year and flashing during the playoffs in 2014.
Then came the suspension and back problems, and we only saw a brief flash of the Lawrence of 2015 last year. With him coming off back surgery, we may never see that player again, but we at least were shown what Lawrence can be when he's healthy.
I consider him a lot like Tyrone Crawford, another player who gets flak for his play dropping off. Crawford played like he was on his way to being a star at 3-tech in 2014, virtually keeping free agent acquisition Henry Melton in a rotation role. He only ended up with three sacks, but Crawford's disruption was easy to see. The next year, he actually recorded five sacks and started all 16 games, but it also was easy to see that he wasn't as disruptive and it turned out that he played through barely being able to lift one of his arms above his head.
Injuries continued to limit his effectiveness last year, despite the fact he had 4.5 sacks mostly playing out of position at left end, and may keep us from ever seeing the Crawford of 2014 again.
If healthy and the injuries haven't taken a toll, though, I have no doubt that both of these players could contribute to this defense being able to apply more pressure. It'll be interesting to see if those injuries lead to younger, healthier replacements taking their reps or if they end up leading the charge instead.
