In from Dallas, ‘crazy as hell’ DeMarcus Lawrence sets a new Seahawks example
“The giant on film” DeMarcus Lawrence had been waiting a loooooooooong time for this.
The first day in full pads of Seahawks training camp this week was the first day the 33-year-old defensive end had been in shoulder pads in almost a full year. Ten months ago, he sustained a unique, Lisfranc fracture in the top middle of his foot. His 2024 season, and 11 years playing for the Dallas Cowboys, ended in week four last fall.
So his first Seattle training camp this summer is a tad more meaningful than the last 10 or so camps he had in Dallas.
“Really, just out here trying to perfect my craft, to get back in the game,” Lawrence told The News Tribune off the edge of the Seahawks practice field.
“I had a pretty long off season. Like, ain’t played football ever since September.”
After his Lisfranc injury of displaced bones and ligaments at the top of Lawrence’s foot, the Cowboys let their long-time edge setter and team leader go this past winter. But Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider believed Lawrence was healthy again following the injury — and that he still has the talent and ability Lawrence had making his third and fourth Pro Bowl teams in the 2022 and ‘23 seasons.
So in March Seattle gave Lawrence a three-year contract, past his 36th birthday, worth $42 million with $18 million guaranteed.
One week into his 12th NFL training camp, Lawrence is showing Macdonald and Schneider may be right.
Monday in the first camp practice in pads during a one-on-one pass-rush drill, the 6-foot-3, 251-pound Lawrence bull rushed into the chest plate of Abe Lucas. The force of Lawrence’s leg drive and violent, two-handed blow lifted the 331-pound starting right tackle off both feet. It blew him back two yards into the backfield.
The 20-something studs in the NFL call that “old-man strength.”
During practice Tuesday Lawrence, the second-oldest player on the Seahawks’ roster at 28 days younger than fellow 33-year-old nose tackle Johnathan Hankins, looked almost paternal. After taking his lead turn in a defensive linemen drill, Lawrence kneeled to watch his teammates go through it.
He looked like a dad watching his kids perform.
Lawrence is a perfectionist in those drills. In every drill.
Coach Mike Macdonald is marveling about Lawrence’s focus and attention to detail in practice after a spring of offseason practice and just one week into the defensive end’s first Seattle training camp,.
“He’s the best drill player I’ve ever seen in my life,” Macdonald, 37, said. “You could ask him to do any drill known to mankind, and just the trust he has on why you’re doing it. ...it is 1,000% every rep, the intent of what he’s trying to create.”
Later in practice Tuesday, a linebacker rushing off the edge in a one-on-one pass-rush drill with the offensive lineman jumped offside before the snap. Lawrence immediately barked at him, and his defensive coaches, like a drill sergeant.
“If you jump offside, get someone else in there!” Lawrence bellowed. “If they jump offside, they’re NOT ready!”
Macdonald, the head coach and defensive mastermind, is all for that.
“That’s the standard he’s setting for our (defensive) front,” Macdonald said, “so the guys don’t have a choice but to fall in line.”
Derick Hall bonds with DeMarcus Lawrence
Lawrence has a particular bond already with outside linebacker Derick Hall. It’s not paternal.
Hall is nine years Lawrence’s junior — and something of an instigator when training-camp practices going against offensive linemen get heated.
“They’re both crazy as hell,” defensive tackle Jarran Reed said.
He meant it as a compliment.
“We joke around saying ‘D-Law’ (Lawrence) has the little brother he never had, and ‘D-Hall’ has the big brother he never had,” Seahawks Pro Bowl defensive end Leonard Williams, also in his 30s, said. “They’re competing, talking smack with each other all the time. But they’re also giving each other tips.
“D-Law is a great veteran for (Hall) to have right now.”
Williams agrees with Reed.
“’D-Hall’ is one of those aggressive mentality type of guys. I wouldn’t say bully, but for lack of better terms we’ll use that word. He’s like the bully,” Williams said.
“But when he runs into ‘D-Law,’ who doesn’t take that type of stuff, he finally met somebody that can clash back with him.”
DeMarcus Lawrence size and fit
In his 11 years with the Cowboys, Lawrence was a hand-on-the-ground defensive end. That’s the position at which the Seahawks list him.
Yet each day during the initial special-teams portion of practice, defensive coordinator Aden Durde takes Lawrence plus outside linebackers Hall and Boye Mafe to a side of one field to work on stand-up pass-rush moves.
Seahawks coaches appear to be exploring the facts Lawrence is only 251 pounds — linebacker-like size — but with the strength, experience, ability and mentality of a nasty defensive end.
“I mean, I’ve stood up a little in my career,” Lawrence said. “(But) I like to put my hand in the dirt, get a little grimy, you know.”
He smiled.
He’s seems destined to become another versatile player in a defensive front Macdonald moves around in different spots and roles depending on the down and distance. Multiplicity and deception are Macdonald’s aims on Seattle’s defense. If the offense can’t figure out if Lawrence is a standup outside linebacker or a defensive end down on the line, all the better.
“This is probably the best compliment I have: He looks like a giant on film. Hopefully that paints a picture for you,” Macdonald said. “I don’t know what his actual measurements are. I think he’s 6’3” and something, 250 lbs and something.
“That’s how he plays.”
Learning Mike Macdonald’s system
Despite this being his 12th NFL training camp, Lawrence said he’s learning Macdonald’s tricky schemes like all Seahawks who weren’t here last year for the coach’s first season in Seattle.
“I actually didn’t know about it before I got here,” Lawrence said.
“But when I got here I learned quick he’s a wizard. Thankful I’ve got him behind me. He’s dialin’ things up.”
What makes Macdonald a wizard to a 33-year-old veteran?
Lawrence is too wily to give away secrets in specifics of Macdonald’s schemes.
“Just his style of play, his play calls,” he said. “He sets us up to make plays and puts us in the right position.”
As for that confusion Macdonald creates on defense, Lawrence doesn’t think like an offensive player.
“What confusion? Not for me. Man, this is my 12th year,” he said. “I’m a student of the game. I love the game.
“Just being out there, starting to get back in your climate, you start to understand what’s coming.”
So what’s next for Lawrence?
In 11 years in Dallas he had four Pro Bowl selections, recognition as a Top 100 player in the NFL by his playing peers in 2018, ‘19 and ‘23, one NFC defensive player of the month award, 61 1/2 career sacks (with a career-high 14 1/2 in 2017). He’s earned $127 million in his NFL career.
So what’s left? What are his goals in Seattle?
It’s to do something he’s yet to do.
“That’s the thing: I’ve reached all those personal goals in my career,” he said. “So my main goal is to win a Super Bowl.
“(Also) build a bond with my teammates. Have a great camaraderie, you know, great communication. Just build that community.
“That’s why I’m a Seahawk baby, huh? Glad to be here, and, you know, excited.
“Appreciate y’all time.”
And with that, the new Seahawks “giant on film” with exacting standards and ways he operates just walked away from The News Tribune’s reporter and videographer.
Off to, as he says, perfect his craft, and hold his new teammates accountable.
“You know what he can do on the field; the tape speaks for itself,” Macdonald said. “But you understand how it comes to life based on how he works.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
