OL hits and sacks - Joe Goodberry

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(04-14-2021, 03:40 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Yeah, I doubt Marshall lasts that long too. Just saying if he did, I would be happy with picking him or your guy Freiermuth
after we got Sewell and then go dipping back into the OL pool in the 3rd or 4th. Lou has been terrible but you also have to 
take into account the injuries, especially at DT last season, we were decimated there with backups at best playing.

Maybe if we can stay healthy, get the O-line shored up so we can protect Burrow and open holes in the running game just
not having to be on the field so much will really help the Defense.

Sure, but also...

Carlos Dunlap
Carl Lawson
Sam Hubbard

...combined for 8.5 sacks in a total of 36 games worth of playing. I'm not saying that's an all-world DE group there or anything, but if that's all Lou can get out of a reasonably talented DE group that only missed 3 total games for health reasons, then adding more pass rushers isn't going to help much.

Even when healthy, DJ Reader wasn't tearing it up either. If you care at all about PFF, he had his worst grade under Lou since his rookie year. If you don't care about PFF, he had only 0.0 sacks, 1 TFL, and 1 QB hit in 5 games. Even if you say that none of those stats are his job, the Bengals allowed 792 rushing yards in the 5 games he was active for. That's 158.4 rushing yards per game, which would have been the 30th worst rushing defense in the NFL (compared to the 29th the finished the season at).

Throwing even more FA $ and draft capital at Lou's defense is a pointless endeavor because he won't get results with it. I also worry that the more the Bengals do to make it "Lou's guys", the more will have to be undone when someone actually competent comes in. 3 years of "rebuilding" to Lou's defense and then another 2 rebuilding to an actual NFL-level defense seems scarily close to reality.