Bengals releasing AJ Hawk

[leonardfan40]

(04-26-2016, 07:59 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Never claimed he was the ONLY one, but you're telling me that the middle linebacker on a defense doesn't have a large impact on a team's run defense? They started phasing him out in the final 5 games of 2015 because they were truly terrible against the run.

First 11 games: 136.7 ypg
Final 5 games: 83 ypg

Less Hawk made a big difference. Much like how Maualuga playing 95.8% of the defensive snaps in 2012 made him the worst linebacker in football, but had a decent year in 2014 when he played less than 40% of the defensive snaps.

No hate, he was what I expected him to be, not good. I'm sure he's a good dude, but not a good LB anymore.

Yeah lets just blame that all on AJ Hawk. There's not a million different variables that go into rushing yards. Like idk, the opponents they played. Lets look at those last 5 teams they played in 2014 and their rushing rankings that year...

Patriots 18th
Falcons 24th
Bills 25th
Bucs 29th
Lions 28th

Not one of those teams was ranked in the top half of the league in rushing, and not one averaged over 4 ypc. For comparison 8 of their first 11 opponents were in the top 14 of the league in rushing, and all but one averaged over 4 ypc