04-14-2020, 09:56 AM
(04-13-2020, 03:11 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: IMO, Dhani looked better than he was - by default, because our LB's were in such bad shape when we signed him. He was a smart, Chris Crocker-like player for us, but he was close to being out of the league before we signed him.
He was without a job 2 weeks into the season, but I think he was far from washed up. He was only 29 and he had been a starter for 5 straight years with the Eagles and Giants before the Bengals signed him in 2007. He had started for 3 playoff teams ('02 Giants, '04 Eagles, '06 Eagles) two of which had top ten defenses ('02, '04). He started in the Super Bowl for the '04 Eagles.
His timing with the Bengals was perfect. The first half of the '07 season the Bengals had a horrid defense (32nd points, 31st yards). In the 8th game of the year a Bills team with an offense that would rank 31st in the league embarrassed the Bengals defense for 17 fourth quarter points in a come from behind win. The next week the Bengals rolled out a rebuilt unit. Cornerback Deltha O'Neal was benched for rookie Leon Hall. Starting SLB Rashad Jeanty returned from injury to replace Robert Geathers. Geather moved back to DE replacing Bryan Robinson. And finally, Dhani Jones replaced Landon Johnson at WLB allowing Johnson to replace Anthony Schlegal at MLB. In total they had new starters at 5 positions and no off week to prepare, but the new unit played brilliantly. They held the Ravens to 272 yards and 7 points. Over the final half of the season the defense ranked 8th in yards per game, and after a 2-6 start they finished 5-3.
Next year a guy named Mike Zimmer came to town, and over the next three seasons Dhani was #11 in the league tackles and the Bengals defense ranked #9 in yards allowed.
