The other side of the coin. Adding Chris Baker and Preston Brown especially were also huge moves. Preston Brown might
be the best tackling Linebacker in the NFL. He tackles RB's in the backfield and stays healthy and out of trouble. Preston is
exactly the type of LB this Defense needed to add and he is in his prime.

Also think that Billings will get much better this year once he is finally over that ACL injury. Those injuries take time as we
saw with Geno when he was a shell of himself after his ACL tear. I also like Glasgow.

Need to improve big time in stopping the run from last year if we are going to get back being a top Defense.

Brown was a good signing. Not as sold on Baker. Hopefully Billings progresses and gets even better. Stopping the run would go a long way in improving this D.

Gosh, we're all going to have to learn how to spell 'Formatable ..formedable..fermentable... Oh wait . Formidable! That's the ticket ! A formidable defense!  In the old days it was always formattable...maybe form a dabble.. 

Thought they'd improve with Draft Pick - Brown - Burfict as a LB group, but now it's going to likely be either Vigil/Evans - Brown - Rey or... Vigil/Evans - Brown - Draft Pick.... neither are an improvement.

(03-16-2018, 05:12 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Thought they'd improve with Draft Pick - Brown - Burfict as a LB group, but now it's going to likely be either Vigil/Evans - Brown - Rey or... Vigil/Evans - Brown - Draft Pick.... neither are an improvement.

But only for 4 games.

Not to be a downer, but WalterFootball.com has Preston Brown rated low (1.5 stars out of 5 possible), even below Minter and Hodges (2 stars). So, to be a leading tackler, does he really have a nose for the ball and attack, or does he chase guys down from behind? I really hope it's the first case. Maybe that's why he couldn't get a long-term Buffalo deal done. I'd sure like to see some tape. The PFF ratings look ok.

that's Zach brown...but yes Preston looks n plays like Burfict

(03-16-2018, 05:47 PM)Socal Bengals fan Wrote: that's Zach brown...but yes Preston looks n plays like Burfict

Deleted it. I youtubed and searched for him pulled up Zach Brown. Super awkward. In my defense, I'm at work and don't want to be here lol.

(03-16-2018, 05:01 PM)muskiesfan Wrote: Brown was a good signing. Not as sold on Baker. Hopefully Billings progresses and gets even better. Stopping the run would go a long way in improving this D.

For sure, not sold on Baker either but he was very disruptive a couple years ago in Washington and he is a good run stopper
and an upgrade over Sims at the very least. Billings i think will be the dude that really breaks out of nowhere this year, but i
thought he would be much better than he was towards the latter end of the year. We will see with him.

Some of that was mental when Billings was getting washed out of plays. Easily fixed, he is still very young, lots to learn.

(03-16-2018, 05:12 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Thought they'd improve with Draft Pick - Brown - Burfict as a LB group, but now it's going to likely be either Vigil/Evans - Brown - Rey or... Vigil/Evans - Brown - Draft Pick.... neither are an improvement.

Neither Vigil, Evans or Rey are SAM backers, they are primarily WILL backers and so is Burfict.

Lets say Roquan Smith falls to 21 cause of his injury, could he play SAM you think?

Then you take Ragnow in the 2nd if Price is gone.

(03-16-2018, 04:58 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: The other side of the coin. Adding Chris Baker and Preston Brown especially were also huge moves. Preston Brown might
be the best tackling Linebacker in the NFL. He tackles RB's in the backfield and stays healthy and out of trouble. Preston is
exactly the type of LB this Defense needed to add and he is in his prime.

Also think that Billings will get much better this year once he is finally over that ACL injury. Those injuries take time as we
saw with Geno when he was a shell of himself after his ACL tear. I also like Glasgow.

Need to improve big time in stopping the run from last year if we are going to get back being a top Defense.

Agree with everything you said, expect we’ve always disagreed with Billings. I liked him coming out of the draft but I think he might be a tad overhyped by some Bengals fans. I personally did that with Dawson coming out of TCU. Billings had a mencius tear on one of the the 1st days of training camp in his rookie year, Geno completely torn his ACL mid season. I think the injury could have affected him but not to that degree. Hopefully he does well this year if not we need Baker to step up. Agreed we need to get better at stopping the run. Too many 5 yard runs on 1st down, plus Bell from Pitt runs all over us. If we can get in passing downs I like are personal, with Lasown, Dunlap and Geno Rushing and the emergence of Jackson III and Dennard.

(03-16-2018, 06:34 PM)lone bengal Wrote: Agree with everything you said, expect we’ve always disagreed with Billings. I liked him coming out of the draft but I think he might be a tad overhyped by some Bengals fans. I personally did that with Dawson coming out of TCU.  Billings had a mencius tear on one of the the 1st days of training camp in his rookie year, Geno completely torn his ACL mid season. I think the injury could have affected him but not to that degree. Hopefully he does well this year if not we need Baker to step up. Agreed we need to get better at stopping the run. Too many 5 yard runs on 1st down, plus Bell from Pitt runs all over us. If we can get in passing downs I like are personal, with Lasown, Dunlap and Geno Rushing and the emergence of Jackson III and Dennard.

Thanks for that on Billings i guess i was told it was an ACL tear just like Billings and just always ran with it.

Straighten me out man

Thats the thing, if we can stop the run and force teams to throw, our pass rushers can pin their ears back more often.

Amazing we got as many sacks and pressures as we did with how bad we were on 1st and 2nd down stopping the run.

We also need to be more aggressive and play more man to man and less passive cushion zone with our Corners.

Blitz once in awhile too and not only at the QB, run blitzes can sometimes change the course of a game.

Have to gamble a bit.

(03-16-2018, 05:34 PM)fredtoast Wrote: But only for 4 games.

Plus at least the 3+ games he'll inevitably be injured for.

That's not even pessimism. That's just reality. Dude's missed games each of the last 3 seasons with concussions. Concussions only get easier to get/worse to deal with the more you have.

(03-16-2018, 09:27 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Plus at least the 3+ games he'll inevitably be injured for.

That's not even pessimism. That's just reality. Dude's missed games each of the last 3 seasons with concussions. Concussions only get easier to get/worse to deal with the more you have.

Yeah, sucks, Burfict won't be around too long.

Sure love watching the guy play.

How sad is it when i have to bump my own thread about our second biggest weaknees?

Need to stop the run and this needs to be addressed.

(03-16-2018, 06:19 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: For sure, not sold on Baker either but he was very disruptive a couple years ago in Washington and he is a good run stopper
and an upgrade over Sims at the very least. Billings i think will be the dude that really breaks out of nowhere this year, but i
thought he would be much better than he was towards the latter end of the year. We will see with him.

Some of that was mental when Billings was getting washed out of plays. Easily fixed, he is still very young, lots to learn.


Neither Vigil, Evans or Rey are SAM backers, they are primarily WILL backers and so is Burfict.

Lets say Roquan Smith falls to 21 cause of his injury, could he play SAM you think?

Then you take Ragnow in the 2nd if Price is gone.

I don't think Smith will be there, but there is slight hope maybe Edmunds will be.... 

(03-16-2018, 09:27 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Plus at least the 3+ games he'll inevitably be injured for.

That's not even pessimism. That's just reality.

Then lets make a sig bet with you giving me 10 to 1 odds.  You win you control my sig for one week.  I win I control yours for 10 weeks.

Since your position is "reality" you have no chance of losing, so you will gladly make this bet, right?

I think our focus has been to stop the run and I think they've done a good job of that. They may need a run stopping DE to replace MJ eventually. Even with the young DE's we have on the roster.

(03-16-2018, 05:41 PM)Yogo Wrote: Not to be a downer, but WalterFootball.com has Preston Brown rated low (1.5 stars out of 5 possible), even below Minter and Hodges (2 stars).  So, to be a leading tackler, does he really have a nose for the ball and attack, or does he chase guys down from behind?  I really hope it's the first case.  Maybe that's why he couldn't get a long-term Buffalo deal done.  I'd sure like to see some tape.  The PFF ratings look ok.

Walterfootball is a schmuck. The long term deal didn't happen because Buffalo's ownership gave their GM an order to unload salary because their cap was bloated. They offered him a deal, but couldn't give out big money. It falls in line with a lot of the other moves they made this off season.

(03-16-2018, 05:41 PM)Yogo Wrote: So, to be a leading tackler, does he really have a nose for the ball and attack, or does he chase guys down from behind?

You can't be a leading tackler by just chasing people down from behind unless you are the human flash.

Good players can shed blocks and get to ball carriers.

Bad players can not shed blocks so they don't get to the ball carrier.

I can not remember a season when the leading tackler was a bum who just ran people down from behind.

(03-19-2018, 01:04 PM)Au165 Wrote: Walterfootball is a schmuck.

I don't know anything about Walterfootball, but if they have Brown ranked below Minter then they have some sort of serious problem.