Yesterday, 04:26 PM
I was furious when we let Reader go.
The reason that our 2021 and, to an extent, our 2022 defenses were so effective was because Lou had several players that were "worth" more than 1 player.
Trey Hendrickson covers up the lack of a pass rush from the other side because he's so dominant.
Jessie Bates covered up a lot of the communication and missed assignment issues in the secondary because he could cover a lot of ground very quickly and had phenomenal field vision to anticipate where routes may come open.
DJ Reader was so good at stopping the run that he allowed Lou to essentially have an "8 man box" without having to creep a safety down into the box. This meant we had better coverage on the backend or could blitz more players without creating the risk that usually occurs in those types of plays.
The reason our defense has been so bad this year is because we let two of those three players go.
Sheldon Rankins, at his absolute best, is a fine pass rusher. He only had 1 truly dominant season and it was 6 years ago. His 2023 season only looked good because we, the Bengals, chose to never block him, allowing to double his sack count in a single game. In interviews, he basically said "I was waiting for them to even try and block me, but they never did."
DJ Reader may not be as good this year as previous years. He is coming off of injury after all. But even with this year's production, he would still be the best DT on this team and would greatly improve the defense.
The reason that our 2021 and, to an extent, our 2022 defenses were so effective was because Lou had several players that were "worth" more than 1 player.
Trey Hendrickson covers up the lack of a pass rush from the other side because he's so dominant.
Jessie Bates covered up a lot of the communication and missed assignment issues in the secondary because he could cover a lot of ground very quickly and had phenomenal field vision to anticipate where routes may come open.
DJ Reader was so good at stopping the run that he allowed Lou to essentially have an "8 man box" without having to creep a safety down into the box. This meant we had better coverage on the backend or could blitz more players without creating the risk that usually occurs in those types of plays.
The reason our defense has been so bad this year is because we let two of those three players go.
Sheldon Rankins, at his absolute best, is a fine pass rusher. He only had 1 truly dominant season and it was 6 years ago. His 2023 season only looked good because we, the Bengals, chose to never block him, allowing to double his sack count in a single game. In interviews, he basically said "I was waiting for them to even try and block me, but they never did."
DJ Reader may not be as good this year as previous years. He is coming off of injury after all. But even with this year's production, he would still be the best DT on this team and would greatly improve the defense.
![[Image: oN5QAdY.png]](https://i.imgur.com/oN5QAdY.png)
