2024 Defensive Personnel Failures

[*ochocincos*]

(12-02-2024, 02:18 PM)Au165 Wrote: I actually feel decently optimistic about Jenkins and Jackson. I think both of their injuries slowed their progress but you can see flashes which is more than we can say for most of our rookie selections up front over the last few seasons. Stone and Rankins were just bad swings at guys who flashed on contract years and were products of systems that let them excel. I think both will be gone this year along with Bell as we take another swing at FA. To be fair though, we have had luck in the past trying that approach with guys like Trey, Awuzie, Bell (version 1.0).

Awuzie was never really the same dude after being hurt so I think that ship had kind of sailed. We did however put a ton of faith on internal talent rather than bringing in at least one outside vet to try and provide some help. It's unfortunate Hill and Turner got hurt because both seemed to be coming into their own a bit but the sample size was too small to really know. Now we are in a weird situation where we are going to have to go get a vet in the offseason because we don't know. 

The edge guys are just a bit of a lost cause at this point. Murphy has great get off but still is too raw as a pass rusher and can't win consistently. Hubbard is shot and the fanbase is going to need to accept he is a straight cut candidate, he makes WAY too much money. It has been said ad nauseam around here but it really is insane how bad this team has been at drafting both sides of the line. In a league where premier rushers are super expensive, you HAVE to be able to atleast draft one decent rusher to make things work. The fact we haven't drafted a good pass rusher in a decade is an indictment on the people, their evaluation process, and the organization as a whole. 

The reason this whole thing needs blown up is because they can't begin to fix this thing from the front and if you have proven you can't build the foundation after so long trying then someone else needs to get a shot. In a perfect world it would start with firing Tobin, but I don't think they will do it, so instead you fire Anarumo and his whole staff and start from scratch. If we are making a schematic shift get the new staff in immediately and figure out what the shopping list looks like. Then we need to go create some magic in FA, specifically on the edge and try to add someone who can provide some juice opposite Trey and a veteran in the secondary. 

You're right, both Jenkins and Jackson have shown flashes, but not really as pass rushers.
They need to add more juice inside.
Heck, Anarumo also needs to incorporate more stunts and moving around players so they can have more ways to win.

With DE, Ossai is too little, too late. He's set to hit FA after this season, and frankly he hasn't shown enough to warrant keeping around.
Same with Cam Sample.
For Murphy, I hate to say it, but this is what you get when you take a more raw player. Maybe though Murphy needs into his 3rd year to really get going like Josh Allen did with BUF.
I'd seriously look at giving Murphy a majority of the reps over Hubbard the rest of the year to try to expedite his development.

Even if the Bengals keep Hendrickson, Hubbard, and Murphy for next year, they need 1-2 new additions (depending on what people think of Cedric Johnson).

I think we're seeing what can happen at CB if you have too many guys on their rookie deals, especially if you have injuries.
I am surprised they didn't add a veteran when Turner went down.
Too much put on Newton and Ivey too early, IMO.
Maybe add a cheaper vet (Eli Apple type of guy) to be CB4 if anything next year.