Mock Draft heavy on defense

[Whatever]

(02-12-2025, 10:47 AM)ochocincos Wrote: I'll be interested to see if Golden prefers to keep running just 2 LBs primarily or have more out there more full-time.
Bengals don't really have a decent 3rd LB on the roster, so yea I could see LB picked early if Golden's scheme dictates needing a 3rd often.

Defensive personnel is dictated by offensive personnel.  With 11 becoming most team's base offensive personnel, nickel is now the base defense for everyone.  For example, going into the season, teams were only in "base" 4-3 or 3-4 on 21.2% of the snaps and are in nickel 67% of the time.  The SB champion Eagles were in nickel over 80% of the time this year.  

Could Golden use 4-3/3-4 looks more?  Possibly.  But even a severe swing like using that 25%, significantly more than Avery, is going to find us in nickel the cast majority of the time.

Unless the majority of the league falls back to using more 12 and 21 base instead of 11, nickel is going to be the base defense.