Dunlap not starting this week

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(10-08-2020, 02:38 PM)pally Wrote: you don't put in the effort at practice and it comes back to bite you.  Carlos is one of the best when he wants to be.  But, he has always been inconsistant

Perhaps they felt like Dunlap might need this for some motivation. We saw last year when his production was night and day the first half and the second half. Right or wrong, the motivation element has followed Dunlap throughout his career.

— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) October 8, 2020

That's the reason the Bengals were able to get him in the bottom half of the 2nd round in the first place.

That said, I don't know how much of it right now is a lack of motivation and how much of it is simply him not being used to not having Atkins in the middle taking all the attention away from him. You remove Atkins from the DL and all of a sudden that's an extra blocker free that's not needed on that double team.

Dunlap (and Hubbard) are guys who I think are good starters who'll have occasional games that they can take over, but ultimately aren't true big time difference makers. They are guys who you'd be absolutely ecstatic to have as your #2 DE, but aren't quite what you'd hope from your leading edge rusher.

Last season there were 18 players with double digit sacks. In 2018 there were 22 (Atkins was one of them). 

Dunlap has 1 double digit sack season to his name and it was in 2015. Sam Hubbard has 0.

They're Jadeveon Clowney (2018), but the Bengals lack a JJ Watt.
They're Marcus Ware (2015), but the Bengals lack a Von Miller.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

All that said, I can't help but feel that Carl Lawson being the starter is going to backfire.

He's either going to get hurt, or he's going to be MUCH less effective rushing the passer because he's going to have to spend energy doing other things as well.

Don't forget that Dunlap's second highest sack total came his rookie year when he made 0 starts and he was just a pass rushing specialist.