State of the Position: An absolute mess.

Demetrius Knight and Barret Carter were over their skis all year until the very end when at least Carter seemed to settle in a bit. They shouldn’t both start next year if either.

Oren Burks was the veteran of the group and he has another year left on his deal. He played ok at times but he could be released saving 1.6M and eating 375K.

Shaka Heyward played little on defense but he’s become a special teams constant and will likely be back in that role.

Joe Giles Harris played just 32 snaps on defense but was graded especially high in his limited play. He re-upped quickly this year after having 19 tackles on special teams.

Brian Asamoah didn’t play any snaps from scrimmage this year but had 58 special teams snaps. He’s a free agent.

Liam Anderson signed a futures contract after bouncing around the Colts roster for two seasons.

Need

Two starters but my fear is they will think one year will make things better and that this season was an investment. They are solid in the 3-4-5-6 spots but could really use at least one new starter. I’d like them to get a big name and then take a flyer on another guy who would be ok rotating somewhat with Carter and/or Knight.

Candidates

There are a ton of very solid free agents that fit the bill. I separated them into Young and Old. The young ones will probably cost quite a bit. The old ones not so much.

Young

Devin Lloyd might be the prize of free agency. He’s just 27 and had 5 interceptions this year and a passer rating of 57.1 when targeted. This was after three years of over 100 tackles each.

Leo Chenal seems to be the most common name connected to us. He’s 25 and has started 44 games. The Chiefs have money tied up in two other linebackers so it’s unlikely he stays.

Devon Bush has had two solid years in Cleveland. He’s started 78 games over his career. Last year he had 125 tackles, 8 passes defensed and 3 interceptions. He was at Michigan when Kovacs was there.

Nakobe Dean was the other LB in the 2022 draft. His career hasn’t mimicked Lloyds but he has 27 starts. He’s likely out in Philly with both Baun and Campbell there.

Tremaine Edmunds is the last of the under 30 LBs that seem particularly interesting. He’s just 28 and was released by the Bears after a year in which he had 112 tackles, nine passes defensed and four interceptions.

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Old

Demario Davis doesn’t fall anywhere near our normal age criteria at 37 but he’s a team captain with 213 career starts. He also played for our LBs coach Hodges for many years in New Orleans. He would come in and immediately be a leadership presence on a team that desperately needs it. He’s also coming off a 2 year 17.5M deal so he’d be relatively cheap.

Bobby Wagner might not have the coverage skills to make as big an impact as we’d like, but at 36 and with 217 career starts he would be a settling force on a defense badly in need of it. In 2025 he had 162 tackles. He played on a one year 9 million dollar deal last year.

Kaden Elliss is another player coached by Hodges in New Orleans. He has since moved to Atlanta where he started 17 games last year and had 107 tackles with 10 for loss. He is coming off a 3 year 21-million-dollar deal and is 31. He was a team captain.

Alex Anzalone is 31 and played for Hodges in New Orleans before moving to Detroit. This year he was a captain and had 95 tackles and nine passes defensed in 15 starts.

Old Flyers

Shaq Thompson started out hot last year but showed his age by the end of the year. He will be 32 by the start of the season. He finished starting six games and with six tackles for loss playing on a league minimum deal.

Bobby Okereke has started 95 games and had 143 tackles last year. That didn’t stop the Giants from releasing their captain. He was on a 4-year 40M contract. He will be 30 this year

Lavonta David is another ancient LB who will be 36 next year. He’s also another captain who had 215 career starts. Last year he had 114 tackles.

Denzel Perryman started 10 games last year for the Chargers and had 47 tackles. He’s 33 and played for Al Golden in Miami.

Devin White is 28 and had 174 tackles last year and 11 for loss. His PFF scores are amongst the worst in the league.

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Flyers

D’Marco Jackson is yet another former Saints LB. He played sparingly in New Orleans before moving on to Chicago last year. In Chicago he had solid PFF scores on his most snaps of his career. He had the only four starts of his career and had 43 tackles with a great coverage rating from PFF and a passer rating when targeted of just 35.4. He’s 28.

Mykal Walker didn’t play much in his sixth year with the Jets but PFF graded him well. He has 30 career starts and was on a league minimum deal last year. He will be 29 in the fall.

Cole Holcomb had some big years in Washington before heading to Pittsburgh. He was out all of 2024 due to injury and then had an illness that kept him out much of 2025. In his limited snaps he had 37 tackles and PFF graded him well. He’s 30.

Justin Strnad is 30 as well and had a decent year with 58 tackles, 5 for loss and 4.5 sacks. He’s buried a bit in Denver although he has had a bunch of snaps the last two seasons.

Troy Andersen is just 27. The former second rounder didn’t play in 2025 due to a knee injury. He has 11 career starts

Malcolm Rodriguez is one of my favorite flyer options. He played just 72 snaps last year, coming off injury and PFF hated him. However, the undersized backer graded well in 2024. He’s always been buried in Detroit and could look for a fresh start.

Former Bengal Akeem Davis-Gaither was released after a season in Arizona. He’s 29 in the fall and played ok in Arizona. He could be back as a known commodity depth piece.

I’d want two of these players. One in the starter category of young or old and then one in the flyer category. In this case probably Ellis and Rodriguez.

I think we all expect Duke will adhere to his sunk cost habits and not replace Knight as a starter. Carter seems to be the new ADG, a fast guy who can't shed blocks so he's less safe as a starter. Bengals always have an excuse to devalue a position, even when it costs the teams games. We allowed the most rushing ypg in the league last year. That's largely because we missed the most tackles in the league by far. And consequently had the worst defensive EPA/play leaguewide.

So I'd prioritize upgrades in the back 7, but Duke is looking for pass rushers even as he lets Hendrickson leave for free. Don't hold your breath for Oweh or Phillips.

If it were me running things, I'd pay up for Cook and Lloyd, sign Davis as a vet to mentor last year's rookies and split snaps with Knight, sign a good replacement for Ossai and Slaton, and see what the draft offers at lb. There will be good LBs available in round 2, ie better than Knight but we have other priorities at 41. But pick 110 might still get us a good prospect.

On 3/8/2026 at 11:44 AM, sparky151 said:

I think we all expect Duke will adhere to his sunk cost habits and not replace Knight as a starter. Carter seems to be the new ADG, a fast guy who can't shed blocks so he's less safe as a starter. Bengals always have an excuse to devalue a position, even when it costs the teams games. We allowed the most rushing ypg in the league last year. That's largely because we missed the most tackles in the league by far. And consequently had the worst defensive EPA/play leaguewide.

So I'd prioritize upgrades in the back 7, but Duke is looking for pass rushers even as he lets Hendrickson leave for free. Don't hold your breath for Oweh or Phillips.

If it were me running things, I'd pay up for Cook and Lloyd, sign Davis as a vet to mentor last year's rookies and split snaps with Knight, sign a good replacement for Ossai and Slaton, and see what the draft offers at lb. There will be good LBs available in round 2, ie better than Knight but we have other priorities at 41. But pick 110 might still get us a good prospect.

Sorry but they signed 2 A/B free agents and one C/D & it used up almost $40 million in cap space.

But hey, Miami is on the schedule again and they also play the Saints so I'm expecting more Big Improvement, so long as you ignore most of the other games.

On 3/8/2026 at 11:44 AM, sparky151 said:

I think we all expect Duke will adhere to his sunk cost habits and not replace Knight as a starter.

I don't think they need to replace Knight. They do need to put a vet out there with him so he can concentrate on playing his position. He can do that well enough if they let him but asking him to fill Logan's shoes as a rookie was a disaster. Who could've guessed? Certainly not our spiffy new DC, apparently.

I guess he gets another "rebuilding" year for his defense, or however many are in his contract.

They don't need to cut Knight but expecting him to magically be better in year 2 is sort of underpants gnomes magical thinking.

Last year PFF rated 88 LBs with Knight at 83, Carter at 85 and Burks at 88. That's based on their scores which are supposedly independent of the poor D-line. Knight could improve his score by 10 points and he'd be the 71st rated LB. That's not very promising.

What's their plan? Have Golden dumb down the defense so younger players don't have to think as much and can play faster? Apparently it isn't signing better players.

2 hours ago, sparky151 said:

They don't need to cut Knight but expecting him to magically be better in year 2 is sort of underpants gnomes magical thinking.

Last year PFF rated 88 LBs with Knight at 83, Carter at 85 and Burks at 88. That's based on their scores which are supposedly independent of the poor D-line. Knight could improve his score by 10 points and he'd be the 71st rated LB. That's not very promising.

What's their plan? Have Golden dumb down the defense so younger players don't have to think as much and can play faster? Apparently it isn't signing better players.

Wait till team cuts after draft and sign a vet.

Draft Anthony Hill Jr. in rd2 .😎

44 minutes ago, claptonrocks said:

Wait till team cuts after draft and sign a vet.

Draft Anthony Hill Jr. in rd2 .😎

Yeah seriously, this isn’t that complicated. Just because they haven’t signed a vet yet, doesn’t mean they won’t. Also, why is it automatically just assumed that Knight and Carter can’t improve from rookie year to second year?

I thought the rookie LBs found their footing (relatively) after the bye. Knight in particular. Carter, I see as more of an ADG specialist kinda guy, as Sparky said… I don’t feel great about him starting.

They definitely need some veteran leadership there. If it were me, I’d grab 1-2 guys in FA; there are some out there with warts that could still help, assuming they are healthy… Holcomb, Strnad, or Rodriguez to name a few.

And draft one guy as well. For example, I love J-Rod and he’s a day 2 pick for sure.

Joe Giles-Harris is a really good ST player and I’d like to see him stay around.

4 hours ago, sparky151 said:

They don't need to cut Knight but expecting him to magically be better in year 2 is sort of underpants gnomes magical thinking.

I do expect he will be better but the fact is he could be twice as good as last year and still suck. This "after the bye" stuff.. They improved from one of the worst ever to just one of the worst in 2025. That's a hell of an accolade to be hanging their hats on, I agree. Hope is not a strategy. Magical thinking is pretty much the Bengals culture, though.

3 hours ago, T-Dub said:

I do expect he will be better but the fact is he could be twice as good as last year and still suck. This "after the bye" stuff.. They improved from one of the worst ever to just one of the worst in 2025. That's a hell of an accolade to be hanging their hats on, I agree. Hope is not a strategy. Magical thinking is pretty much the Bengals culture, though.

It was painful to watch for sure - and you gotta take it with a pound (or a ton) of salt, but the defense was significantly better after the bye. Like, maybe low 20s in the league. Still below average but a helluva lot better.

Of course for 2026, who knows but you’ve added 3 guys who, on paper, are all upgrades, plus a second year in the program with the same coaches… so you gotta think they can be at least in the low 20s again.

Nothing to celebrate certainly, but they should be in a better position to compete for a playoff spot with a 3rd place schedule.

And I just put the pitcher of Kool-aid back in the fridge.

21 hours ago, spicoli said:

Yeah seriously, this isn’t that complicated. Just because they haven’t signed a vet yet, doesn’t mean they won’t. Also, why is it automatically just assumed that Knight and Carter can’t improve from rookie year to second year?

The point is that they could very well improve substantially and still be way below average because their starting point is so bad. Just because the team invested picks in them last year doesn't entitle them to starting jobs this year. The team should make every effort to get better players at their position and if Carter and Knight can beat them out, great. If not, let the better players improve the defense.

2 hours ago, sparky151 said:

The point is that they could very well improve substantially and still be way below average because their starting point is so bad. Just because the team invested picks in them last year doesn't entitle them to starting jobs this year. The team should make every effort to get better players at their position and if Carter and Knight can beat them out, great. If not, let the better players improve the defense.

But if they end up benched that would make them sad. It would also be an admission that starting them so soon was a mistake. People might even think they were a reach and it was poor drafting.

The thing to do is stay the course & keep talking them up no matter how they play. That way no one's feelings get hurt.

Isn't that better than some silly football game?

17 hours ago, T-Dub said:

But if they end up benched that would make them sad. It would also be an admission that starting them so soon was a mistake. People might even think they were a reach and it was poor drafting.

The thing to do is stay the course & keep talking them up no matter how they play. That way no one's feelings get hurt.

Isn't that better than some silly football game?

LOL. Remember, this team does not really make bad draft decisions , they just make mistakes at the decision point. It is very clear in the mind of Dufus.

20 hours ago, sparky151 said:

The point is that they could very well improve substantially and still be way below average because their starting point is so bad. Just because the team invested picks in them last year doesn't entitle them to starting jobs this year. The team should make every effort to get better players at their position and if Carter and Knight can beat them out, great. If not, let the better players improve the defense.

How do you know they won’t? We’re still a long ways off from training camp.

5 hours ago, spicoli said:

How do you know they won’t? We’re still a long ways off from training camp.

I don't, but I wouldn't bet the entire season on it like they seem to be doing. Again.

On 3/21/2026 at 11:14 AM, spicoli said:

How do you know they won’t? We’re still a long ways off from training camp.

Because they have already missed the easiest and most obvious way to upgrade the LB corps, sign veteran players who are better than last year's rookies. The Bengals had the 7th most cap space in the league at the beginning of the league year and that's without doing any of the things other teams do to maximize their opportunities. Even with all that, they passed on Lloyd at a very affordable price and Chenal at an inexpensive price.

Sure, they could draft Styles in round 1 and/or someone in round 2. But relying on the players they want to be available when they pick would be a foolish plan. Trading up to get the guys they want is something a top team would do but the Bengals have too many roster holes to fill at the moment and it's not Duke's style anyway. He traded up for CTB and Tycen Anderson in 2023 and both have left without leaving a mark behind.

On 3/21/2026 at 4:50 PM, T-Dub said:

I don't, but I wouldn't bet the entire season on it like they seem to be doing. Again.

Yeah, remember how it took Marvin about 4 years to find a DT who could stop the run? Bengals management really does make their roster on hopes and dreams. It's one thing to make their plans based on an assumption that Burrow stays healthy. It's another to overlook obvious weak spots that other teams attack.