It is clear that the Bengals have had a more exciting off-season than recent history. Often we are promised to be active in FA and then be let down only to believe the same promises the following year. The major additions of Reader, Waynes and Alexander point to the Bengals realizing that the offense can’t score points without the defense giving them more opportunities to. The 2020 season will shape up to be differently in the backfield as well as in the run game as Reader gives us what Peko and Billings failed at. But what about LB? It’s our biggest need and we have lost rather than gained.
In steps the latest signing of Josh Bynes. Already Bengal blogs are jumping all over this signing as a great upgrade to our starting lineup. You are all fools, Bynes is not a starter. He has been a rotational undrafted free agent at best and only played all 16 games in one season (2015) for the Lions. You can argue that given his age in 2015 that this was his peak athletic year and gave the Lions 82 tackles, 0.5 sacks and 1 FF. Last season he only played 12 games for the Ravens and recorded 46 total tackles. Bynes is not the answer at LB that we are looking for to help solidify the second level. He is a nice depth guy. Right now we only have one starter on our roster and that is Germaine Pratt. The loss of Vigil wasn’t the worst thing to happen to the Bengals but they are still looking for a cover LB to take away tight ends. This will be imperative in 2020 as teams are moving more towards TE heavy formations and exposing mismatches.
Where are we going to find our other two starting LBs? Free agency is looking thin and I cannot imagine we start two rookies that we take in early rounds. My only hope is that we pull off a trade during the draft if a top tier LB is not available at the 33rd position. Does this make me nervous, yes! I like the upgrades elsewhere on the defense but we have gotten weaker and not stronger at our two weakest areas (LB and OL). Let’s go Duke, make some things happen!