Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and Player and Personnel director Duke Tobin deny John Ross trade report at NFL Combine.
Albert Cesare, [email protected]
Unquestionably, the worst-performing position on the dead-last-ranked Cincinnati Bengals defense last season was linebacker.
The unit was comprised of aging veterans past their prime and unproven young players that, mixed with an unfair share of injuries, led to vastly inferior results. That creates the need for an overhaul job in Zac Taylor’s first season in charge.
Over the next three days we’ll offer the potential moves the team could make heading into 2019.
• Part 1: Devin White and NFL Draft first-round potential
• Part 2: Free agency and injury concerns
• Part 3: In-house and low-budget options
That the Cincinnati Bengals defense had fallen behind the times was never more obvious than last season in Week 7 at Kansas City.
Vontaze Burfict and Preston Brown, two hulking 250-pounders among the heaviest inside linebacker tandems in the NFL, were more than a few steps slow and part of a helpless defensive performance against the high-powered Chiefs’ attack. KC won 45-10, smacking the Bengals with a loss that represented more than a blowout on the road.
Devin White is everything the Bengals linebackers last season were not. So, too, is Devin Bush. They’re both cut from the mold of Roquan Smith, the 2018 top 10 pick who started from Day One for the revamped Chicago Bears defense.
At 6-foot, 237 pounds, White ran a 4.42 40-yard dash and recorded a 39.5 vertical leap last week at the NFL Combine.
The former high school running back is the future at NFL linebacker, the Roquan Smith can’t-miss inside linebacker of the upcoming draft.
“I see a lot of similarities,” said White of comparisons to Smith. “He is a guy with a high motor as well and he makes sideline-to-sideline tackles. He can get in between the tackles and is great in coverage. He is athletic, our measurables are about the same. We both won the Butkus Award. He is a great player who had a phenomenal rookie season, and I need to do the same.”
A two-time captain on an LSU defense perennially stacked with NFL talent, White would also represent a change in attitude and leadership in a room that has for seven seasons been dominated by distractions frequently created by Burfict.
White lists Ray Lewis, Patrick Willis and Luke Kuechly as his all-time favorite ‘backers. He said he welcomes the responsibility that comes with the position.
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“You can’t be a guy that shies away from leadership,” White said. “You can’t be a guy that doesn’t study and knows what he is doing on the field. You’re the quarterback of that defense. You have to be a playmaker and an absolute stud. I am not shy. I have to be able to go into the league, win guys over snd start leading those guys.”
Would the Bengals take White with the No. 11 overall pick in April’s draft? That’s a safe bet. And White appeared interested during Combine media availability in any and all teams inquiring.
His draft profile, however, comes with a twist: horsepower.
White enjoys riding horses and, since first obtaining a horse named Ricky Bobby when he was a kid, has added seven, including his favorite Daisy Mae, to his stable.
“Most teams ask if we draft you, ‘are you going to bring your horses?’ White said. “I say, ‘how is the weather? Could I bring the horses there?’ They’re happy to see me doing something outside of football that makes me happy and relaxed. Everybody thinks it’s really funny to see a football player riding horses.”
Playing professional football an hour away from Keeneland, Churchill Downs and countless horse farms dotting central and northern Kentucky would be an ideal fit for White, who said he has ambition to increase his investment in horses in the near future.
The holdup: White might not be around when the Bengals make their pick.
Tampa Bay (pick No. 5), Detroit (8) and Denver (10) appear poised to make defensive selections and each interviewed and expressed major interest in White last week.
One of those three teams could take the top linebacker off the board.
That would leave the Bengals to consider Devin Bush, the former University of Michigan linebacker who undoubtedly helped his stock by posting similar Combine numbers to White and Smith.
At 5-foot-11, 234 pounds, Bush ran a 4.43 40 and had a 40.5 vertical jump.
Selecting Bush, consistently projected as a late first-round pick, at No. 11 could be a reach. So, the Bengals could opt to draft an offensive tackle or trade down to acquire an extra mid-round pick and take Bush or consider perhaps Alabama linebacker Mack Wilson later in the opening round.
These are the first-round options, with plenty of linebackers available later in the draft, too. For the Bengals, there’s more than one route to solve the problem.
Free agency and in-house options, potential choices we’ll explore in the next installments of this series, are on the table, too.
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