Projecting The Defensive Roster II

June 15, 2012 By Bill

Offense drives interest in the NFL, but I find myself more and more intrigued by the defense that this team is putting together. I’m not completely sold on all parts of it yet, but I am more comfortable with it than I was a month ago. Plus, the strength of the line should help cover some of the flaws in the secondary.

Let’s take another stab at how the defensive roster might shape up.

DEFENSIVE ROSTER PROJECTION #2
Pos	Starter	Backup	Practice Squad	Miss The Team
CB1	Leon Hall	Dre Kirkpatrick	Shaun Prater	Nate Clements
CB2	Jason Allen	Brandon Ghee
CB3	Adam Jones	Terence Newman
FS	Reggie Nelson	Jeromy Miles	Tony Dye	Robert Sands
SS	Taylor Mays	George Iloka
SLB	Manny Lawson	Dan Skuta	Dontay Moch	Vincent Rey DeQuin Evans Micah Johnson Grant Hunter
MLB	Rey Maualuga	Vontaze Burfict
WLB	Thomas Howard	Roddrick Muckelroy	Emmanuel Lamur
LDE	Carlos Dunlap	Robert Geathers		Derrick Harvey
LDT	Domata Peko	Pat Sims Brandon Thompson
RDT	Geno Atkins	Devon Still		Nick Hayden
RDE	Michael Johnson	Jamaal Anderson

Some thoughts and questions:

DL: The Bengals usually carry 8 DL. Unless they are willing to go with just 3 DEs (not happening), they will be forced to carry 9 this year. I don’t see a hybrid DE/DT, and the only two PS candidates (Still and Thompson) would be signed off of the PS in a hot minute by another team. I think they will see enough from Anderson once he is allowed to hit at camp that they will want to keep him anyway.

LB: Keeping an extra DL forces the team to go a man light at another spot, and I’m guessing it is at LB. Skuta is reported to be giving Manny Lawson a real challenge to start at the SAM spot, and Emmanual Lamur’s name continues to pop up in interviews which makes him a strong PS candidate. How patient are you willing to be with Moch, given his now official 4-game suspension?

CB: I was skeptical of Clements not making the team because of concerns over salary or skills, as some speculated early in the offseason. But I have real concerns over his health. He was hardly available to participate in OTAs and minicamp. With Ghee slowly coming around, I envision him finally beginning to come around and pushing Clements for the last spot in the backfield.

Could you make up for the extra DL by going with one less man in the secondary, passing on both Clements and Ghee? How much better do you think the team has made its pass defense over last season in exchanging Kelly Jennings for Jason Allen and Terence Newman?

S: Mike Zimmer believes strongly in Taylor Mays. I trust Mike Zimmer. But boy do I hope he is right because I cannot help but wonder. If he is right, they will have an even tougher run defense to go with an improved pass defense. But if he is wrong, they are going to have a huge hole in the secondary for at least half of a season.