Cincinnati Bengals: Addressing the Linebacker Position

February 13, 2013   ·   Alex Peterman   ·   Jump to comments


The biggest surprise within the Cincinnati Bengals’ organization this year was the play of undrafted rookie Vontaze Burfict, as he replaced an injured Thomas Howard early on in the season.
He ended the season with 127 tackles and was the Bengals' best linebacker during the year.
Rey Maualuga is about to become an unrestricted free agent, and the likelihood of Cincinnati re-signing him seems small.
And rightfully so, in my opinion.
Maualuga has always been known as a hard hitter, and he definitely racks up a solid number of tackles. However, those two skills are attributes of literally every linebacker in the NFL. The difference is that he is absolutely terrible in pass coverage, ranked near the bottom of all starters at the MLB position.
He also has a very hard time protecting against the run with his poor angles of pursuit.
Back to Burfict, who many Bengals fans would find relief seeing take over that spot of the defense. He has the speed to c...

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