A Deep Dive Into The 2024 Cincinnati Bengals | 2024 NFL Power Rankings (17)

Introduction welcome back to the channel everybody and today it's my number 17 team in my 2024 NFL Deep dive series the Cincinnati Bengals make sure to like and comment below subscribe if you haven't already so you don't miss any of the future videos or you can watch all the past ones that's that's fun too and this might be my most controversial take to date you know I Gott a lot of crap in some other videos for the rankings this one might take the cake though and trust me I was a surprised as you guys were uh but the formula doesn't lie the formula takes out the bias it takes out the bias uh and the R 17 and granted it is very close it is very close I think it's not there's like a 1.1 overall difference between like my 17th rank team and like my 14th rank team or something it's very close now you're saying you're like the Bengals would it's still 14 there's a lot of question mark surrounding this football team they do have one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL who can't stay healthy they do have one of the best right tackles in the NFL that they just signed in Trent Brown who can't stay healthy they just lost Joe Mixon uh and they replaced him with Zach Moss not a lot of high upside there for the Run game coming in they've sort of revamped the offensive line a little bit they do have some issues with t Higgins who more likely than not is in his last season Mike aik's your tight end slash slot receiver got find a role for him in the offense they can be truly effective and you've lost your offensive coordinator though your quarterback's coach got promoted we'll talk about him and I do kind of like that one because he's been Joe burough quarterback coach from the beginning your defense you saw some regression in some of your better players uh last year you're hoping they can get back to where that they where they were you do hold one of the best Edge rushes in the entire league in Trey Hendrickson you did sign a tremendous safety and pass coverage at the at least in Gino Stone so there are there are some things to be excited about it just seems to be a lot of unrealized potential like it like some of it in terms of like name value looks good but when it's been put to practice it hasn't really turned out all that great um it'll be interesting to see what this team looks like with a full healthy season ahead of them uh you hope that it's a full healthy season ahead of them especially for the ones that hold the most injury concerns they are unfortunately the best players on the team Sons Jamar Chase talking about Joe Bro and orl and Trent Brown uh but it all starts with how this coaching staff can behave with how this coaching staff can put together things week to week and how they can hide some of these deficiency that we're going to see uh throughout the player evaluations and if they can help raise the ship up and get this team back to being like that solid playoff team uh that they sort of projected to be the last couple of Seasons so this is my 18th ranked coaching staff and there's really no Coaching Staff coach that's been more hot and cold for me and I think for a lot of people than Zack Taylor he had that initial run with the Bengals that people were questioning him and I think right y so and then they had the run to the Super Bowl and it was like okay he had hit his stride and then it I don't know it there's just something about him you know through the first five seasons where you're just he's not ex I guess maybe because he's not exciting you know like he's not he's not like boisterous like a Jim Harbaugh or you know he doesn't run a particularly Innovative and like over the top creative offense the way that like a Kyle Shanahan does it there's I don't know I don't know he is my 18th ranked head coach it's sort of the same thing I talked about with Kevin oconor last time I don't have a problem with people put him in the top 15 um it's just weighing some of the other coaches that are ahead of him it was I felt like this is where he needed to be ranked um I look at Dan pitcher who's taking over for uh Brian Callahan uh who took the head coaching job over in Tennessee it is his ninth year with the staff you know he was the quarterback's coach for the last like three or four seasons or something so he's really been Joe Burrow's quarterback coach his entire time that's why I I give him a little bit of a higher uh grade than you'll see from most first year coordinators is especially on the offensive side is because he's been the guy that's really formed Joe Burrow's abilities and Joe burrow came in as a really nice canvas to work with and I think he's done a good job now when he gets into more responsibilities at the end of the day it's still Zack Taylor's offense um which is why it's hard to really judge Brian Callahan as well but we'll see what pitcher looks like when Callahan is not there and now he's really the guy in total control uh you know they did lose Bill Callahan who like who was coaching with his son Brian quite often uh you know they don't really have any other position coaches that really jump off the page here uh you know you look at the offensive line coach uh which is uh Frank poock he also has a an assistant there it's a Derek Frasier see how those guys work out in this staff but there's really nobody that's jumping off the page here from the positional coach standpoint so we'll see how Dan pitcher really coordinates all those guys together uh and then we got Lou anarumo who's my 14th ranked defensive coordinator and kind of like what we see on the offense if someone put him at like 11th or 10th I don't think I'd be all that critical of them either he's got some head coaching Buzz the last couple Seasons I do kind of expect this unless the Bengals defense completely stinks that this may be his last year in the league where he's not a head coach um he's really turned Trey Hendrickson into like this Superstar defense event that's really happened under him uh he did have Jessie Bates for a while there they couldn't really make that work uh but how he develops Dax Hill moving forward he's done a good job with uh Jordan battle just last year uh you know linebackers are are solid they had a they had a down year last year uh we'll see how they can recover uh performance-wise uh James beter is the linebacker's coach so see how he works with them there uh but again kind of the defensive staff nobody's really jumping off the page there either um could be just my personal ignorance to the staff perhaps but I know I know James beter is a I I like him as a linebacker coach uh I think you know in his tenure with the Bengals he's done a pretty good job the last three seasons as the linebacker coach look working with Logan Wilson got Germaine Pratt to play well two years ago again kind of a Down year um but I think overall that that's a good staff member for Anar would to have but he's basically auditioning for an the most ideal head coaching job next year out of really anyone I would say that we might have covered now as a positional coach so far uh because he's the one that's gotten the most buzz you know Brian Flores might be on might be out there as well but I think Luan rumo gets it before Flores does uh but you know I think that the offensive staff is is the one that always seems to have question marks here you know even though they have developed a really good offense so how Zack Taylor can rebound uh this upcoming season and if he can rebound this team if he can get them back to looking like a true Contender then I think we'll see some improvements here on the staff ranking uh this time next season here's the true Mega star of the it's Joe burrow the quarterback he's my number three ranked Quarterbacks quarterback in the this entire series they do have the best backup in the league right now Jake Browning he got a 76 he played amazing last season in replacement of Joe burrow he kept their season alive uh ran the system really well was very efficient with the ball uh he was B he basically played like a poor man's Joe burrow last season so to get Joe burrow back he get him back healthy you know with his new Cody rhods hairstyle maybe he finishes the story like Cody and goes to the Super Bowl and wins it this time instead of losing uh in Los Angeles you know there's a lot of there's a lot of correlations there for you wrestling fans out there Joe burrow lost in Los Angeles and now he gets the chance to go back perhaps to the Super Bowl with the Cody rhods blonde and finish his story um you know burls just made the best of all of his tangibles and intangible since he got into the league you know his arm strength obviously people have called into question but he's been so he's so efficiently accurate and you know I I wouldn't even classify his arm strength as being terrible like there's so many um nuances to his game that make up for the things that he doesn't necessarily have that a guy like say Patrick Mahomes has and he he could be in a position to have an MVP caliber season uh especially because it it's looking more like that comeback year like being off like the Bengals sort of being an off team last year him being injured it sort of put him almost like an out of sight out of mind thing with you know momes and and Lamar Jackson Josh Allen you know Jordan love getting a lot of uh attention now Jared gof getting more attention people talking about Brock pie all the time and it's really easy to let Joe burrow sort of get lost in there despite how highend his talent is and he's really the driving force of this offense uh and now especially when they don't have much of a running game coming their way most likely he's going to I think be even more responsible for the offense's success so he goes from having one of the better running backs in the league in Joe Mixon to now he's gone to Houston Backfield and they have the 30th ranked running back room in the league with free agent Zach moss and second-year player Chase Brown who are looking like they're going to be the two guys splitting carries for this upcoming season now I look at Zach Moss as more of your early down back and Chase Brown he could be like a little spell back there I think he's you know a decent you know middle the pack backup caliber you know you prefer Zach Moss maybe be a high-end number two rather than your number one but I think it gives Chase Brown a chance to develop a little bit more and he's going to get his opportunities in the receiving game they are tied for 27th and I think this is where he's going to get a a bulk of his work and start to develop his game a lot more cuz I wouldn't necessarily raed him that much higher than Zach Moss but I do think because Zach Moss will do a lot more of the brunt work and I do think Chase Brown because it's only his second year in the league he's going to have a chance to develop into more of an all-around full-time starter caliber back Zach Moss has been in the league long enough you kind of know who he is this is kind of what Zach Moss is going to be he's sort of like this bridge running back that they brought in while hoping that someone like Chase Brown develops in the background they do have uh you know Chris Evans from Michigan who they drafted I believe a couple years ago Noah Kan Elijah Collins are rookies coming in this year trayon Williams has sort of been under the cover main stay there uh in this backfield always seems to find his way onto the roster uh so there there is going to be opportunities here to develop I think bring in Zach Moss was sort of just you know you wanted a competent starter who could sort of do everything so then that way if you don't get the development that you want out of Chase brown or out of Chris Evans you're kind of hoping that somebody develops behind Zach Moss but if they don't you you have competence in both aspects of the game again if Zach Moss uh was the starting receiving back they'd only be like 28th 29th uh which is still not great it's still not highend but you can manufacture greatness out of a out of a backfield um you know by committee when you have the caliber of passing game that you are bringing in with the quarterback and the receivers you can really uh hide a not so great running attack uh the way that we've seen so many other great teams do you know you could set up a system where teams are so focused on the pass that you get a guy like Zach Moss who's just sort of sure-handed who could get you four and a half yards a carry and then you got a really efficient running game to complement the passing game that really carries your entire offense or you know you get Chase Brown who can you know be a little more dynamic in the passing game perhaps develop a little bit as an early down back and then you could have something that by the end of the year you're looking at more like a maybe a top 20 Back Field rather than you know a bottom three uh bottom three to bottom five in the entire league but this is where the Weapons stars really live on this team it is in the wide receiver room and will they're are tied for seventh you have Jamar Chase who's like a true high-end number one receiver top 10 wide receiver in the NFL top five wide receiver in the NFL T Higgins who is like this high-end number two probably the one of the best if not the best number two wide receiver in the entire league you know he's up there certainly with guys like Keenan Allen and all that um in his last year with the Bengals that this is definitely his last year so I'm expecting him playing on the franchise T to really want to show out this year so I would expect big things from him and then they got Germaine Burton who I was very surprised that they picked up uh just because he had so many off the- field issues that hurt his draft stock like he's got first round Talent my concern is you know and there's the and the Pitcher kind of says it all with the gun thing it what's the character issues here now I know maybe it's a little unfair to get you know for that but you know it is it it is what it is especially because last year they they drafted a couple wide receivers you know they they did let Tyler Boyd go he ended up in Tennessee but I think Germaine Burton as a number three receiver as long as he keeps his nose clean here really is going to be a truly effective wide receiver three on this team to complement Jamar Chase and T Higgins really well I mean going back to Jamar Chase tremendous route Runner extremely good hands great straight line speed great speed out of his Cuts he's as much of a number one receiver in the NFL as you're going to find um and him and Joe burrow the chemistry that they were able to bring over from LSU it it can't be understated and this he's somebody who's constantly in a position to have that 1500 yard 15 touchdown season uh even with some of the backups they have here Charlie Jones and Trent Irwin are going to be competing for snaps here you know Germaine Burton spot is not necessarily all that guaranteed and I think it was a low risk pick to get Germaine Burton because you had Jones and Irwin here you also had on uh Andre yovis who drafted last year as well sort of you know living underneath here and the hope is that you can find four solid wide receivers out of the six that you have here you know you got the top two and then you got Burton Jones Irwin and iovis that you are looking who's going to be wide receiver three and four out of that group if Jermaine Burton acts up it's a really easy transition to make to somebody who on pure talent level are a little bit less but could be Hing contributors and and better for just the overall morale of a locker room so the pressure really is on Germaine Burton to put those character concerns to rest um and as we get to the tight end room mik aiki right now I love Miki but I can't rank him as anything other than the last tight end in the league now there's talks of him getting a lot of work as they slot wide receiver and then maybe like I guess Tanner Hudson plays tight end but I like Eric all and Tanner mcglaughlin the two rookies that they have there I hope I could see them getting some playing time there I know Drew sample sort of like hovered in there has looked really good in some games has not looked great in others you know but I do like Tanner Hudson and gity sort of be a slot and maybe some bigger sets you know Tanner Hudson uh for the blocking capabilities I just don't you know at one point that one year in Miami second to last year in Miami he looked like he was a top five tight end in the league disappeared his last year in Miami and hasn't really ever recovered and hasn't really gone back to that even in New England it wasn't all that great you know and you can blame down on the quality of the offense or whatever there's just a to me it's just can giki get back to what it looked like he was for that one season in particular in Miami his second to last year in Miami I wouldn't hold my breath on it though and it's hard difficult to rank him as that so that's why I just can't do it um but overall he does kind of drag down this weapon regroup as it stands right now cuz even as a slot receiver he's not really a true slot receiver I mean he's he'd be considered a bigger slot sort of like what Tyler Boyd was but you know it's just Tyler Boyd's still a traditional wide receiver so I don't know how exactly they work him in I don't I think it's a low again sort of like what we saw was Zach Moss it's a low risk signing to get Mike Kiki as well cuz I mean worst case scenario you knew what you knew what you were getting you just needed a guy to sort of fill a role you know play a role in the offense and you know make a play here every now and then best case scenario you're like oh we got a top five tight end in the NFL that range is really is a really it's a really wide one uh when it comes to Zach moss and for Mike giki as well just because of how they can structure the offense and because of what we seen from gaseki in the past now we're going O-Line to the offensive line and this is where all the question marks exist and what really drags down this team because personally I don't have a lot of faith in in this offensive line for many reason we'll start with the two tackles the two brand new tackles Orlando Brown Trent Brown okay Orlando Brown whatever I don't think that he's ever really been as good as he was with the Baltimore Ravens playing right tackle but he's a left tackle apparently now in the NFL and he hasn't really been as good he's still I I think he's still a starting quality tackle for sure you got Trent Brown who I think could be a real high-end tackle but he's it's impossible for him to stay healthy uh Ted carass one of the better centers in the entire league I really like him the guards Cordell Volson Alex Kappa Alex Kappa came in as a free agency signing there was a lot of expectations for him hasn't really panned out we'll see if he can bounce back with a full healthy season here Cordell Volson sort of the same deal it's like there's constant competition going on I think they did solve the two tackle spots here with Trent Brown and Orlando Brown now I think they're sort of just got to work out the two guard positions here and I think they'll be more of a competition than maybe people are expecting as for as for Trent Brown they did draft our Marius Mims who I don't think is going to who I think will eventually play probably five or six games at least this year with Trent Brown made out of Absolute Glass and then the other rookie Matt Lee I think is a sneaky backup center at this Point who if he can kick over to guard I think he can maybe compete for a starting guard spot at some point throughout the year if those two guards they have right now really start to struggle Dante Smith is sort of your swing tackle as well I think you got Mims and Smith who are your tackles there um you look at you know some of these other guys there's going to be some open competition here for these other spots you know you are dealing with just the 24th ranked pass blocking offensive line here so it's not not like they should be closed off to any type of competition here especially because this team in general is going to be so driven by the passing offense just based on how they've structured the entire the rest of the offensive uh depth chart and as you move on to the Run blocking they are actually 13th and this really helps with the fact that they don't have that highend uh running back this is going to open opportunities now because teams are going to be so focused on them passing they're going to have this ability to block in the Run game that's going to help raise up uh maybe the lack of upside the running back room has right now granted a lot of this relies on Trent Brown staying healthy and him being one of the best if not the best run blocking offens right tackle in the league he's up there he's up there with the best in the entire game but there is the expectation he gets hurt and if he gets hurt they got no one to come in and replace him cuz arm marus Smith is not a great run blocker at all neither is Dante Smith so they will lose a lot of their ability in that you know Trent Brown is such a massive human being and he moves guy so well but he he's also got this athleticism to him that really makes him a threat in the Run game that does raise the entire group up now Orlando Brown serviceable you know Cordell Volson and Alex Kappa both much better in run blocking as well that helps I know Ted carass still a solid Center in run blocking pass blocking is really his thing um but this is this is an interesting part of the group now if Trent Brown just stays healthy you got a it's a great o line the second you got to start putting amarius mims in these situations at this point in his career if you don't make magic happened in those early training camp OTAs with his run blocking then it could be a long season uh at least in certain aspects when you he's got to come in to replace Trent Brown again Matt Lee I can't help but point out in terms of depth he's the best depth run blocker that they got those interior run blocking grades are great I could see him easily competing for one of the Guard spots you wouldn't lose a whole lot if anything at all in terms of the Run block quality and you gain a lot in pass blocking quality especially if he's standing next to somebody like an Orlando Brown and Ted in between Orlando Brown and Ted carass or Ted cross and Trent Brown who are these great veterans who can really help help him out and they'll hide a lot of his deficiencies so you're you're hoping that comes from bson and Kappa but uh the possibility is there and I would look out for that if he can you know keep it together and make this football team he could be a real threat to that uh how the rest of the depth works out after Smith Lee and Mims again I think flexibility is going to be a big thing so look for Jackson Carman and Jackson Kirkland to maybe have the edge on a couple of people Cody Ford's got the league experience so that could be a real asset for them so I would look for those guys to make an impact and perhaps be the guys that make the team and round out the offensive line depth if they keep four or five uh depth offensive linemen but an overall sort of just middle of the pack you know high end high high end of the second half of the league type of a thing you know between 16 and 20 overall I would say uh but there is some upside here if you know Orlando Brown can you know get back to the level that he was in Baltimore you know if Trent Brown can stay healthy you get some development from these guards you could be looking at you know a top 15 offensive line by the end of the Offensive Positional Grades season so if we run through the wide receiver Titan blocking they get a b-grade there but it's a D in the depth so there could be some fluctuations in those terms but really the glaring needs there the depth is really not that bad they got some pretty good depth there nothing drops into the 50s for depth so they have they have a higher floor I'd say than most teams would have uh there's just there's just some upside issues in certain position groups you know like so we'll we'll see how this all sort of works out and if the coaching staff puts together a plan that can hide these deficiencies uh cuz they are easier deficiencies to hide than you would see with most other teams you know they got great wide receiver play they got great quarterback play you know competent running ability you could find yourself with a really effective offense in the end of things but overall in Offensive Totals Talent level they're the 24th ranked total offense 22nd pass offense 25th run offense now this is really dragged down by it being in the pass offense at least a very very top heavy it's really quarterback receiver quarterback and the two receivers and then it's kind of what else do you have you know will the offensive line continue to be a detriment to Joe Burrow's health and his career those are quite those are I think valid question marks that drag them down that some other teams just don't have so you know it kind of hurts the floor when your quarterback's at risk this way and he and there's a lot of safety blankets that just don't exist in this offense from the running back room in the receiving game and the tight ends in the running game it's really just a lack of upside I think that's just that's just the easiest way to put it um and that lack of upside I think does does hurt uh I think the floor is high the floor is higher than most but the ceiling is not that much higher than the floor it seems with the Run offense moving on here to the defense and this is an exciting Edge D-Line room they are ranked 11th here uh for the edge Rush Trey Hendrickson true number one Edge player has done great we touched upon it a little bit earlier he has been amazing since coming to Cincinnati and has really established himself as like that top as a top 10 at worst uh Edge rusher true three down attacker you know and they got a nice little rotation here of you know number two guys a nice healthy rotation Sam hubard has sort of lived his career as that quintessential number two Edge player they drafted miles Murphy last year they're really hoping to get more out of him this year than last year sort of they drafted him to have sort of the slow build sort of the same way they did with our Marius Mims this year so it was a really effective draft strategy I think and I do expect more from Miles Murphy this year I think he'll get more opportunities uh cam sample is sort of like your a bigger defensive end he's more like an early down defensive end in terms of his size you'll probably see him more likely to kick inside in passing situations but he is on the depth chart as a defensive end I look at him and Zack Carter for example as almost the same type of a player so it was a wonder why they both got drafted in two consecutive years but it is what it is Joseph oosa you know was that 3 four outside linebacker in Texas uh so he's still sort of getting accustomed to being a 43 defensive end in the NFL you know it's it's a it is a bit of a learning curve there uh but still some really good upside here uh they're going to have a really good rotation there at the number two Edge spot uh when they get to it against the Run they are tied for 21st um they just don't have a whole lot in terms of a number two in that aspect that's where this rotation is going to get very interesting uh um because do they go with a bigger body like a cam sample do they kick out somebody who plays interior defensive line to play an early down defensive and like an undersized interior oversized end uh type of a player they have that existing in there as well but Trey Hendrickson you know can't be understated still a great player in every aspect of the game he's somebody that you want on the field as much as you possibly can uh you you hope miles Murphy can develop that aspect of his game as well cuz I think I think really because they did spend a first round pick on him the goal is I would say going into maybe next season not necessarily this one but next season is that you have a Surefire onew punch two three down defensive ends and Trey Hendrickson and Miles Murphy um I I think that's the ideal situation that they want to be in still not a bad Ed room to have tyer 21st is not something that you know you should the sky falling type of a deal uh they have a interior group that is man tied for 25th they're going to have a three-man rotation I would say Throw Sheldon rankins is going to be here uh BJ Hill and then Chris Jenkins who they drafted uh in the second round this past year was it the second round or the third round I I can't damn it I apologize I can't recall but Chris Jenkins is a great player you're just not going to see him in passing situ situations at least not early in his career Sheldon rankins brought in to be that guy uh you know BJ Hill has been like up and down in this in a lot of these aspects of his game um he will probably end up being the out of the three interior defensive line the one that gets the most snaps uh because when you get to the Run stuffing he's actually quite good at that and you know Chris Jenkins that's where he's really going to shine I think you'll see a lot of him on early downs and this is where you're going to get Sheldon rankings off the field in these situations he's a he's still a good player decent player to have for the interior but Chris Jenkins and BJ Hill I would say are your early down interior guys and then Jenkins will come out Sheldon rankins will come in to get after the passer in those situations um I would also look at another rookie McKinley Jackson uh to get some play time you'll see you know as a run stuffer he could be a candidate to go and play defensive end on early Downs on like those true like first down situations true running situations I would be surprised if you saw him play a little bit of defensive end uh as well you know you get Zach Carter who is in a weird spot especially because cam samples sort of more of a established his role on this roster I wouldn't expect Zack Carter to maybe make it that far if anything you know I think you got four guys there at the top of the depth chart rankins Hill Jenkins and Jackson who are the ones guaranteed roster spots and then after that it really depends on how many interior defensive linemen they plan on carrying especially when you do have Cam sample who you're going to be keeping as at least a defensive end how are they going to position these people uh throughout camp and what their roles are going to be uh outside of those four I don't really see anyone with anything locked in I do like the depth for early Downs I do think that it puts them in a nice safe spot this is a safe spot for your interior defensive line to be to not just completely be a detriment to your entire uh defensive grading uh I do want to see more of the Interior rush I do want to see you know BJ Hill you know get some more uh development you know get back to where he was I know he's a veteran of this game and developments kind of maybe out of his reach he kind of maybe is who he is but you're hoping he can take a step forward especially with a guy like Sheldon rankings next to him who in these situations is going to be quite good so hopefully BJ Hill as being easily the fourth person that people are going to be offensive coordinators are going to be concentrating on in that front four Rush that maybe he can take advantage of some of those opportunities those one-on ones with a guard that he sure have face throughout the entire season um and hopefully that they can raise the overall interior Rush grade moving on to their linebackers and I think this group took a huge step back Linebackers last year uh they just they there was just so much missing from this group that wasn't missing 2 years ago um it they did drop the tide for 27th for me in linebacker coverage uh and they dropped to 30th for me in linebackers versus the run it was just not they they just did not perform well last year as a group as individuals you know how they worked this out I think Jermaine Pratt Logan Wilson and Joe bachche seem to be the three guys right now Davis Gaither hasn't really developed a whole lot like they've been hoping um you know there's just not there's just not a whole lot happening here for this linebacker room Logan Wilson at one with that Super Bowl run was looking like one of the best linebackers in football and it's sort of been a steady decline since then admittedly uh you know he he has uh been effective in forcing turnovers I think that can't be understated I can kind of see the the uh comments right now but he leads linebackers and interceptions in the last like Four Seasons or something he's got 11 interceptions and the next next guy has eight uh but that doesn't always tell the whole story I think I look at Logan Wilson at linebacker the same way you gotta kind of look at how Trayvon Diggs was for a while there where yeah he was forcing turnovers but he was also get if he wasn't forcing a turnover it was because he was getting beat to death on the outside by who whoever he was supposed to be covering and I think Logan Wilson especially last year and I'd say into the year before that really kind of fell into that category where he was like a true Boomer bust player in the passing game and you're hoping he can get to more of that raise the floor up and not be so much of a liability as much as he has been sometimes and be more of that you know true weapon at linebacker you know that three down linebacker dropping back into a Zone maybe getting into some man coverage you know the way that we've seen him effectively do it and just be much more consistent uh than he has been in the in recent times uh Germaine Pratt I don't get why you know people were like oh he's going to get paid big money I said he wasn't he pretty much got paid the contract that I predicted uh two years in my thing two years ago my offseason predictions video uh so shout out to me for that and I just I just kind of felt like you know contract year he's going to he'll probably blow up and then he'll go back to what he really was every year before that and that's basically what happened uh he's still going to find his way onto the field in these situations there but I think Joe bat's going to get most of the snaps um and then you'll see I think Aaron Casey you'll probably see Devin Harper if they make the team uh maybe kicking in on some of these early down situations uh more often than you'll see Germaine Pratt who's just you know against the run is just not my cup of tea we'll say that moving Defensive Backs on to the cornerbacks and they are tied for 23rd uh it's a very very interesting group you know they have Mike Hilton who's going to be your who's their best uh Corner who's going to be playing that slot role uh DJ Turner cam Taylor Brit are going to be your outside corners there you're hoping that cam Taylor Brit can take a step forward that DJ Turner can uh continue to develop uh going into his second season you got to keep in mind Taylor Britt and DJ Turner are really young players who are going to get a lot of opportunities and there's going to be a lot of expectation on them uh playing against some of the quality they're going to be seeing uh you know Mike Hilton though is sort of the glue that holds this group together uh you know you get into some of the depth they've done they they've not for nothing they've been really good at setting themselves up with some good dep you know joshh Newton is someone they picked up you know Dion Anthony Lance Robinson some rookies they've added here you know DJ Ivy was a rookie last season I believe you know and so they got a nice little floor that they developed here with Newton iy and Anthony uh to really help out here and you know there's talks of them moving Dax Hill to more of a quarterback role as well I think it would be more of an a slot roll so that would be likely him being at best a backup to to Mike Hilton uh while Josh Newton's going to be also competing for that job as well so it'll be interesting to see how they figure out how they're going to use Dax Hill uh because when you get to the safety coverage he is the number three safety in sort of all these situations Jordan battle was a tremendous rookie last season he played such great ball in both aspects of the game Run and pass really shine through really quieted a lot of critics who had him quite high in the uh draft uh rankings and then sort of as the Alabama season went on really dropped him completely out of him to the point where it hurt his draft stock but then they picked him up and he got into the starting lineup very rather quickly and played tremendous he's won half of a tied for third safety group in terms of pass coverage because they also brought in Gino Stone from Baltimore who not for nothing in pass coverage he might have been a top five safety in the League last year you know against the Run he is almost worse than dirt but as a as that deep third safety ball Hawking everywhere sideline to sideline he was absolutely fantastic and I expect that to be the role that he has on this team you get into more early Downs run support Von Bell will find his way onto the field in those scenarios goino Stone just not good he's probably the wor he's the worst safety on the roster in terms of that ability Dax Hill sort of sits there again as your number three guy I think he'll find his he'll find a healthy way into it into the rotation I believe because he can play in the slot he can maybe play an eighth man in the box and some scenarios but Jordan battle I think is your safety who gets the most snaps out of everyone goino goino Stone will come in if you're probably running like those three safety sets I could see them doing that you know having Gino Smith goino Stone goino Smith goino Stone be like that top third safety and then Dax Hill and Jordan battle sort of play Closer to the line you know sort of like what you saw with the Baltimore Ravens last year but overall this this safety group is great uh especially considering last year they lost the best safety in the league in Jesse Bates they were able to bounce back with with some really good drafting some really good development and now some really good free agency signings like Gino Stone uh this group is going to make up I think for a lot of deficiencies you're going to see from these cornerbacks especially with the youth there cam Taylor Brit DJ Turner Josh Newton DJ Ivy there's a lot of young players that are going to need to develop at one of the hardest positions in the NFL to play as a rookie which is cornerback uh you know to have these types of have this quality waiting behind them the depth the quality even PJ jwes and Michael dowel I I kind of like them as well I don't know if they make the team just because there's so many other good talents in there that are like well-rounded and well and more experienced but I can see PJ juwes sitting in like the practice squad and then coming up and being pretty serviceable in certain roles here same thing with Michael dowel but overall it's sort of like you know how much can the talent level on the back end help the upside that you have the unrealized upside that they have at at the cornerback position uh I think that's the story of what this past defense is going to be because we know they're going to get a good pass rush in there it's just a matter of what these defensive backs are going to be able to produce to complement that group um I I think I think there's there's a lot of upside here though a lot so you look at the cornerbacks they Defensive Positional Grades get a c grade for run blocking you know nothing special um it'll be it the pass defense is looking good if we can get Logan Wilson back to playing a more consistent level of ball it could be easily a top five pass defense uh you know cuz it's a lot of these guys are operating really at their floors I would think you know I can't really see cam Taylor Britt or DJ Turner regressing so it's it's just a really good group the depth is there in some of these key positional groups like Edge like safety and cornerback to a degree though it's a lot of youth uh I do sort of cringe a bit at some of the run defense um so that could be an issue you hope that the offense is poent enough as a passing offense that they're going to be able to get some leads for you though and you won't be seeing a whole lot of running cuz overall this is my 22nd ranked defense 19th pass defense again Defensive Totals you raise those get those linebackers up the quarterbacks develop more you could be looking at top 15 top 10 pass defense and then the rush defense is 29th uh just not a lot of high-end Talent uh in terms of their ability to play against the run you know their best asset really against the run is the safety group uh so how much how effective and how much of a game changer could the safety group truly be in run defense uh overall 22nd ranked defense Overall Grade so we take a look at their overall grade they are ranked 17th uh the 17th overall team the 18th ranked coaching staff uh 24th offense 22nd defense and you can you can say wow they have the 24th and 22nd but they're ranked 17th that just goes to show you how close some of these grades are and the little bit of a difference and that little bit of a boost that having you know a top 20 coaching staff can have on sort of taking a couple teams over the top on others I do think they'll be better coached uh than some of the teams that are below them uh and so we'll see how all that pan out uh throughout the season they do have a really tough schedule and there it is my full Deep dive on my number 17 Outro ranked team the Cincinnati Bengals it's going to be a hard Road for this team tough schedule and a tough division they got to stay healthy man there is so so much upside here but the health is such a concern we'll see how this all works out if you want to catch any more of the videos in this series you'll see it on either side of of this beautiful head and I will see you guys with the next video next time like comment subscribe see you next time