The Bengals’ New Defense Starts With Communication
Credit: Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
After a bit of a down year for the Cincinnati Bengals’ defense last year, we’re seeing a new confidence brewing on that side of the ball in training camp. The biggest reason? There is a new emphasis on communication happening from top to bottom.
Last season, the Bengals’ biggest issue was allowing big plays, but they know if they can clean that up, this defense can be turned around. The Bengals finished 32nd in yards given up per game through the air and 30th in yards given up on the ground. The bulk of the damage came from giving up 65 pass plays that were 20 yards or more, which was the second-worst in the NFL.
Oftentimes, the culprit was a breakdown in communication in the secondary, which left their opponents wide open. Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson has heard all the chatter this offseason about those miscues from the media and coaches but believes this year will be much better.
“The biggest thing is communication,” Wilson told Brian Baldinger of NFL Network. “There’s times when communication can make or break you, especially as a defense in this system, we got to have safeties that are going to be talking all the time nonstop, and getting Vonn [Bell] back in free agency was fantastic. Just picking up where he left off, played with him for three years, and now my fourth year with that guy. Whenever you’re playing with someone, the more you play with them, the easier it is to communicate and be on the same page. That kind of stuff.”
The Bengals didn’t just try to run it back with the same secondary that struggled last year; they made a couple of changes to try and improve the communication and the play. Vonn Bell played with the Bengals from 2020-22 and has been brought back into a familiar scheme, and the expectations are high. Geno Stone signed a two-year contract that will pay him $15 million, a deal he inked after leading the league in interceptions among safeties, registering seven with the Baltimore Ravens last year. D.J. Turner is back after starting 12 games last year for the Bengals, but now in a depth role that is more suited to him.
Bell’s return is a game-changer. Bell was a huge part of the rebuilding of the Bengals’ defense after he jumped ship from the New Orleans Saints to sign with Cincinnati in 2020. Bell left for only one season with the Carolina Panthers, but it wasn’t a coincidence that the one year he was gone was when the Bengals’ secondary collapsed.
Wilson knows that the talk is about the cornerbacks, but he doesn’t want anyone to overlook him and Germaine Pratt, who are leading the linebackers.
“I feel as [Pratt] and I go, the defense goes. That’s been our mindset. We just know with the experience we have, we have to play at a high level if we want to be successful on defense. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to. We talked about it last year. The games we didn’t play great, we didn’t do great as a defense.”
Back at cornerback, Mike Hilton had to take on a vocal leadership role last season, but he believes that with Bell back, he can take more of a backseat in that regard and just focus on playing football.
“With Vonn back, for me personally, having that extra voice at my rear, it takes a lot off my shoulders and lets me settle down and play my game,” Hilton said. “Another voice who knows the system and knows how to win.”
Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase are the vocal leaders of the offense, but the Bengals were missing that last year. The offense still gets the attention when it comes to the Bengals, and for good reason. But this team has Super Bowl aspirations, and both sides of the ball will need to work together to accomplish that. The Bengals probably aren’t a top-five defense, or maybe even a top-10 defense. Still, even if they can cut down those 20-plus-yard pass plays by a third, the defense is going to look much improved.
The results have to translate to the field during the regular season, but there is a quiet confidence that the defense has this season. That was missing from the team last year, but with Bell back and other upgrades, the Bengals believe they’ve got last year’s issues fixed.
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