Top 6 Things Cincinnati Bengals Can Do to Fix Team in One Offseason
The Cincinnati Bengals are one of a few teams headed for a big reset—not necessarily a rebuild but a reshuffling of the approach in an attempt to breathe life back into a core viewed as talented enough to make the playoffs and perhaps more.
With the Marvin Lewis era clearly coming to a close after a pair of disappointing seasons, the ownership in Cincinnati has a chance to hit the reset button in a position of luxury.
That isn't to say there aren't major problems hamstringing the Bengals. However, few teams have a chance to start over in a spot like this, where a top-five offensive player and several elite defenders are already on the roster, flanked by promising rookies such as Joe Mixon and Carl Lawson.
Below, let's take a look at a few key points the Bengals need to hit on to help the team make a full turnaround.
Develop the Help Across from A.J. Green
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Nobody on the Cincinnati offense has done much to help A.J. Green this season.
The wide receiver doesn't look as though he's struggled if only glancing at the stat sheet and his 73 catches for 1,061 yards and eight touchdowns. But he's the only man on the team with more than five receiving scores and 50 receptions. If Brandon LaFell didn't have 513 yards, he would be the only player on the team above the 500-yard mark.
The plan simply hasn't worked. John Ross, the No. 9 pick this year, simply couldn't get on the field. Tyler Eifert's body again couldn't hold up. Rookie Josh Malone showed some promise but didn't receive consistent snaps, and Tyler Boyd has 17 catches after a strong rookie campaign.
Regardless of who the next coach is, the staff needs to get Ross on the field and have upside-minded players such as Malone and Boyd consistently involved—as opposed to the 84 targets thrown LaFell's way.
This sounds like a simple point, but based on the on-field results this year, it clearly isn't.
Work in More Giovani Bernard
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This will loop back into the main point below, but the Bengals have to be better about player usage.
Running back is a great example, as the Bengals spent a majority of the season giving carries to veteran Jeremy Hill, who ran for all of 3.1 yards per carry before going on injured reserve.
Once Hill was out of the way, Mixon took over and showcased his ability as an every-down player. And over the last three games alone, Giovani Bernard has at least 60 rushing yards and 50 receiving yards in two games.
Granted, earlier this year Bernard was working his way back from an injury suffered late last year. We don't know if he was 100 percent, but the team failed to use him as they had in the past, such as on fakes and screens and even as a wideout with another running back in the backfield.
Over the final fourth of the season, Bernard has again shown what a game-breaking presence he can be, and a failure to better use him next year will be a serious sign of problems.
Upgrade Linebacker
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Most don't think about linebacker as a problem in Cincinnati because of the top-10 play the Bengals get from Vontaze Burfict when he's both healthy and has his head in the game.
Compounding this misconception is the fact the Bengals don't have three linebackers on the field often. The problem, though, is the team still hasn't found a solid option at middle linebacker, resorting to free agency and the ineffective Kevin Minter this year.
Next to him, Nick Vigil got exposed as the season wore on before he too went on injured reserve. With all three linebackers hurt for multiple games this year, backups such as Jordan Evans and Vincent Rey struggled, confirming the fact they're only depth pieces.
The nature of the spot in Cincinnati's defense doesn't mean the team needs to hit it in the first round, but spending more in free agency or taking a risk in the draft earlier than usual seems a necessity.
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Address Interior of the Offensive Line
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Poor play from the offensive tackles gets most of the attention this year, overshadowing the problem on the interior of the offensive line.
Other than left guard Clint Boling, though, the interior is a mess. The Bengals lost Kevin Zeitler in free agency and replaced him with Trey Hopkins, a guy who is a fun story because he started on the practice squad and the team kept him around despite serious injuries.
Hopkins, though, has mostly struggled when he hasn't been hurt. Next to him at center, Russell Bodine continues to struggle and the staff that traded up to get him keeps trotting him out anyway.
Clearly, identifying and developing talent on the interior is a problem for the staff. The ripple effect on the rest of the line and on a quarterback such as Andy Dalton showed up in a big way this season once a stabilizing presence left.
Address Offensive Tackle
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Yes, this issue is bad enough to have its own section.
Cedric Ogbuehi simply couldn't cut it at left tackle this season, which wasn't the biggest surprise in the world considering one could argue his best position in college was guard.
He's a great athlete, so it seems like the Bengals put the most athletic guy they had on the roster on the left side once Andrew Whitworth slipped away.
On the right, Jake Fisher didn't do much better before landing on injured reserve with a heart-related issue making his future a big question mark.
Highlighting all of this, of course, was the team needing to rotate in Andre Smith—a career right tackle—at both left and right tackle during the season in an attempt to mask their serious issues. This predictably didn't work before Fisher's departure, and the needle didn't move much once the season ended.
Interestingly enough, injuries forced Boling to left tackle in Week 16, a fun idea that ended about as badly as one might expect for a guard playing on the edge for the first time. This is the top player personnel priority in Cincinnati this offseason.
Bring on a New Coaching Staff
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It all loops back to this—the Bengals need a culture change over the offseason.
Lewis and his varying staff members over more than a decade have worked wonders for what used to be a downtrodden franchise. But longtime fans and otherwise can praise him for this and also understand what a trainwreck 2017 was.
A failure to use the proper players correctly (the team didn't use Mixon out of shotgun for a large portion of the season despite his usage at Oklahoma, for example) spread across the entire roster.
The offensive line was a mess, guys such as Bernard and Boyd were misused, the staff couldn't get a top-10 pick ready and made him a healthy scratch because of special teams and defenders like Lawson didn't see snaps in base defense.
The list goes on but the point is simple—a new coaching staff needs to arrive and better use talent while adding to it. This means no retreads such as Hue Jackson. A roster like this, even though the front-office situation might not be enticing, will attract plenty of big names.
As always, though, the success or failure of an offseason will hinge on the decisions made by the front office. The Bengals need a new voice and direction, but it's up to the same old names in the front office to make it happen.
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