The Cincinnati Bengals have finally found life, too late in the season, and so has first-round pick Shemar Stewart.
Stewart, who recently returned from injured reserve, recorded his first career sack this weekend. It was a good play, where Stewart made an inside move that left the offensive tackle looking foolish. Defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery has done a great job of developing Myles Murphy and Kris Jenkins as the season goes on. Now, he and defensive coordinator Al Golden are making sure that Stewart gets a high volume of reps week in and week out, giving him a chance to develop his skills despite missing substantial time to injury this season.
Don’t be too quick to label Stewart as a bust. This staff has a plan for him.
Rookie linebackers Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter were really thrown into the fire this season. Linebacker is arguably the hardest position on the defense to adjust from the college to the pro game. Most of the time, a rookie linebacker would have another linebacker on the field with some experience to take the heat off of them, but the Bengals went all in on developing this duo.
Though not linear, make no mistake, their week-in, week-out improvement is much more substantial than what PFF would have you think. This pair stepped up in recent weeks and has been a big part of why this team can suddenly stop the run. Knight had one tackle and four assists this week. Carter had one tackle and two assists while also getting his hand on a pass and getting a shot in on Jacoby Brissett.
Dylan Fairchild’s development is unquestionable. The rookie guard has been phenomenal as a pass protector and made some nice run blocks this week as the team continues to win between the tackles. Jalen Rivers came in late and did an admirable job blocking for Joe Flacco and Tahj Brooks.
Brooks had a couple more runs, but what stood out to me was the check-down that nearly turned into a first down, as he picked up nine yards. We haven’t seen enough of Brooks to make any real judgment on his abilities, but we didn’t get much out of Chase Brown as a rookie either, so be patient.
Of course, I would be remiss not to mention long snapper William Wagner, who continues to make the kick game function.
UDFA Bralyn Lux finally saw some action this week. He has one rough blocking rep on the punt return team, but looked good when he got in on defense at the end of the game. They put him in the slot, where he did not allow a catch and made a tackle on the only run that came his way.
Howard Cross also saw most of his action on the last defensive drive. For the most part, he did his job. He is pretty quick, but needs to put together better pass protection progression in order to become a serious contributor to this defense.
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