Unceremoniously benching defensive captain Logan Wilson was a bad look. His ensuing trade request was not a huge surprise, although the Bengals actually honoring it was uncharacteristic. Now he’s in Dallas, and a case of Déjà vu strikes me.
The year is 2020. Lou Anarumo is in his second season as the Bengals’ defensive coordinator. Paycor Stadium is still Paul Brown Stadium. And toilet paper is in short supply. It is here, in a stadium filled with cardboard cutouts, that the decision is made that Sam Hubbard and Carl Lawson should be getting work in front of 31-year-old fan favorite Carlos Dunlap.
Dunlap took the news a lot worse than Wilson would five years later, but the result was the same. Both were traded in-season for an uninspiring return, bringing a bitter ending to a revered career with the Bengals
It’s a shame that things had to end like this for Wilson and Dunlap. Wilson was the signal caller for the Super Bowl defense, and Dunlap had a Ring of Honor-worthy career, highlighted by 82.5 sacks in Cincinnati.
Unfortunately, both were kept with the team longer than their abilities lasted, and it tarnished their legacy. The Bengals have a tendency to do this. They identify players as being part of their core and extend them beyond the summit of their careers.
This is something they need to do a better job with in the future. Their ability to predict the way a player will regress with age and injury is damaging to both the club and the player.
Loyalty becomes a negative when it blinds you to reality. It’s bad for everyone involved. In the end, it’s better to let a player go a year early than a year late.
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