Bengals Could Look In-House Rather Than The Draft For Safety Development

I think it’s time we started getting playmakers in the secondary. Look at the really good defensives and how they can use DBs to blitz and alter offenses. The draft seems to be the best route here since I don’t see anyone better than Reggie Nelson available on the street.

FYI – T.J. McDonald is a junior and announced he’s returning to school.

I don’t think he ever had great corner speed now he’s really not going to have good speed but he’s a good tackler. We could move reggie nelson too strong safety and draft a corner.

I take what any coach says with a grain of salt. Sometimes they say stuff to try to light a fire under guys to give them hope they may contend for a starting job next season if they work hard during the offseason.

Sometimes it is a smoke screen to make other teams think you are not interested in drafting a safety.

Or maybe Coyle really believes what he said.

I know I am not real comfortable going into next year with a combination of Mays, Sands and Miles competing for a starting job at safety.

BTW – when I was reading this article on bengals.com it struck me what Coyle said about Sands having great hands. The kid is 6’4 209 lbs with very good speed and great hands. If he doesn’t work out at safety, then I think it would definitely be worth a shot developing him as a wide receiver.

If not, I actually like the idea of transitioning a CB into safety, especially since the NFL has really been turned into a passing League.

Drafting Trumain Johnson has been mentioned, you also have Clements and/or Hall who may be able to make the transition to safety.

Bottom-line is whatever it is we do we just have to MAKE SURE Crocker does NOT see the field next year.

won’t happen this year either IMHO given they have skill positions in need.
CB
WR
DE
RB
Then there is what happens if Pat Sims walks…almost have to burn a first rounder on a DT if a good one is still there. Then no way a safety is picked in round 1.

Then there is Collins, if he walks, do you really not address RT? No, you get one probably in the second round.

I expect they will address safety in FA. No way they just turn it over to Mays, Sands without competition in camp.

Specifically, they need to have more than 10 picks (the lowest team total since the abysmal 2-14 2002 season).

Coyle’s direct quote from the interview: “We’ve got to create more turnovers. It was not a good year from the standpoint of interceptions.”

Coyle, in the same interview, went on to say, “We’ve got a good nucleus of players but it’s going to be important to continue to tab players in the draft and free agency.”

With turnovers in mind, we need a ballhawking safety who can generate turnovers. Michael Griffin of the Titans is a 2-time Pro Bowl safety (and 1st team All Pro in 2010) who has a knack of creating turnovers (17 INTs as a safety through his first 5 seasons in the league is VERY impressive, as well as many forced fumbles).
I’d do my best to re-sign Reggie Nelson, and then target Michael Griffin in FA. Plus, Griffin can play both safety positions, and we all know how much Marvin loves having safeties who can play FS and SS. Also, Griffin was selected with the very next pick after Leon Hall in the 2007 draft – kinda cool tidbit IMO.

Reed, Troy and Hayden all fit that description. They are guys who can be moved around and play instinctivly. These guys are pretty special and I think we need one of those guys in one of the CB or S positions. The rest need to be good but IMO one guy needs to be special. Some say Nelson might be that guy. Maybe, but I have not seen it soo far. He seems to lack discilpine as he seems to abandon his lanes too much. EX: the Ray Rice TD run in the first quarter of the last game. This is something that can be fixed, but if a guys is truly instinctive I am not sure that is something that should have to be fixed.

Don’t know why Nelson gets so much praise and haven’t made one big play all year. Yeah he probably was our best secondary player this year but that doesn’t mean much on our team. He didn’t stop any team from passing or running his way. I’ll sign Griffin before I re sign Nelson. And Crocker played horrible down stretch so I’m not buying that crap bout them 3guys being ready next year. Crocker had no business being out there at all. And all talk bout him knowing system is bull because he was out of position every play.

But only two guys on defense were better than he was on offense. Everybody on defense had a bad year but Atkins and Fanane.

Yes he missed some plays but if you look around the league you will see that with anyone playing safety. Redskins fans complain about LaRon Landry getting beat and missing tackles, even the Steelers talk about Troy getting beat too much for being overly aggressive. It comes with the position of playing DB if you screw up you are the last line of defense and there is (ussually) no one there to cover your a$$ so your mistakes get magnified. Overall Reggie did pretty well, Chris Crocker on the hand was 100% absolutley positively horrible this year!!!!

if you look normally the bengals dont have traditional safteys they have hard hitters and people who can blitz. We need a number 1 cb to cover the reciever which could make hall better and clements. Finally we need a good guard because our line sucks all the runs were getting stoped and everytime andy droped back the pressure was coming from the middle.

I think we all will be happy with mays next year. He was the number 1 rated player at the beginning of his senior season till he got hurt. Stella will get his groove back.