Super Bowl champion Jon Gruden rips Cincinnati Bengals.
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Super Bowl champion Jon Gruden rips Cincinnati Bengals.
If you’re a Cincinnati Bengals fan, you probably don’t want me to lead with what happened on Sunday. So, I won’t mention how the Steel Curtain-inspired defense gave up 502 total yards to a New York Jets offense that reminds older folks of Air Coryell and younger people of The Greatest Show on Turf.
Former Super Bowl champion head coach Jon Gruden went on FS1’s Wake Up Barstool program this week and voiced his professional opinion on the Bengals’ defensive side of the ball.
“I’m from Ohio, and these Bengals pissed me off [on Sunday],” Gruden said, leaving a lot of room for interpretation.
Gruden goes on to point out that the defense’s problem starts with poor drafting. The Bengals’ have spent three of their last four first-round picks on the defensive side of the ball, and outside of Shemar Stewart (it’s still early, he’s been battling injuries and overall the jury is still out), they haven’t panned out.
“The Bengals, defensively, have drafted a lot of players, a lot of players over the past several years,” Gruden said. “Their philosophy, obviously, is draft and develop, kind of like Green Bay. This defense has not developed.”
Cincinnati Bengals have attempted to throw draft picks at defense
The dearth of talent on the Bengals’ defense isn’t for lack of trying. The Bengals have devoted plenty of resources to that side of the ball, they just stink at it. And dragging your feet to low-ball your best defender on a one-year deal isn’t exactly “devoting significant resources.” They signed Trey Hendrickson to a below-market deal a couple of months ago because they had to, not because they wanted to.
As mentioned before, the Bengals have used numerous first-round picks to address the defense. How about the second and third rounds? Check and check. They try, so I guess that’s worth something even if it doesn’t translate to competence.
The Bengals recent high defensive draft picks are as follows:
2022: CB Daxton Hill (first round), CB Cam Taylor-Britt (second round), DT Zachary Carter (third round)
2023: DE Myles Murphy (first round), DJ Turner (second round), DB Jordan Battle (third round)
2024: DT Kris Jenkins (second round), McKinnley Jackson (third round)
2025: DE Shemar Stewart (first round), LB Demetrius Knight Jr. (second round), Barrett Carter (fourth round)
See any All Pros? How about potential Pro Bowlers? Anything? Bueller?
Defensive coordinator Al Golden did his best recently to defend Murphy at least.
“I think he’s continuing to make progress,” Golden said Monday. “He’s playing stronger at the line of scrimmage. We need him to win his one on ones in the pass-rush game. He’s long. Just know who you are as a pass rusher. He’s continuing to make progress there, and we’ve just got to get it to translate to the game now, which I’m confident it will.”
Poor drafting has a way of catching up with teams, and it’s clearly caught up to the Bengals in a big way.
Cincinnati Bengals defenders held a players-only meeting following Jets loss
Nothing says “we’re crushing it now” like holding a players-only meeting. Ask the Miami Dolphins, they love those! Bengals’ second-round draft pick Demetrius Knight said this week that the defense held a private meeting following the game.
“No, there are no more meetings,” Knight said on Monday. “We’re just gonna continue to keep doing what we’re doing. Sitting in a chair isn’t gonna help people tackle better. Sitting in a meeting room isn’t gonna, you know, fix schemes. It’s only about, again, mastering the basics, going back to believing in each other, believing in the guy to your left and to your right, and having the confidence in that as well.”
They should have let some offensive players in that meeting if they wanted some really honest thoughts and opinions.