John Sheeran discusses a simple goal for Cincinnati Bengals' rookie linebacker Demetrius Knight to hit in the 2025 season.
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00:00The Bengals used their second round pick to replace one of their worst starters
00:03from last year's team. And in this video, I'll explain the one thing that he can do
00:06to be a massive upgrade over him.
00:11Hi again, Bengals fans. John Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati here. We took a slight break
00:15in the action due to the pay cut that Geno Stone just took, but we're back giving out one goal
00:20for each of the Bengals' first three draft picks. And when it comes to linebacker Demetrius Knight,
00:23the Bengals' second round pick, these are the situations I don't think is particularly ideal
00:28for rookies. Now, the NFL is obviously so different compared to when I was growing up,
00:32when rookies weren't always counted on to be immediate quality starters. There was a gradual
00:36ramp-up period, a time for these guys to get acclimated to the roles that they would eventually
00:40grow into. But the Bengals made a bold decision to draft Demetrius Knight in the second round.
00:44They hadn't drafted a second-round linebacker since Ray Malaluga all the way back in 2009.
00:49And it would be stunning, shocking, surprising, whatever adjective you want to throw in there
00:53if he doesn't start week one for this defense. So there is not only an expectation for
00:58Knight to play immediately, he's going to be directly compared to the guy that he's replacing.
01:02And of course, I'm talking about linebacker Jermaine Pratt. Now, as of right now, when I'm
01:06recording this video, Pratt is still a member of the Bengals' roster. He's obviously not showing up
01:09to voluntary workouts because he requested the trade, and he knows that he's on his way out.
01:14And by the time that this video is posted, he may have already been released. But the plan is very
01:18simple. The Bengals didn't want Jermaine Pratt to be a part of this new-look defense under Al Golden,
01:22so they decided to target his replacement very early in the draft, and Knight was the guy that they wanted.
01:27So the natural thing to do here is to give Knight a goal in an area where Pratt,
01:31let's just say, struggled last year. And that goal for me, assuming that Knight is a full-time
01:34starter this season, is to have 12 or fewer missed tackles. Now, anyone who watched the Bengals last
01:39year knows that missed tackles were a huge problem for the Bengals' defense. It was arguably their
01:44biggest problem, and no one struggled with it more than Jermaine Pratt himself. And I think that
01:48things really came to a head following the first Steelers game last year when Pratt missed several
01:52tackles and the defense was atrocious. And then he told reporters following the game
01:56that missed tackles weren't that big of an issue. At that point, I think we kind of saw the writing
02:00on the wall. But yeah, if you trust Pro Football Focus's tracking, he was responsible for 19 missed
02:04tackles last year, the most on the team, even more than Geno Stone. Now, as a stat itself,
02:09missed tackles are kind of weird. Some players have more opportunities to miss tackles than others,
02:14and some players who miss a lot of tackles still are really good players on defense.
02:18For example, Zach Bond, who was a Defensive Player of the Year finalist for the Philadelphia Eagles,
02:22he missed 23 tackles last year. Obviously, you want to minimize the number of missed tackles
02:26that you have, but sometimes you are out of position, and it's not really fair to really
02:30put it on you. But when it came to Pratt last year, there were so many situations where he was just
02:34caught flat-footed, he was taking bad angles, and he was just not being productive in space.
02:38And out of all the ways that Demetrius Knight can be an improvement over Pratt, I think this is where
02:42he needs to shine. Diagnosing what's in front of him, clicking and closing, driving through tackles,
02:46that can provide such an upgrade compared to what the Bengals had last year.
02:50Now, the 12 missed tackle threshold for Knight is designed to be a little bit generous,
02:54because going back to 2020, 34 out of 42 rookie linebackers who played at least
02:5820% of their defensive snaps as rookies had 10 or fewer missed tackles. But obviously,
03:04we're expecting Knight to play more than just 20% of the defensive snaps this year,
03:08so we're going to bump his lineup just ever so slightly. But still, 12 missed tackles compared
03:12to Pratt's 19, that would be a notable improvement for sure. And the best part is that even if Knight is
03:17a rookie who doesn't really have a lot of experience, considering the fact that he's going to
03:20be 25 years old at the position, tackling is not one of his liabilities. But of course,
03:25it would be very concerning if the Bengals drafted him in the second round if tackling was an issue.
03:29It's far from easy for rookie linebackers to immediately come into a defense and dominate.
03:33But the Bengals don't need Knight to dominate. They just need him to tackle in space. And that he can do.