Why A.J. would work for the Bengals

So I am going to preface this by saying the following:

"I am still not happy with Mike Brown. Getting rid of Bob Bratkowski was a good first step. But he needs to fix the Palmer issue, draft well, and get some free agents to fill key roles. If the Palmer situation blows up and Mike acts like Mike Brown does, I will never support the Bengals again in any way shape or form."

Now with that being said, let's talk A.J. Hawk.

He is owed 11 million dollars next year and the Packers already have long term deals in place with three other backers and you can bet Clay Matthews gets a long term deal after this year. So you can pretty much bet he will be the odd man out in Green Bay. He is 27 years old, fast, a good signal caller, a great tackler, has a nose for the football, and he knows how to hold together a line backing core. He is very comfortable in the 4-3 (see OSU career stats) and he would work incredibly well in Mike Zimmer's system.

The Bengals currently have Dhani Jones, who has been 'serviceable' as a middle linebacker/signal caller. He lacks the tackling ability that a true MLB needs (which is why the Eagles let him go) and doesn't have the speed to cover the area that a MLB covers in a system like Mike's. He is a very smart player technically, but doesn't have a 'nose for the ball' like most all pro MLB's do. He is 32 and one more thing, he played at Michigan.

Some will look at this and say, what about Rey Maualuga? I would say, yeah what about him? He hasn't really excelled in Mike's defense, even though he has never played his true position which is MLB. Last year he showed glimpses of finally being comfortable at the OLB spot. So why push him back in the middle and start the process all over again? Others will say hey we have Brandon Johnson who is awesome off the bench. I would say you are right, he is good off the bench. If he was good enough to play in the middle, guess what, he would be starting. (I am not bringing up Rivers because he is an OLB by trade).


What about moving to a 3-4 hybrid? I am not against that, but you need a solid MLB to do it, and AJ could be that guy. Look at what he did in GB this season. If you could put Rivers and Michael Johnson on the outside and play AJ and Rey up the middle, it would get nasty. In addition Carlos Dunlap looked crazy towards the end of the season when lining up as an OLB/DE. This would free up guys like Geathers, Peko, Sims, Fanene, and Rucker to get more 1 on 1's rather than the double teams they normally get. I think this could be a nasty defense if the Bengals brought in a solid MLB like A.J. and converted to a 3-4 hybrid. Even if you didn't convert to 3-4, it would shore up a weak middle that the Bengals have been trying to fill since Spikes walked away in 2002 and Odell when crazy after his rookie season.


So I am saying Keep Carson and Go Get A.J. ! Mike, you don't look nearly as bad as Al Davis yet. Hopefully their is a glimmer of hope at the end of this REALLY LONG tunnel....