Bengals Mailbag: What's going on with the defensive line? Is a prominent starter changing positions?

AtoZ Sports

John Sheeran answers your mailbag questions about Trey Hendrickson, the defensive line and Cam Taylor-Britt!

Transcript

00:00Bengals training camp is right around the corner and what in the world are they going to do with

00:03Trey Hendrickson? It's time to answer your pressing questions.

00:09Hi again Bengals fans, John Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati here and for the first time

00:13ever on this channel we're going to do a little Q&A. We got a couple days left until training

00:18camp officially starts. I believe by the time this video is posted rookies will be reporting

00:21to training camp but now is the time to flesh out anything that you guys still have on your minds

00:26as real football starts up in Cincinnati once again and I do appreciate that the handful of

00:31questions that I did get all kind of intertwined with one another on the same side of the ball so

00:35without further ado let's get to my favorite question which is not even a question at all

00:39from above 639 sign Trey in exclamation points again not a question but we'll take it as you

00:46all know the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson are still working out negotiating a multi-year contract

00:51extension Trey is not willing or at least he's saying right now that he's not willing to play

00:55on the one-year deal that he's under contract for would only pay him about 16 million dollars

00:59and this question is extremely timely because earlier this week TJ Watt get a three-year

01:04123 million dollar contract extension from the Pittsburgh Steelers it will pay him well north

01:09of 100 million in guaranteed money now I don't believe that this deal from Watt is the new bar

01:14that Hendrickson is trying to eclipse just like I didn't believe that 40 million dollars per year

01:18was what he was trying to get over when Myles Garrett signed that deal back in March what is

01:21interesting about this and we discussed this a little bit in our crossover episode with Rob

01:25Gregson for A to Z Sports Pittsburgh is that Watt and Hendrickson are in the same stages of their

01:29career they're both on the other side of 30 now and the fact that Watt got a three-year extension and

01:33so much guaranteed money from an organization that typically doesn't do that outside of really him

01:37in their history I think is notable and it works against the Bengals the Bengals have been hesitant

01:41all offseason to give Hendrickson that multi-year extension that he's after for they don't have much of a

01:45leg to stand on anymore now that Watt got his deal so I do think that Hendrickson gained some leverage

01:49here and that may just speed things up here in general or on the more pessimistic side it could

01:53just confirm that the Bengals don't want to enter those waters and this just gets even uglier but

01:57moving on to our next question from wicked11777 what the hell is going on with our defensive line

02:02as it pertains to Hendrickson you can't assume that he's going to be out there in training camp without

02:06a new contract and the same goes for Shamar Stewart the team's first round pick who has yet to sign

02:10his rookie contract so let's just assume that both of those guys are not going to be on the field when

02:14training camp begins the starting defensive line in that case is going to be Myles Murphy at defensive end

02:19TJ Slayton at nose tackle BJ Hill at defensive tackle and Joseph Asai at the other defensive end

02:24spot the immediate depth of defensive end consists of Cam Sample and Cedric Johnson and that defensive

02:29tackle you got Chris Jenkins and McKinley Jackson and once you add in Hendrickson and Shamar Stewart

02:33back into the equation that's probably the 10 guys that are going to make the 53-man roster for week

02:37one unfortunately it is a position group that often gets banged up during training camp of the

02:41preseason the Bengals saw that a ton last year when they suffered a lot of injuries at defensive tackle

02:46and they were very depleted with that group entering the regular season so I am interested

02:49to see how many reps that the undrafted rookies and Dante Barnett Eric Gregory Howard across the

02:54third get in training camp or maybe they just have to get on there because of injuries but on the

02:58edge there's not really anyone else that I'm expecting to really step up I mean Isaiah Thomas

03:01was here briefly last year on the practice squad Raymond Johnson the third has kind of bounced

03:05around on the practice squad for the past couple of years but I really do think that if both

03:08Hendrickson and Stewart missed extensive time in training camp it is imperative for the likes of

03:13to stay healthy and take advantage of those starting reps we all know Hendrickson is going

03:17to be starting at right defensive end once he comes back but the starter on the opposite side

03:20is very much up in the air and I think it's going to be the better one between Murphy and Asai

03:23depending on how the next six weeks goes and our last question comes from Jacob Berry L03BM

03:28would Cam Taylor Britt and the staff consider moving him to one of the safety positions the

03:32short answer is no but I do think you will see Cam Taylor Britt used a little bit differently

03:36this year compared to years past I do think that Taylor Britt is a better scheme fit for what

03:40Al Golden is going to do with this defense compared to what Luna Rumo did with him just because of

03:45Golden's tendencies and running man coverage and I think that's a better fit for Taylor Britt's

03:48skill set and Rumo typically had his cornerbacks locked on one side of the formation but when you

03:52run a lot of man coverage you have guys following receivers when they're in motion and I think you

03:55will see that from Taylor Britt more often this year as far as playing safety goes I think they want

03:59to give Geno Stone another chance and they're definitely going to give Jordan Battle every chance to run

04:02with that starting spot as well and if you're Taylor Britt there's just no way that you would want to be

04:06changing positions during a contract year he did play a little bit of safety in college at

04:09Nebraska but that was several years ago and he's been developing a cornerback ever since Taylor

04:13Britt's main objective is just to start somewhere in the secondary because that was not a given with

04:17what happened last year when he was benched twice but that's going to do it for our first Q&A we might

04:21do this again when the entire offseason wraps up at the end of August so around that time hit me up

04:26with some questions and maybe they'll get answered

04:28you

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