7/25/25: The Morning Training Camp Report

Al Golden's defense is supposed to emphasize linebackers. How does that work? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tony.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
The Bengals have a new defensive coordinator in Al Golden,
and obviously he's going to be coaching a lot of
familiar faces from last year's defense. One of them is
Logan Wilson. And you hear often about Al Golden that
his defense puts a major emphasis on linebacker. Now that
sounds great. It's not something you typically hear when it
comes to Bengals defenses. They've often been accused of kind

(00:22):
of undervaluing the linebacker position. So it feels like we
have the exact opposite this year. What does it mean
when a defensive coordinator is going to emphasize the position
of linebacker.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, he's a former linebacker coach that obviously goes a
long way and what he's doing, that's what he did
when he coached forward the Cincinnati Bengals. But you're asking
guys on the defensive line a lot of times are
specialty guys. One guy can get up to the passer,
another guy can stop the run. In the secondary, cover
guys or guys that can blitz and come down and
play at the line of scrimmage. Al Golden's going to

(00:54):
answer the linebackers. Watch any notre Dame game last year.
Those guys flew around the field, got after it, They
filled the a gap, they moved side to side, they
dropped in coverage, they did everything you need a linebacker
to do, and they played the passing game as well.
Now you've got to get your personnellen there. But there
are a lot of guys that we've talked about a

(01:15):
lot on this team. Logan Wilson's kind of flown under
the radar. His career trajectory was going through the roof.
And I'm not saying he's been terrible, but he hasn't
excelled the way that I think a lot of folks
envisioned him on that career path. So he, to me,
is an interesting guy to watch because the injury last year.
How does he bounce back. You're now in a defensive

(01:36):
system that's going to cater and put a lot of
emphasis on the linebackers, and you're playing against or next
to a rookie and Demetrius Knight, and you're gonna be
with another player. I would guess Orn Burks, who's new
to this system a lot from a leadership standpoint, from
a mental standpoint, and on the field, is going to
be put in the lap of Logan Wilson.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
And the Bengals defense, which by all counts, got the
best of Joe Burrow and company on Day one, kind
of humbled a little bit yesterday.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, this is one of those get punch in the
mouth type of atmosphere. And that's what happened because I
didn't notice in Day one the offense was getting crushed.
I didn't know that the defense was that much better.
What I do know is watching that practice yesterday Day two,
the offense dominated. I mean, they had no answer did

(02:29):
the Bengals defense. And sometimes you tip your cap and
sometimes you say, hey, that throw beats any coverage in
the National Football League. But there are other times, though,
where there were guys running wide open. That is the stuff.
But I think if you're Al Golden, you're worried about
going forward because those are the types of mistakes. Those
are the types of misdessignments that really plagued this Bengals

(02:49):
team and the defense last year. You have to limit that.
Joe Burrow's gonna make plays, the wide receiver is gonna
make plays, but you cannot let those guys run wide
open and easy completions. Because Joe Burrow is going to
do that, and then a lot of other teams and
quarterbacks in the NFL are going to do that as well.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Bengals back at work this morning with another public workout
that starts at ten am. We'll have a cover for
you on the AE Dorn Window Tony and Mode Training
Camp show on ESPN fifteen thirty. Bengals ramping up to
the preseason opener in thirteen days when they go on
the road to take on the Eagles in Philadelphia. With
Tony Pike, I'm mowegger