Wilson, wanting to establish himself as a possible mentor, chased down phone numbers for second-round pick Demetrius Knight Jr. and fourth-round pick Barrett Carter and sent each one of them a text shortly after they were drafted.
“If I was a rookie and was going into a new place, new facility, whole new city, I would want a veteran to reach out to me,” Wilson said. “Just to feel that welcoming, that you want them to be a part of the team, you’re happy that they’re a part of the team, and that anything they need to just let you know so that they can kind of settle in. ...It’s important when you’re having to move your family from wherever you’re from, to a whole new city, so just trying to be there for them if they need me, they got my number now.”
The linebacker corps was in need of refreshing after the departures of Davis-Gaither and Bailey and the expectation Germaine Pratt will be released as a cap casualty or traded.
Wilson will be taking on even more responsibilities as the oldest in the room. He has been in a leadership position before while wearing the “green dot” as the defensive signal caller, responsible for communicating the plays to his teammates, but he’s never been a captain.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
With Hubbard making the decision to hang up his cleats this offseason, the Bengals are down one big leader. Three other defensive captains from last year will need replaced, including Pratt, who has not shown up for offseason workouts two weeks into the program.
“Now that I’m going into Year 6, I want to be that kind of guy for people to look to and be able to learn things, and so when we get two new rookie linebackers, like I want to show them the way,” Wilson said. “I want to be able to just feed them whatever information that they need. Whether that’s even defensive scheme and whatnot, I just want to be an open book, because being a selfless leader, I think, is one of the best things you can do.”
Wilson said Pratt’s future is none of his business, so he will worry about his departure if it happens. His job is to make sure he’s ready for the season and the new linebackers are put in the best positions to be able to contribute to improving the defense.
The Bengals defense regressed the past two years, and the linebacker play wasn’t nearly as good as it had been during the 2021 and 2022 AFC North championship seasons.
Wilson said a new defensive coordinator gives the team a chance to reset, and he’s excited about what Al Golden brings after getting so much out of the linebackers in his previous stint with the Bengals. Golden was the linebackers coach in Wilson’s first two seasons before taking over as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator in 2022. Cincinnati hired him back to replace Lou Anarumo as coordinator this offseason.
“He’s obviously still has that linebacker background in him,” Wilson said. “... But I think just him as a coordinator, he (previously) coached offense, too, which I feel like is really good because you can be a play ahead of a play in terms of like, if we’re gonna play something this way, like he’s gonna be ahead of how they might adjust to it and then what we’re gonna adjust to off of that. And so, I just feel like he’s gonna be good for us, fresh start and just be able to do things a little bit different way than maybe we had in the past.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
One of the knocks against Anarumo by the end of his time in Cincinnati was just how complex his systems were. Over the final five games of 2024, the Bengals simplified things and players responded well when given a chance to “play more freely,” as many described it. That played a part in closing on a five-game winning streak, but didn’t save Anarumo’s job.
Wilson said when Golden was his linebackers coach, he really kept things “cut and dry” and “black and white,” and players were able to “just react to playing football.” Some of the circuit drills that seemed critical to better tackling and creating turnovers went away when Golden left and the plan is to begin most practices with those now.
“Nothing like towards our previous defensive staff at all, I think that’s just kind of the nature of the way they wanted to do things, and just doing those little monotonous, fundamental technique kind of things obviously help you,” Wilson said. “I mean, even at this level, those things go a long way. Just because we’re playing in the NFL doesn’t mean you can’t do the things you’ve been doing since day one.”
“Just try not to make it more complex than it necessarily needs to be,” Wilson added. “It needs to be more complex, obviously. But there comes a point where it’s just too much.”
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