The Cincinnati Bengals have added former Green Bay Packers LB A.J. Hawk onto their defense.
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The Cincinnati Bengals were looking to add some depth to their linebackers unit. The team had suffered through a ton of injuries last season and Marvin Lewis needed some insurance coming off of the bench. They believe that they have done it with their most recent signing of A.J. Hawk per Adam Schefter. Hawk will be entereing his 10 season in the league and has only missed 2 games during his tenure. That will come in huge for the Bengals, since they struggled with injuries in the middle of their defense.
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Hawk will serve as a backup to Rey Maualuga and Vontaze Burfict on the Bengals defense. Both Maualuga and Burfict combined to miss a total of 15 games last season. Hawk will be a player that can depended on to be available if anyone were to go down with injury. In Hawk’s 9 seasons in the league, has has combined for 923 tackles and 19 sacks in the middle of the Packers defense. He has started in 142 games for the Pack before signing his deal with the Bengals. He only missed 2 regular season games in his career. He is a durable player that can play solid in the middle of the defense.
The Bengals normally will not go after big names in free agency. This move had to be done for insurance for their top run stuffers. After both Burfict and Maualuge struggled through injuries last season, the team needed to find someone that could come in and still produce if they were needed to start in games. They needed to find someone that was durable if one of the starters were to go down with an injury. Hawk will be that guy. He will be a solid player coming off of the bench and can be a solid fill-in if anyone were to go down with an injury.
What do you think of the move from the Bengals? Do you like what the addition of Hawk will bring to the roster and to the team depth?
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