CINCINNATI (WKRC) – For the first time in his NFL career Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson has a new scheme to learn and will likely have a new playing partner, as well.
Wilson was selected in the third round of the NFL Draft and played his first five seasons in defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo’s scheme alongside Germaine Pratt. Anarumo was fired soon after the 2024 season was over and replaced by Al Golden, and after the Bengals signed veteran linebacker Oren Burks in free agency and took linebackers Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter in the recently completed draft it’s almost a sure thing that Pratt will be released.
Wilson wouldn’t address the possibility of Pratt being released, saying, “I’m not going to worry about that until it actually happens,” but spoke about looking forward to what Golden is going to do with the defense. Golden served as Bengals linebackers coach in Wilson’s first two NFL seasons in 2020 and 2021.
“It was cut and dry, black and white, there was no gray area,” Wilson said about the way Golden coached the linebackers. “I think that’s important… react and play football, don’t over-complex things that don’t need to be more complex than they need to be.”
The main criticism of Anarumo’s schemes were that they were too complex, and when he simplified things late in the season the defense did show some improvement.
“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,” Wilson said. “Just try not to make it more complex than it necessarily needs to be. It needs to be more complex, obviously, but there comes a point where it’s just too much.”
Golden said he is going to lean on Wilson to lead the young guys.
“Obviously, I have a great deal of respect for Logan and the career that he’s had,” said Golden. “We talked long a couple weeks ago, just about having a reset — reset your goals, having a sense of what you want to get done, having energy, having passion, enjoying the journey. He’s in a little bit different place than when I was here last with him. We talked long and hard about what we need to get done in the short term, and obviously what his long term goals are.”
The conversation was a good one for Wilson, too.
“We were just talking about what he wants me to do and not do anything out of the ordinary or out of character for me, but just continue to lead,” said Wilson. “I hate to say it but now I’m kind of an old head on this defense. You just have to kind of enjoy that and relish that and understand these young guys we’re going to need them and so I have to do my part to help them grow. There are things within our defense that’s going to allow me play more free and do what I do. Al is very good about empowering his players. That gives guys a lot of confidence. When you have the confidence of your coordinator that he believes in you, that you can play at very high level, it just kind of allows you to play free.”
Wilson sent a text to both Knight and Carter shortly after they were drafted.
“I always try to put myself in other people’s shoes and if I was a rookie going into a new place, a new facility a new city, I would want a veteran to reach out to me just to feel that welcoming feeling. You want them to feel a part of the team, you’re happy that they’re a part of the team, and that anything they need to just let them know so they can settle in,” said Wilson. “I’m an open book, so if the guys want to learn how to do things like how our guy Sam Hubbard showed me the way as a rookie, I’m there for them. They bring some fresh, young juice, I guess you could say.”
Golden is high on both rookies.
“(Carter) is a true stack linebacker now, whereas Demetrius could be a little bit more of a combo with enough length to play a little more (off-ball) for us,” said Golden. “I think Barrett is more of an in-box linebacker, but he has good coverage skills. He’s good in zone. So he’s just a little bit different in terms of the style of play, but equally as important.”
Whichever one plays alongside Wilson – or even if it is the veteran Burks – Golden wants to ensure Wilson gets his opportunities to make more plays.
“You have to cover Logan up once and a while, too, and let him run, because that’s what he does great,” said Golden. “He’s tremendous. He still has tremendous lateral agility, he can get off the spot really well now, and he can do a lot of things. Those guys coupled with Oren, they give you a lot more flexibility than we had just (prior to the draft), to be quite honest with you. I feel like we’re two-deep at linebacker now. I just feel like we have six, seven linebackers. It just gives me a sense of, ‘OK, now we can plot the course,’ because we were waiting for, ‘Are we going to be a big nickel team against 12-personnel (one running back and two tight ends)? Are we going to be a base team?’ So, at least we know now we have the components to go ahead and invest in a base package if we wanted to.”
Now it’s on to start implementing the defense when the team is able to hit the field for Organized Team Activity session practices in the coming week.
“I have to go out on the field and replicate that kind of thing,” Wilson said. “During COVID I could only learn on Zoom meetings. I don’t do great looking at Xs and Os on an iPad. You can get the gist of it, but I can learn only so much. You have to go out and do it and replicate it and communicate it and verbalize it and all those different things that go along with it. It will take time. I don’t expect it to happen overnight, but now during OTAs we can put the bases of our defense in, and we can hit the ground running when training camp comes around.”