{"id":148858,"date":"2025-06-22T01:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T01:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/148858\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T01:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T01:56:13","slug":"bengals-cut-paves-way-for-potential-all-rookie-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/148858\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals Cut Paves Way for Potential All-Rookie Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bengals Cut Paves Way for Potential All-Rookie Campaign<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most of the hubbub this offseason about the Cincinnati Bengals’ rookie class has centered on the controversy surrounding first-round pick Shemar Stewart and his contract holdout.<\/p>\n

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Stewart, a stout defensive end, was expected to form a fierce pass rush duo with last year’s sack leader Trey Hendrickson … who is also going through a contract dispute.<\/p>\n

Getting lost in the weeds is Cincy’s second-round pick, linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr., who could make just as much impact as any rookie on this year’s roster.<\/p>\n

Knight enters a perfect opportunity to see the field in his first NFL season, which earns him a spot on NFL.com’s All-Rookie Team<\/a> projection.<\/p>\n

Before the 2025 Draft, the South Carolina product’s combine profile<\/a> featured a player comparison that will sound familiar to Bengals fans: Germaine Pratt.<\/p>\n

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Pratt had requested a trade in February after six seasons in Cincinnati. After drafting Knight, Pratt was cut, which paves a nice road for Knight to take and potentially earn a spot in the starting lineup immediately.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati’s other starting linebacker Logan Wilson had some good things to say about the rookie and his potential role this season.<\/p>\n

“He can do everything at a high level. Just a matter of putting it all together,” Wilson said, via the team website<\/a>. “He’s fast, hits, big, shifty. All the things you want in a linebacker, he’s got.”<\/p>\n

“He’s done a hell of a job for a rookie with how much we’ve installed and covered,” he added. “I’m looking forward to playing next to him.”<\/p>\n

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Knight has big shoes to fill, as Pratt was the Bengals’ leading tackler last season with 143.<\/p>\n

He’ll still have to earn his stripes this summer at training camp, but so far the rook has made a nice impression on his elder teammates. Knight will compete for a starting job with fellow rookie Barrett Carter and free agent signee Oren Burks, who has Super Bowl experience with the Eagles last season.<\/p>\n

“Those guys are still competing for that,” head coach Zac Taylor said about his linebacker unit.<\/p>\n

“I do think [Knight] has worked really hard. As I come in the building, he’s one of the first guys in the locker room every single day,” Taylor said. “Very mature. He’s ready to go, ready to compete.”<\/p>\n

Related: ‘Lucky’ Bengals Found Gem in Sixth-Round RB<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Bengals Near Bottom of NFL Defensive Rankings<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 21, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bengals Cut Paves Way for Potential All-Rookie Campaign originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Most of the hubbub this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[2778,228,227,256,2296,9316,7,2977,4135,4444,6,4447,6505,1496,1503],"class_list":{"0":"post-148858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-barrett-carter","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-demetrius-knight","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-germaine-pratt","16":"tag-linebacker","17":"tag-logan-wilson","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-oren-burks","20":"tag-rookie-class","21":"tag-shemar-stewart","22":"tag-trey-hendrickson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114724535488575537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}