Of the many notables surrounding the Cincinnati Bengals loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 6, the benching of a starter didn’t initially make waves.
There was, after all, lots of highlight things to focus on, such as the offense looking more explosive in the second half of Joe Flacco’s debut. There were lots of injuries, too, including one that knocked Trey Hendrickson out of the game.
But the Bengals benching linebacker Logan Wilson is a pretty big deal.
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This was something that became more apparent as the game went on after some small hints that started during warmups. Rookies Demetrius Knight and especially rookie Barrett Carter took on sizeable roles in the base defense.
Wilson, meanwhile, wound up not playing many snaps in the second half at all and was seen on kickoff coverage on special teams.
After the game, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor coach-speaked about the topic, essentially saying it was more about Carter’s fast right than a bad sign for Wilson.
Alas, the writing is on the wall there. Wilson has been a weak point for the struggling defense since the start of the year and looked slow. If new coordinator Al Golden wants more speed for his scheme, that may completely explain this.
Maybe there’s something else going on with Wilson. But he’s got an out built into his contract after this season and a major turnover in his unit already happened recently when the team moved on from Germaine Pratt, so perhaps Sunday was a sign of things to come.
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This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals quietly benched key starter during loss to Packers
