{"id":20273,"date":"2025-04-13T02:22:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T02:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=20273"},"modified":"2025-04-13T02:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T02:23:13","slug":"breaking-news-bengals-creating-our-own-defense-in-new-look-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=20273","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS: Bengals &#8216;Creating Our Own Defense&#8217; In New Look 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2194582561-e1744510216365.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2194582561-e1744510216365.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2194582561-e1744510216365.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2194582561-e1744510216365.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Bengals 'Creating Our Own Defense' In New Look 2025\" width=\"780\" height=\"440\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><em>Getty Defensive coordinator Al Golden of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Cincinnati Bengals\u2019 nation was shocked early last month when their long time defensive end Sam Hubbard announced his retirement at the age of 29. This announcement came less than two months after the team reported they would be hiring Al Golden to serve as defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n<p>Goldens predecessor, Lou Anarumo, was with the team for six seasons. Though some are underwhelmed with the lack of turnover on the roster as the team leaves Lou\u2019s reign and welcomes in Al.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we learned about the Bengals\u2019 plan to fix their historically poor defense was abundantly clear: Bet on Golden,\u201d wrote The Athletic\u2019s Paul Dehner Jr. \u201c(Golden) will be given the same core of players that got Anarumo fired last year and be asked to deliver dramatically different results.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, new Bengals\u2019 linebacker coach Mike Hodges confirms that what you can expect to see in 2025 is unlike anything Paycor has seen before.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been fun to build this thing out, but, ultimately, we\u2019re creating our own defense here,\u201d Hodges said in a sit down with Geoff Hobson of bengals.com. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to be a carbon copy of anything that any one of us has done anywhere else. We\u2019ve built this thing together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked what the Bengals\u2019 defense needed to add going into the 2025 season, Hodges answer implied that the team was looking to be multiple in the upcoming season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think when I get asked that question, It\u2019s important to find the best player,\u201d Hodges said. \u201cIt\u2019s dangerous to say, hey, we need a WILL or a MIKE or a SAM. I think what we have to do is be able to find the best player and then adjust the scheme. Let\u2019s not pigeonhole ourselves into our scheme by saying we have to have this kind of guy and miss out on a player that could be a really impact player.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2025\/01\/28143300\/GettyImages-2176789688.jpg\" alt=\"Bengals 2025 mock offseason: Choose your own adventure to building the roster - The Athletic\" \/><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Bengals Looking To Young Edge To Make Leap<\/h2>\n<p>The Bengals selected Myles Murphy with the 28th pick in the 2023 NFL draft. Now with two seasons under his belt, Murphy says he is approaching his third season with a different mentality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know I\u2019ve got everything that it takes to dominate in the league,\u201d Murphy said on the teams official website. \u201cIt\u2019s just building up the confidence to know I can make those plays that are ahead of me \u2026 (Working on) Being great at stuff that doesn\u2019t take talent or athleticism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among the things that don\u2019t take talent Murphy referenced his diet, or more specifically, his relationship with cereal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t eaten cereal in three months,\u201d Murphy confessed. \u201cI feel that in itself, has changed me \u2026 because there\u2019s a lot of dense, packed sugar in cereal \u2026 which a lot of people don\u2019t think about. Most mornings, I just do some black coffee and I call it a morning.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Are The Bengals Thinking Linebacker In The Draft<\/h2>\n<p>When asked about finding a player to stand strong aside their talented middle linebacker Logan Wilson, Hodges alluded to a deep linebacker class coming out of college.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s a good crop.\u201d coach Hodges admitted. \u201cI think there\u2019s a good group up top and then there\u2019s a gap, and then there\u2019s another kind of bundle of guys in the middle of the pack that are going to compete for that three, four spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Bengals&#8217; linebacker coach Mike Hodges confirms that what you can expect to see in 2025 is unlike anything Paycor has seen before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING NEWS: Bengals &#039;Creating Our Own Defense&#039; 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