Some thoughts on the Cincinnati Bengals signing former Bucs defensive lineman Chris Baker, and what it means for them going forward.
The 2017 season didn’t go as hoped for the Cincinnati Bengals, but don’t place that blame on the defensive line. For much of the year, the group was among the most impactful defensive lines in the NFL. Their 41 sacks had them right outside the top 10 league-wide in the stat, and they threw a handful of useful players at their opponents.
There is always room to improve, however, and even a unit which showed signs (if fleeting) of dominance can become better. Their edge rushing combination was really good, with five players to unleash on quarterbacks on any given snap, but the interior could use a boost.
Geno Atkins was possibly the best interior lineman not named Aaron Donald last season, but he can’t do it all alone. The group beyond him in 2017 was a combination of young, old, and mostly ineffective. Pat Sims has kept his roster spot more on his name than his production since he returned to Cincinnati following a stint with the Raiders. Andrew Billings didn’t play well in his second season. Ryan Glasgow showed some skill against the run, but was useless as a pass rusher.
Chris Baker, at least in theory, will make the group better. To be sure, he did not have a good 2017; if he had, he wouldn’t have been cut only one year into a relatively modest three-year contract with the Bucs. This would not be the first time a guy flamed out quickly after signing for big money with Tampa Bay before reviving his career as soon as he left, though.
In fact, Cincinnati already has a guy who did exactly that (Michael Johnson). Baker may not have the same connection here as Johnson did after leaving, but there are a couple coaches from Baker’s Washington days on the current Bengals staff (defensive line coach Jacob Burney and linebackers coach Jim Haslett).
With some of his former coaches around and in a better situation, we may well see more of the Washington-era Baker. That player grew slowly into a major role, with his snap counts rising every season he was in Washington (Snap Counts from 2012-2016: 198, 411, 503, 620, 782). Those final two years were also his most productive years; across the 1402 snaps he took between 2015-16, he had 100 tackles, 9.5 sacks, five forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, three pass knockdowns, and 11 run stuffs.
There’s no guarantee he returns to those levels, of course. An apparent part of the problem for Baker in Tampa Bay was a lack of playing time; it caused problems with him in the locker room and his effort ended up being questioned before eventually causing him to be cut.
Those issues came in a year where he still picked up 455 snaps. That would be on the high end of what he may get in this opportunity. Atkins is the main starter; though he’s not an every-snap guy, you can expect 750-800 elite-level snaps from him. Glasgow and Billings likely will expect bigger roles in their second years with snaps (Billings is a third-year player, but missed his entire rookie campaign to injury). Baker will be in the sort of role Sims had in 2017 (which hopefully means the ineffective Sims is gone), which would mean about 300 snaps for the veteran.
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To succeed here, Baker is going to need to buy into a lesser role, and do so while finding a way to return to the level of play he showed his last couple seasons with Washington. It isn’t a guarantee, but if the Tampa Bay experience humbled him some, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that he can actually buy into a smaller role this time around.
If that happens, this signing will be a bargain for Cincinnati. If not, it was a cheap, worthwhile gamble that the team can easily move beyond.