The Steelers were not the only team in the division recently to part with a longtime fixture of their defense at the linebacker position, as the Cincinnati Bengals yesterday announced the release of eight-year veteran middle linebacker Rey Mauluga. While the move might sound pretty impactful on a name standpoint, however, the reality is that this isn’t an overly significant move for the Bengals’ defense.
The truth of the matter is that the Bengals had been phasing out the big run-stuffing linebacker for a couple of years now. He played not much more than half of the team’s snaps in 2015, and was closer to a around a third of snaps.