8 Position battles to watch out for heading into NFL training camps

#6 Bengals’ right end – Michael Johnson, Carl Lawson and Jordan Willis

The Bengals had a down-year in 2017 with a couple of really bad losses to teams such as Jacksonville, Chicago and Minnesota. Looking at their schedule from last season, they lost to a lot of physical football teams and they will need to get back to winning in the trenches this upcoming campaign. While there are still serious question marks along their offensive line, they have some real talent on the opposite side of the ball.

Carlos Dunlap is a fixture on the left side of their defensive front and Michael Johnson has started all but two games over the last three years after coming back from his one-year stint with the Buccaneers. However, Johnson hasn’t gone over five sacks since 2011 and the Bengals drafted two very promising young players last April.

Carl Lawson was selected in the fourth round and starred for Cincy with 8.5 sacks and 59 total pressures on just 41.6 percent of the snaps. Jordan Willis was a late riser out of Kansas State in last year’s draft process due to a monster combine performance. Yet, he was still available in the third round after I had him penciled in a second-rounder already.

Willis could only come up with one sack on just over 30 percent of the defensive snaps, but I liked what I saw from him in terms of jacking up blockers against the run, as well as the potential he possesses as a pass-rusher with his burst and power.

So what can Lawson get better at? The former Auburn Tiger needs to land that initial club more consistently, which is harder for him than some others because he’s only 6’2’’ and doesn’t have the longest arms. He was clearly one of the steals in last year’s draft, as I had him as a late second-rounder and he looked like he should have gone even earlier than that.

Willis has to get better overall with his arm technique, because too often he gets a solid jump off the snap, but is content with engaging with the offensive tackle, instead of attacking one shoulder and swiping the hands away. What I really like about him is the way he redirects and chases bootlegs to his side.

Johnson is extremely long, strong and pretty fluid for his size, but he is not a very dynamic pass rusher at this point of his career to me. His snap count already went down from 76.5 to jump under 60 percent and while he might still earn the starting gig due to his run-stopping prowess on early downs, those two sophomores will see the field more and more in passing situations.