The Bengals front office understood that they needed more linebackers to run Al Golden’s 4-3 base/4-2 nickel defense. Especially because it seems as if Germaine Pratt’s time in Cincinnati has come to an end.
They signed Oren Burks in free agency who is a career depth piece that stepped up in the playoffs for the Eagles Super Bowl run. Even if he’s considered the second linebacker on this team after Logan Wilson, then they still need a third linebacker for their base defense. This led to them taking Demetrius Knight Jr. in the second round (49th overall) in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Let's take a look at the film and see what Knight brings to the Bengals' defense:
Where He Excels
- Knight is a strong tackler that knocks guys backward on contact.
- He has athleticism and range to make plays from sideline-to-sideline in run defense.
- Knight sheds blocks with active hands to make run stops even when blocked.
- Speed and movement ability in coverage allows him to take away throws and even come down to make plays on the quarterback when the opportunity presents itself.
- Does a good job of reading out passing patterns and who he needs to defend when playing match coverages.
Areas of Concern
- Knight has some struggles reading quarterback intentions and feeling out where receivers are in spot drop vision zone coverage.
- He has a tendency to go under blocks rather than fight over them in the run game.
- Knight will be a 25 year old rookie in July which makes him one of the oldest prospects in this draft.
Overall Thoughts
Knight is an interesting linebacker prospect.
In the run game, his athleticism gives him range to make plays from sideline-to-sideline when he’s unblocked and protected.
His burst allows him to fast fit and run through the offensive line when those tackle-for-loss opportunities present themselves. His tackling is strong to provide a thump and knock back the ball carrier. While he does a good job of playing with active hands to disrupt blockers by punching into them to shock them, he does need to improve against blocks in general.
There are plenty of examples of him attempting to go underneath a block to make a play and instead of making that play, he takes himself out of the play. He could really stand to work over those blocks and beat them instead. He can also be out of control at times and overrun the ball or his run fit. There are moments where it seems as if he’s slowed down a little bit too much by eye candy such as jet sweep fakes which allows blockers to climb up to him and for him to be in bad positioning to make a play on the ball. Overall though, Knight showed enough to be a positive player in this aspect of the game.
Against the pass, Knight excels when he gets the opportunity to play man or match coverage. He can keep up with running backs when playing man coverage against them in the flats and does a good job of matching tight ends and even receivers when tasked with performing that duty. He can blitz well with his athleticism where he avoids having to beat blocks.
There is room for growth with his spot drop vision coverage where it does not feel like he reads out the quarterback’s intentions all that well and can lose track of where the receivers around him are to get in position to take those routes away. Also when the structured play breaks down, he did not plaster the nearest receiver all that often leading to opportunities out of structure in the scramble drill that he could have taken away. Even though he is an older player, he has not been playing linebacker for all that long so there is reason to believe that he can continue to grow in this area of the game. Especially because a majority of it is mental which should improve with experience.
He’s not an exceptional blitzer with very little examples of him defeating offensive linemen or even tight ends as a pass rusher. He can run over and defeat running backs though which is more likely to be his task in the NFL. His athleticism could be harnessed into a weapon on blitzes if the defensive line frees him up.
Schematic Fit
Ideally, Knight will push to be the second linebacker this season ahead of Burks. There will need to be some growth with his spot drop vision coverage in the passing game and a more consistent in control approach in the run game to hit the ground running as a starter, but it’s possible. Another scenario for him is to be the third linebacker on base downs and the opportunity to grow into the second linebacker for nickel over the course of the season.
His projected plan over the next few years is to grow into that second linebacker role taking over what Pratt used to do for this team. Straight line athleticism to match receivers in the passing game, forcing some fumbles, and thumping ball carriers to drive them backward. Similar to a young Pratt, there is growth needed in vision coverage but if Knight can achieve that growth he can become a quality starter.
Specifically for Al Golden, he could be the linebacker tasked with playing man coverage on the back in Cover 1 while Wilson plays the vision hole defender. He is not a high quality blitzer in terms of defeating blocks but if he could be freed up by other defenders then his athleticism would be a weapon in that area as well. The NFL is still a majority spot drop zone coverage league though so he needs to improve in that area to become a plus player in coverage.
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