Bengals Coaches Answer Questions About Splitting LB Snaps Between Logan Wilson, Rookie Barrett Carter

CINCINNATI – No one in the visitors locker room Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium was in a good mood after the Cincinnati Bengals absorbed a franchise-worst 48-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, but linebacker Logan Wilson sounded as though there was more bothering him than just the final score.

Asked about sharing snaps with rookie Barrett Carter, Wilson referenced linebackers coach Mike Hodges and his plan.

"That was a position coach's decision,” Wilson said. “He told me about it before the game. He was just trying to keep me healthy. I don't know. I'm not going to complain about it. That's what he wanted to do and. that's what we're going to do, I guess. We'll go from there."

Thursday, defensive coordinator Al Golden gave a different reason for keeping Wilson on the sideline at times, saying it was reactionary in the moment and not part of a pre-established plan.

“When you have three or four sudden changes, you have to sub,” Golden said. “We got Barrett in there. His numbers increased because of the fourth quarter and where we were in the game.”

Per TruMedia, Carter played nine of the 12 snaps in the third quarter, with Wilson playing the other three.

In the third quarter, Wilson played 10 to Carter’s six.

Wilson played 40 of the 58 snaps overall. But in the first half before wholesale substitutions were made across the board once the game got out of reach, Wilson played 27 of 30 snaps.

But The series in which Carter replaced him was not after a sudden change.

Wilson was on the field for every snap of the Vikings 10-play drive that ended with a field goal to up their lead to 17-0.

The Bengals followed with a nine-play, 48-yard drive that lasted 4:38 and ended with an Evan McPherson field goal.

On the ensuing series, which ended up being a three and out for the Cincinnati defense, Carter was in for Wilson.

Golden praised Carter and the improvement the rookie has shown while also pointing out some of what he sees as Wilson’s strengths.

“He’s got good command. He’s getting us lined up well,” Golden said of Wilson. “We thought Logan really got us set up well the other day. We have to do a better job of finishing.”

Through three games, Wilson ranks 30th against the run among 59 qualifying linebackers by Pro Football Focus.

Rookie Demetrius Knight Jr. is 58th.

“I’m a big fan of Logan,” Golden said. “We’ve got to keep getting better. Not just Logan, but everybody around him. Again, some of the breakdowns in the run game, he may look on the TV like why isn’t he making that play? But it is really somebody outside of him has to set it because he thinks the ball is coming back, that kind of thing.

“From that standpoint we got to just keep getting the whole group better and getting on the same page and playing just as one group.,” Golden added.

Prior to Wilson’s season-ending knee injury last year, he played 100 percent of the defensive snaps in the first 11 games.

The year before, he played 100 percent of the snaps in 13 games and no less than 95 percent in the three others prior to the meaningless season finale.

The same was true in 2021 and 2022. Wilson almost never came off the field.

But it sounds as though that could be changing this year.

Monday night at Denver may not be the best indication of how things will look moving forward because head coach Zac Taylor said the coaches will be mindful of the issues with altitude and will sub more liberally.

“Our guys understand what it's gonna feel like a little bit,” Taylor said. “You can get winded. So as the game goes, you just have to mindful of which guys are getting a lot of reps and try to give them breaks when you can.”