Pratt Gone

[*ochocincos*]

(06-12-2025, 07:47 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Because 2022 was the last year he was used as the 2-down LB he is. He got 57.5% more targets in 2023 and 77.5% more targets in 2024 than he did in 2022 because he wasn't on the field as much in 2022. If you take a player off the field for the majority of the plays he's weakest at, he'll be better overall. It's less opportunity for him to screw up or get exposed.

250-350 extra snaps per year (~17-18 more snaps per game) of the down he's weakest at makes a large difference. Even more so when he's 250lbs and his weakness are the plays where he has to run the most distance.

And that's fair, but that's not what I was saying.

I was just saying Pratt had a couple good years where he allowed a lower passer rating and good coverage score.
If it was because he was on more limited snaps in coverage, that's fine.
He still performed well those years, and thus deserved to be praised for it.
He had some quality years for the Bengals and I was happy when they drafted him.

What I suspect happened is Golden wanted to move Pratt back into his old role after bringing in Burks, and Pratt did not want to do that.
So the Bengals decided to go out and get what they felt was a 2-down LB to replace him for the role they wanted him to play.
They then got a 2nd LB in the draft (Carter) likely because he was, according to reports of their board, way higher as BPA than they had the other available guys in Rd 4.