Bengals
Bengals DC Lou Anarumo has developed into one of the better coordinators in the league over the past few seasons and has played a big role in Cincinnati’s success. Anarumo’s trademark is his creativity and the unconventional looks the Bengals defense can throw at opposing offenses to try and get them out of sorts. It demands a lot of versatility from the players who could be asked to do wildly different things from snap to snap but Anarumo has pulled it all together.
“What Lou has done is phenomenal. A little pinch here and a little pinch there. You can get Louie to stir the pot. It’s a mixture and Lou has done a great job blending it all together,” Fresno State DC Kevin Coyle, a former NFL coach and friend of Anarumo’s, said via Geoff Hobson of the team website. “There are multiple personnel groupings to match the offensive groupings you have to defend, but a lot of carry-over within the packages … They’ve got their core of things, but yet they’re able to adapt to game situations. You can’t change your (core) so how do you tweak it with a different guy playing the dime position or a nickel that can play safety or a safety that can get in the box and play the run and corners that can make it look like they’re in man, but they’re playing a zone.”
“The league is nickel. Pass defense is now 70 percent of the time,” Anarumo added. “To say you’re 4-3 or 3-4, everybody is doing the same four-down stuff. And then you sprinkle it in. Five down, six down, whatever you do. And we acquired the kind of players we felt like we needed to do it.”
Browns
Browns HC Kevin Stefanski said the team will look into bringing in WR DeAndre Hopkins, but added that they like who they currently have at the position.
“I really, really like our wide receiver room,” Stefanski said, via PFT. “I love the guys that are in there. Andrew and his crew are always looking at every avenue, so I won’t comment specifically on the player other than to say that I really like our roster.”
- Browns QB Deshaun Watson on Hopkins: “We have been talking since the Houston days and also when he left for Arizona we were always talking. He’s always been a brother of mine since I was coming out of high school. Our connection and our relationship have always been great. I know there are a lot of things swirling around in the media about him possibly coming to Cleveland. For me, my answer to that is of course we would love to have him, he knows that. We had a lot of connections but it’s kind of out of my range to coordinate things, so all I can do is make a call and let AB (Andrew Berry) do the rest.” (Mary Kay Cabot)
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