The Bengals are seeing early returns from Boye Mafe, and Zac Taylor says the fit was obvious from the start.
Mafe has piled up 10 tackles, five tackles for loss and three sacks through five games after landing in Cincinnati on a three-year deal as an unrestricted free agent last offseason. Taylor said defensive coordinator Al Golden and the team’s scouts zeroed in on him quickly during the free-agent process.
“(Defensive coordinator Al Golden), our scouts mentioned him quite a bit early in the process as somebody we really wanted to walk away with in free agency,” Taylor said, via Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic.
Taylor also pointed to the way Mafe, Jonathan Allen, Dexter Lawrence and Cashius Howell work together along the line. In his view, the production comes from a group that’s willing to do the dirty work for one another.
“They all help each other,” Taylor said. “They’re all unselfish.
It’s not, me go get that sack. It’s helping somebody else.
I can think of countless times guys have made calls where they do a job to free up somebody else to go make a play - bull a guy instead of a certain type of rush so the big play doesn’t get out. It’s a really unselfish group.”
Bengals defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery said Mafe has delivered exactly what the team expected after the scouting process.
“What we got is what we saw,” Montgomery said. “I don’t know why his role diminished (in Seattle), but he affected the quarterback at a high rate.
People look at sacks; the ball comes out in this league pretty fast, though. He had more pressures in affecting the quarterback and getting the quarterback off the spot.
He was beating Trent Williams, some really good tackles in that division.”
In Cleveland, Jerry Jeudy is still waiting on his first touchdown of the season, but he says Deshaun Watson has made it clear the Browns will need more from him moving forward. Jeudy has 12 catches for 150 yards so far.
“It’s kind of frustrating not being able to perform or be involved as much as you like, but Deshaun, he just came up to me and he said, ‘Hey, I’m going to need you some of these games, man. I’m going to need you to lock in and stay focused,’” Jeudy said, via Dan Labbe of Cleveland.com.
“And I heard that. I just continue to grind and continue to stay focused.”
The Ravens are preparing for a Week 7 meeting with the Bengals, which means Trey Hendrickson will be lined up against his former team. Calais Campbell said that even if Hendrickson keeps things quiet, the emotions are still there when a player faces an old club.
“He’s the kind of person that would never say that,” Campbell said, via Clifton Brown and Ryan Mink of the team’s site. “If it was me, I’d be thinking, ‘I’m going to make them regret it.’
Trey’s a whole different kind of guy. He keeps his cards close to his chest.
But knowing football and how this thing works, I want to give him as many opportunities as possible. Especially when we get those obvious passing downs and we have just straight four-man rushes, those are opportunities I expect him to have some fun out there.”
Trenton Simpson is expecting Hendrickson to make those chances count.
“For him it’s about to be one of those ones - multiple sack games,” Simpson said. “I’m calling it. I’m excited to see the celebration he does.”
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