Reports: Bengals Attack Linebacker Depth With Super Bowl Vet Oren Burks
Senior Writer
Last month, the Bengals said they were committed to taking a long look at every phase of their linebacker room under new position coach Mike Hodges, and they apparently made their first play for depth this offseason Monday night when published reports had them agreeing to terms with veteran Eagles linebacker Oren Burks.
Burks, a career special teamer with 17 starts in 108 games, is fresh off playing nearly snap in the Super Bowl win over the Chiefs in which he had five tackles playing in place of the injured Nakobe Dean.
On the heels of that news came another report that Bengals special teams captain Akeem Davis-Gaither, a linebacker they took with the fourth pick in the 2020 draft, secured a two-year, $11 million deal in Arizona.
In Burks, 29, the Bengals are getting an experienced vet used to coming off the bench in big moments. Of his top-six games of defensive snaps, four have been in the playoffs and two have come in the last two Super Bowls.
At last month’s NFL scouting combine, director of player personnel Duke Tobin said the Bengals were examining the backer situation, currently manned by starters Logan Wilson and Germaine Pratt. Reports had Burks taking a two-year deal for $5 million.
“I wouldn’t call it a revamp, but it’s a position we’re looking at. I think we need some linebacker unit help to be honest with you,” Tobin said. “We’ll look and see what it looks like. How are guys feel about our current guys and what roles they will have and what we’re looking for in the next group, whether we need a third or a fourth, a fifth or do we need special teams guys?
“Those are all the things that we’ll look at in that position group. I don’t think that we got everything we wanted. The tackling in that group wasn’t what it needed to be at times. Other times they were really good. So what’s the truth? We’ll get to the bottom of it and decide what the best way going forward is.”
Playing for the 49ers in the 2023 Super Bowl against the Chiefs, Burks played the second most snaps of his career with 71 and played 14 more in the kicking game during the overtime loss to Kansas City.
A third-round pick out of Vanderbilt in 2018 by the Packers, Burks filled in for Dean during the entire playoff run with 25 tackles, three for loss, one sack, two QB hits while playing 68, 71, and 55 snaps in the three games.
Davis-Gaither had five tackles on a special teams unit this season that led the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus grades. When Wilson suffered a season-ending knee injury, he logged career-highs with seven starts and 82 tackles, four for loss.
Mike Gesicki and Cody Ford swung through Paycor Stadium Monday to sign their new deals and cashed in on their versatility the Bengals covet.
According to published reports, the Bengals got a starting run stopper on the first day of free agency when published reports said they agreed with Packers nose tackle TJ Slaton on a two-year deal.
The Bengals are reportedly staging a reunion with one of their playoff heroes when running back Samaje Perine agreed Monday to what published reports are calling a two-year deal.
The Bengals reportedly retained one of their biggest locker-room leaders when they agreed to terms with defensive tackle B.J. Hill, according to published reports in the first hour of NFL free agency Monday.
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Oren Burks will not be returning to the Eagles
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Philadelphia will need to find another linebacker to pair with Zack Baun while Nakobe Dean is injured.
Oren Burks is leaving the Philadelphia Eagles in NFL free agency to sign a two-year, $5 million contract with the Cincinnati Bengals, according to a report from NFL insider Ian Rapoport.
There was hope that the Eagles might be able to retain Burks with Nakobe Dean’s outlook for 2025 unclear as he recovers from a torn patella injury that could cause him to miss a portion of next season.
Burks’ departure means the Eagles will have to find another option to pair with Zack Baun, who signed a three-year, $51 million contract extension with Philly last week. Internal options at the position include Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and Ben VanSumeren (assuming the Eagles re-sign him as an exclusive-rights free agent). Even if the team likes those guys, they should still look to add more competition through free agency and/or the 2025 NFL Draft.
Burks ended up being a nice one-year player for the Eagles. He mostly contributed on special teams before being elevated to a starting role after Dean’s injury in the Wild Card round. The drop-off from Dean to Burks wasn’t as severe as it was feared to be.
Hard to blame the 29-year-old for leaving Philly with a chance to see more playing time for another team.
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The Cincinnati Bengals are signing linebacker Oren Burks to a two-year deal worth $5 million, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Burks mostly recently played for the Philadelphia Eagles where he became a starter in the playoffs after Nakobe Dean suffered a season-ending injury. During Philadelphia’s Super Bowl run, Burks logged 25 tackles, three tackles for loss, two quarterback hits, one sack and one pass deflection.
With Germaine Pratt’s status in the air and Akeem Davis-Gaither heading to Arizona, the Bengals needed a linebacker. The team will likely still keep adding to this position through the NFL draft.
Burks started his career with the Green Bay Packers where he was drafted in the third round out of Vanderbilt in 2019. He’s 29 and has played for the San Francisco 49ers, Eagles and Packers in his career so far.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Oren Burks Cincinnati Bengals contract in NFL free agency 2025
It’s not like the Philadelphia Eagles didn’t know this was coming.
On practically any list of the top free agents that would be available when the so-called legal tampering period started Monday, there were two Eagles defensive players in the top five. Defensive tackle Milton Williams and defensive end Josh Sweat were two of the very few impact players to reach free agency.
The Eagles couldn’t afford to sign them before they hit the market. They have a lot of stars to pay, including Saquon Barkley, who got a two-year, $41.2 million extension, and linebacker Zack Baun, who got a three-year, $51 million deal.
And still, when Williams and Sweat agreed to big deals elsewhere in the first few hours of free agency Monday, it had to sting. Williams agreed to a reported $104 million, four-year deal with the New England Patriots. Sweat followed that up with a $76.4 million deal over four years with the Arizona Cardinals, via ESPN, reuniting with his old Eagles defensive coordinator and current Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon.
On top of losing those two, former Eagles cornerback Darius Slay Jr. agreed to terms with the Pittsburgh Steelers, per Fox Sports. Slay was cut last week by the Eagles, who had to save salary cap space and didn’t want to have Slay’s $16 million on the books.
The Eagles will be fine. Nobody is crying for them. But it was a lot to lose in a few hours off a championship defense.
The Eagles had a defense that finished first in the NFL last season and had a Super Bowl performance that will go down as one of the best ever. Their first-half dominance against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs will live on for a long time.
Sweat and Williams were a big part of that game. They combined for 4.5 sacks and it could be argued they were the Eagles’ two best defensive players that night. Sweat got some Super Bowl MVP votes.
Slay made three Pro Bowls in his five seasons with the Eagles and was a big part of shutting down the Chiefs as the Eagles took a big lead into halftime.
But time moves on. At 34 years old, Slay was deemed too expensive for a secondary that hit big on draft picks of Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean last year. Williams is an exciting talent but also was the team’s third-best defensive tackle behind Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. Sweat had 39 sacks the past five seasons and while every team needs as many edge rushers as it can get, the Eagles have options there too.
Decisions needed to be made, and it gets harder with other teams wanting to pick away at the Super Bowl champion’s roster.
The Eagles have been fantastic at player acquisition, which put them in this month’s enviable catch-22. The Eagles won a Super Bowl because they had an embarrassment of riches, and they couldn’t afford to keep everyone because they have an embarrassment of riches.
The players who left will do well for their new teams. Williams can finally show what he can do as a full-time player, for a Patriots team that thought he was worth $26 million a year. Sweat gives the Cardinals a pass rusher the defense desperately needed to go to a new level. Slay is aging but hasn’t fallen off yet and can help a secondary that was looking for depth.
They would have been valuable to the Eagles too, but it’s difficult to keep everyone together year after year. The good news for Eagles fans is they can trust general manager Howie Roseman to replace all of them.
