CINCINNATI -- Before turning our full attention to free agency, the draft and the 2015 season, let's take one last look back at 2014.
We're doing that all this week through this position-by-position review of the Cincinnati Bengals' recent 10-5-1 campaign that ended with a wild-card round loss at Indianapolis.
Previous entries in the series. Now we continue with defensive tackles:
2014 cap value: $16.1 million total -- Geno Atkins ($9 million), Domata Peko ($5.9 million), Brandon Thompson ($705,300), Devon Still ($536,471)
Highlights: The biggest highlight of the year for the entire team was the support Still and his family were given after he announced entering the season that his 4-year-old daughter had been diagnosed with a very serious form of pediatric cancer. The fight that Leah Still has been going through has had a more positive effect on people across the world than her father could have anticipated back in September when he started making people more aware about the disease.
As for on the field, there were relatively few highlights to celebrate for the Bengals' defensive tackles. Atkins, fresh off ACL surgery, had one of the worst years of his career. Peko was so-so months after signing a two-year contract extension. Still had trouble getting going after coming off serious back and elbow injuries from last season. And Thompson missed several weeks with a knee injury. When Thompson wasn't on the field, the Bengals allowed an average of 4.6 yards rushing. When he was on the field, they allowed just 3.1 yards. One highlight was having him in run-stop situations.
Lowlights: An interior lineman's primary job on passing downs is to push back the offensive linemen as far as he can and to generate pressure on the quarterback. In the running game, interior linemen are mainly asked to plug running lanes in order to redirect ball carriers to places where linebackers can tackle them. Again, Thompson's presence helped in the running game, but he missed so many games that leaky run defense was a problem for the line much of the year. In terms of defending the pass, Atkins went from having career-type sack performances in 2012 and 2013 (he was on a career pace in 2013 before his midseason ACL tear) to barely disrupting anything in 2014. He had three sacks in 16 games. In Atkins' last 16-game season in 2012, he had 12.5 sacks.
Play of the year: Although the Bengals' interior linemen may have mostly struggled, the group did have several key plays where they flashed this past season. Perhaps their best sequence came during a 17-play drive that spanned parts of the first and second quarters of the Week 11 game at New Orleans. Peko particularly performed well on that drive, coming away with six stops. Peko finished the game with eight tackles, a season-high he also had at New England in Week 5. Peko's two tackles on back-to-back goal line plays at the end of the long drive kept the Saints out of the end zone and forced them to go for an ultimately unsuccessful fourth-down try.
Necessary improvements: One place where rotational changes could be good this season would be at defensive tackle. As much as some fans may want Peko to be released, it doesn't appear the veteran is going anywhere. Still will be a restricted free agent next month so it's possible that he may not be part of the Bengals' plans this year. Assuming he is, though, having a full offseason to train instead of spending it recovering from injuries should help. The same could be said for Atkins, whom coaches already have been pushing since the January playoff loss.