Germaine Pratt? Oren Burks? What’s happening at linebacker?
It’s NFL Draft week, and the Cincinnati Bengals are preparing to fill out their roster for a hopeful Super Bowl run. Most teams have at least a few holes to fill at this point in the offseason, and the Bengals are no exception.
One position that may look like a strength to an outsider just glancing at the roster is linebacker. The team’s official roster lists Germaine Pratt, Logan Wilson, Oren Burks, Joe Giles-Harris, Shaka Heyward, Maema Njongmeta, and Craig Young. The only issue with this list is that Pratt, one of the team’s starting linebackers, requested a trade earlier this offseason, and the team has been very quiet about it.
Bengals de facto GM Duke Tobin held a pre-draft press conference on Monday in which he was asked about the starting linebackers for the 2026 season. He was non-committal about Pratt’s future on the team as well as whether Burks, who was signed as a free agent, is penciled in as the starter next to Wilson in 2026.
When asked if Germaine Pratt is in the #Bengals plans, Duke Tobin said: “We’ll see how it goes. You know, he requested the trade. We’ve looked into that a little bit, and we are where we are, but I don’t have anything to announce on that.”
— Laurel Pfahler (@LaurelPfahler) April 21, 2025
Throughout the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Pratt and Wilson made up one of the best linebacker duos in the league, especially in pass defense. Neither has played at that level over the last couple of seasons, but that could be a result of the loss of key players like DJ Reader and Jessie Bates in front and behind them.
Akeem Davis-Gaither, who spent the last five seasons in the Bengals’ linebacker room, largely as a backup, left in free agency this offseason for a new role with the Arizona Cardinals, and Burks could have been signed more as his replacement than as a replacement for Pratt.
In reality, it’s likely the Bengals are just waiting to see how things fall their way later this week. If the Bengals end up grabbing a guy like Jihaad Campbell (though he’s injured and will miss at least the beginning of the season) in the first round, or someone they think can step up and play immediately on Day 2 or Day 3, the whole picture could be changed.
The only certainty, at least right now, seems to be that Wilson will be one of the Bengals’ starting linebackers in 2026. Besides that, at least based on Tobin’s comments on the position, anything is a possibility.