Margus Hunt set to take first step to becoming an absolute monster

I’m not going to lie, picking Margus Hunt to be the breakout player for the Cincinnati Bengals is more of a hunch than an educated guess. He hasn’t shown much on film to make me sure that he will have a big season, but I still think he will. Hunt was always going to be a project when he came out of college. He didn’t even play football until he got to college, so even though he was blessed with a lot of impressive physical tools, he still had a shit ton to learn about playing defensive end when the Bengals drafted him in the second round of the 2013 draft.

I thought Hunt showed some flashes from time to time last season, but the problem was he just couldn’t stay healthy. Those flashes, no matter how fleeting, showed that he was finally making some progress. He dealt with a back injury this spring, but returned to action in the preseason.

In two seasons Hunt has been credited a grand total of 10 tackles and 1.5 sacks. It won’t exactly be hard to beat those numbers, provided that he is healthy. What makes me confident that his jump will be more than just incremental is that I can see on film he now understands the speed of the game and what he needs to do physically to be successful, even if he wasn’t always great at actually doing those things.

We should see a lot less thinking and a lot more doing from him this year. Keep in mind that this joker is all of 6’8, close to 300 pounds and ran a fucking 4.6 flat at the Combine. Yeah, he weighed a little less back then, but he’s still fast as hell and quick off the ball. He also had 38 bench press reps of 225 back then, and from what I’ve seen on film, he damn sure hasn’t lost any strength.

The main thing that’s held Hunt back, other than injuries, is that he played with way too much hesitancy. Now that the training wheels are off, I expect him take advantage of his physical gifts and start kicking asses on a regular basis. Maybe he won’t be a double-digit sack guy, but five or more sacks is definitely not out of the question. He has the ability to do that and be a friggin monster against the run with his combination of size and strength. That would be one hell of a year for a backup defensive end.