Rey Maualuga is facing a lot of changes in this NFL offseason. The linebacker has been released from the Cincinnati Bengals on March 25th. The team confirmed the news by making an announcement via their official Twitter page. At the time of his release, he still had one year and 3.6 million dollars left on his contract.
Maualuga’s history with the Bengals
Maualuga has been with the Cincinnati Bengals since 2009. He began his career as a round two, 38th pick draft pick after graduating from the University of Southern California in 2009. During his time with the team (2005-2008), he made an extraordinary impact as a linebacker, causing him to be sought out for the 2008 NFL Draft.
He decided to finish off his senior year of college, only to be drafted the next year.
He has been a driving force for the Cincinnati Bengals from the beginning. He started 104 out of 110 games throughout his career and set a record in 2012 for completing 122 tackles; four defended passes and a sack. This was the most he has done in any season of his career.
However, in 2016, things began to decline for the linebacker. He ended up missing two games due to injury, was replaced as a starter for six games and ended his season with a record low 27 tackles. Although he has been an asset to the team in the past, it is not a complete surprise that the Bengals decided to let him go.
In total, he completed 584 tackles, four sacks, seven interceptions and six forced fumbles during his eight seasons with the Bengals.
So now what?
Now that the Cincinnati Bengals have released Maualuga, they already have a plan to replace him as a linebacker. They already released Karlos Dansby (who went on to re-sign with the Arizona Cardinals) and signed Kevin Mitner for one year, multi-million dollar contract. He and Vontaze Burfict will be the main starting linebackers as of now. Nick Vigil and Vincent Rey are also said to be getting more playing time.
There is also a chance the team may sign another linebacker before or after the NFL Draft, but that has yet to be confirmed.
