Why Bengals Signing of T.J. Slaton Could Help Shape Something That’s Been Missing From the Defense for Years

Jay Morrison | Mar 10, 2025

Green Bay Packers defensive tackle T.J. Slaton (93) celebrates making a tackle in the first quarter against the Chicago Bears during their football game Sunday, January 5, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. / Dan Powers / USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CINCINNATI – Coming off a season when the Cincinnati Bengals struggled to generate any sort of pass rush from anyone other than Trey Hendrickson, Monday signing of a defensive tackle with two career sacks left a lot of people scratching their heads.

But it shouldn’t have.

What T.J. Slaton lacks in pash rush juice, he makes up for as a run defender.

And the Bengals were even worse against the run in 2024 than they were in affecting the passer.

Cincinnati’s run defense success rate was 55.1 percent, which ranked 31st in the league, just ahead of the Carolina Panthers’ 51.9 percent.

To find the next most recent team to finish lower than what the Bengals did last year, you have to go back to the 2020 Minnesota Vikings (53.3 percent).

Stopping the run is still important in today’s passing-dominant league, especially in the AFC North.

The Bengals failed to find a run stopper in free agency last year after letting DJ Reader walk, and it forced them to reach for one in draft class lacking them, leading to the selection of McKinnley Jackson in the third round (No. 97).

Jackson may develop into a fine run plugger. He certainly showed flashes of his potential in the second half of last season.

But the point is that the Bengals couldn’t afford to make the same mistake, which is why Monday’s first day of the negotiating period saw them not only sign Slaton to a two-year, but they also re-signed defensive tackle B.J. Hill to a three-year, $33 million deal.

Pro Football Focus ranked Hill with the 10th best run-defense grade among defensive tackles in 2024.

Hill also ranked 10th in stop percentage (tackles that constitute a failure for the offense).

Slaton had some conflicting data in 2024, grading as PFF’s No. 67 defensive tackle out of 84 with at least 175 run-defense snaps.

But Slaton was No. 23 in stop percentage, and he was No. 1 in ESPN’s run stop win percentage metric.

Last month at the Combine in Indianapolis, director of player personnel pointed to the poor run defense as a reason for the lack of pash rush. So while Slaton’s two career sacks don’t appear to be a big boost in affecting the quarterback, fixing the run defense is a first step as the Bengals see it.

“I think there’s been high injury rate there, and when you don’t have guys up to it on the interior, it can really put your defense at risk of never getting to those third down pass rush situations,” he said. “We didn’t get to those enough this year. You can say, ‘Well, the pass rush wasn’t there. I’m going to say we weren’t in those situations enough to make the pass rush effective in those situations.

“Late in the year, we got ourselves into those positions more and we had more success. You’ve got to have enough bodies. The injury risk is high, and it’s hard to find guys who can stay on the field all three downs. You’ve got your run stoppers and then you’ve got your pass rushers. Depending on the situation, you need a pretty good collection of guys inside there.”

This year’s defensive tackle draft class is loaded with pass rushers. Finding the run stoppers is more difficult, and less predictable, so getting a guy like Slaton, who never missed a game in his four seasons with the Packers, is an important addition.

The Bengals haven’t been an elite run defense in nearly two decades.

The last time they ranked in the top 10 in rush defense EPA was 2008, when they were sixth.

The last time they ranked in the top 10 in run defense success percentage was 2001, when they were third.

Since the AFC North was founded in 2002, look at the number of times the four teams finished in the top 10 of defensive run success:

Baltimore 18 of a possible 23 seasons

Pittsburgh 13

Cleveland 1

Cincinnati 0

And the number of top 10 finishes in run defense EPA

Baltimore 17

Pittsburgh 11

Cincinnati 1

Cleveland 0

Slaton is a solid run stopper, durable (he played all 17 games each of his four seasons with the Packers and started all 17 each of the last two years) and inexpensive at just $15.1 million over two seasons.

When the Bengals signed DJ Reader in 2020 to try to fix their run defense woes, they paid him $53 million over four seasons.

Reader appeared in 44 of a possible 67 games, and this is where the Bengals finished in those key run defense metrics:

Success Rate

2020: 14th

2021: 18th

2022:25th

2023: 28th

EPA

2020: 22nd

2021: 15th

2022: 12th

2023: 30th

It’s also worth noting that during Slaton’s rookie season in Green Bay in 2021 – when the Packers selected him 53 picks after the Bengals took defensive tackle Tyler Shelvin – his defensive line coach for his first three seasons was Jerry Montgomery.

Today’s signing will reunite the duo after the Bengals hired Montgomery to replace Marion Hobby in January.

And the run defense reboot isn’t just about Slaton.

Hill has been viewed as more of a pass rusher throughout his career, but as his PFF numbers prove last year, he has really improved as a run stopper.

During training camp last year, I asked him about that perception and whether improving his run-stopping ability was a big focus of his in the offseason.

“I don’t know why people don’t think I can stop the run,” Hill said with a bemused chuckle. “I think I’m pretty good at it. It’s something I take serious.”

The Bengals have tried to take it seriously at times, but it hasn’t always worked out the way they hoped.

Bringing back Hill to pair with Slaton while Jackson and Jenkins continue to develop could be the first step toward getting back into the top 10 in some of those key metrics for the first time since most of the current players were in elementary school.

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