Vontaze Burfict’s recklessness has cost the Cincinnati Bengals before, and while they do want to tone it down, the team also doesn’t want him to lose what makes him good.
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin conceded that some of what Burfict does needs to change, but the energy and passion he plays with cannot.
“He’s come out and said that that he needs to change some elements of (his game),” Tobin said, via Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “But this game is about passion and passionate players are the best players in the league and so we’re not going to tell him not to be a passionate football player. That’s what he is. That’s what makes him good. Obviously there are some things that maybe at the end of the plays or some decisions he makes in a fraction of second that he’ll start to do a little differently. But he’s an important part of what we do and we’re not going to restrict him to the point where he’s ineffective.”
The trick for Burfict will be finding the line where he’s playing effectively but not recklessly – a line which he crossed far too often in 2015 and came to a head in Cincinnati’s playoff game against Pittsburgh. He hit Antonio Brown too high, took unnecessary shots at Ben Roethlisberger, and earned a three game suspension for it all. He’s a very talented player, but he too often crosses into reckless and dangerous territory. We’ll see after his suspension whether he’s capable of curbing that.
