Suddenly, soon to be 27, heading into his sixth NFL season, and with his knee feeling the best it has felt in the two years since surgery, Vontaze Burfict is helping the kids instead of being one of the kids. And with his good friend Rey Maualuga no longer next to him in the Bengals linebacker corps he feels the urgency in a role that now includes shepherding a group that has more new faces than Netflix.
Burfict and Vincent Rey are the only backers that have played more than 111 snaps for the Bengals. Nick Vigil played those 111 last season as a rookie, 57 of them when Burfict missed the last two games of the year.