What happened to him that last year with the Bengals?
Maualuga saw his playing time decrease significantly as last year wore on, struggling to produce at the level of previous seasons. Maualuga played on just 30 percent of defensive snaps compared to 57 percent in 2015.
Now 30 years old, the trend wasn't going to reverse.
"He realizes the way the league is now," defensive coordinator Paul Guenther said at the NFL Scouting Combine in early March. "I tell Rey a lot he's synonymous with the fullback. The run-stopping linebacker is the fullback, as soon as you see the fullback run on the field he can run on, too. But that doesn't happen very often."
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/spo...hy-bengals-released-lb-rey-maualuga/99623618/
I think this is part of it- as we said teams are more in nickel but we need a run stuffing LB on the roster.