The Bengals enter 2026 with the kind of profile that makes them easy to believe in and just as easy to worry about. Joe Burrow is back healthy after playing only eight games last season because of a toe injury, Ja’Marr Chase is still one of the league’s premier weapons, and Cincinnati made real moves to patch up a defense that has dragged the team down for three straight seasons.
That combination is why the Bengals feel like one of the biggest wild cards in the league.
The ceiling is obvious. If Burrow stays upright for a full season and has Chase and Tee Higgins at his disposal, Cincinnati has a real shot to get back to the postseason for the first time since 2022 and even make noise in the AFC North. The floor is just as obvious: another year of frustration, with Joe Flacco finishing out the schedule.
Burrow’s health is the hinge point, and it has been for a while. The three-time Pro Bowler has missed 23.7% of his career games, including 16 over the past three seasons. That’s the central fear for a team that has been shockingly irrelevant lately despite having one of the league’s top quarterbacks and a future Hall of Fame receiver.
The Bengals have now missed the playoffs in each of the past three seasons, making them one of only nine teams in the league to do that, along with the Colts, Raiders, Jets, Titans, Saints, Falcons, Giants and Cardinals.
There is at least some fresh optimism in Cincinnati because the defense got a major facelift. The biggest swing came with the trade for Dexter Lawrence II, a move that sent the No. 10 pick in the NFL draft to the Giants before Cincinnati handed Lawrence a one-year, $28 million extension. The Bengals are banking on a rebound after he posted eight quarterback hits and 0.5 sacks last season, a sharp drop from the stretch that included three straight Pro Bowls and two second-team All-Pro nods.
Lawrence isn’t the only addition. Cincinnati also brought in edge rusher Boye Mafe and hometown safety Bryan Cook, giving the defense a more serious look on paper than it had a year ago.
Cook is especially intriguing because he comes home with real credibility. The two-time Super Bowl champion with the Chiefs starred at Mount Healthy High School before heading to the University of Cincinnati, and he developed into a steady presence in Steve Spagnuolo’s defense. Drafted in the second round in 2022, Cook went from playing 32% of the snaps as a rookie to 79%, 90% and 83% in the years that followed, while collecting three interceptions and 15 passes defensed.
He’s not being sold as a star, but he does bring intelligence, stability and leadership to a young secondary.
Cornerback DJ Turner also looks like a player on the rise. Cincinnati’s defense has been brutal over the past two seasons, but Turner was not the reason.
In 2025, he turned in his best year as a third-year pro, setting personal bests in completion percentage allowed (47.9%), yards per target (6.4), quarterback rating (75.6), yards after catch (127) and yards per completion (13.4). He’s only 25, he’s heading into his prime, and he should be better in year two of Al Golden’s system.
That matters because Turner is in a contract year, and the cornerback market keeps climbing. Trent McDuffie just became the first corner ever to land $100 million guaranteed, so a strong season could put Turner in line for a serious payday.
Even with those pieces, the defense has real holes. Losing Trey Hendrickson to the Ravens in free agency left a major void up front, and Cincinnati is now counting on Lawrence, Mafe, 2024 first-round pick Shemar Stewart and veteran defensive tackle Jonathan Allen to make that group matter.
Golden is also under the microscope after replacing Lou Anarumo, a move that looked questionable even before the results came in. In Golden’s first season, the unit ranked 32nd in yards per play at 6.7, 31st in yards and 30th in points allowed.
The linebackers are another concern. Second-year man Demetrius Knight Jr. flashed as a rookie, playing 73% of the snaps and finishing with 106 tackles, three sacks and seven passes defensed.
After him, the depth chart gets thin fast, with Oren Burks, Shaka Heyward and Barrett Carter competing for work. Carter also played 73% of the snaps as a rookie, but opponents completed 77.1% of their targets against him and he gave up three touchdowns.
Burks brings experience from two Super Bowl teams during his eight-year career with the Eagles and 49ers, but in a perfect setup he’d be more of a rotation piece.
That’s the tension with Cincinnati. The front office spent big, the defense has more name value, and there are enough individual talents to imagine a turnaround. But there are still plenty of questions about whether that group has enough difference-makers to climb into the top 15.
And even if the defense improves, everything still circles back to Burrow. The offensive line in front of him is the same starting five as last year, and while the unit ranked a respectable 15th in pressure rate allowed at 33.2%, Burrow still took a beating before going down in Week 2 with the toe injury that cost him nine games.
Duke Tobin remains the longest-tenured general manager in the NFL, holding the job since 1999, and owner Mike Brown has shown no sign of impatience despite a 199-233-4 career record. Zac Taylor is entering his eighth season and has gone 52-63-1 while missing the playoffs in five of his first seven years, but his seat is not expected to heat up. Cincinnati’s history with Marvin Lewis - 16 seasons, no playoff wins, 0-7 in the postseason - says plenty about how this organization operates.
For now, the Bengals are living in that familiar space between promise and peril. They have the quarterback, they have the receivers, and they made aggressive defensive additions. They also have enough holes and enough injury risk to keep the whole thing from coming together.
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Bengals Took A Massive Swing To Save Burrows Window And Its Blowing Up
With Trey Hendrickson gone to Baltimore, Cincinnati had a clear incentive to get aggressive about fixing a defense that had been its biggest weak spot. The club answered by swinging for Dexter Lawrence II, a move designed to add real force up front and keep Joe Burrows window from narrowing any further.
Not everyone is sold on the price, and the debate around it has only grown louder since the deal was made. Some around the league see it as the kind of necessary gamble the Bengals had to make, while others have questioned whether it cost too much for a player coming off a down season. ESPN went as far as calling it Cincinnatis biggest and worst offseason move, which only adds to the pressure on the front office to make the bet pay off. [Read more 🡒]
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Bengals Still Havent Made The Cheap Linebacker Move Fans Want
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One name that keeps surfacing fits that mold as well as anyone because of his background, athletic profile and recent production. He has moved around enough to offer some lineup flexibility, and the case for adding him is built on a blend of run support, coverage and pressure ability that the Bengals could use right now, even if the front office has so far stopped short of making the move fans have been waiting for. [Read more 🡒]