The Bengals spent too long asking too much from Trey Hendrickson and too little from the rest of the defensive line. That approach helped drag down a defense that couldn’t cover for Joe Burrow’s MVP-worthy 2024 season and finished with a miserable 6-11 record last year. Now, with Hendrickson gone, Cincinnati has tried to fix the problem in a big way, bringing in Dexter Lawrence, Jonathan Allen and Boye Mafe to reshape the front.
Allen, in particular, sounds convinced the Bengals have built something that can hold up. The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. recently dug into how defensive tackles can age differently than players at other spots, and that matters here because Cincinnati is leaning on a core of Lawrence, Allen and B.J. Hill that already combines for 24 seasons of NFL experience.
“It’s going to be hard at 35 to keep up with receivers just coming into the league. As a defensive tackle, you can play in the league at a high level a lot longer.
Yes, there’s a lot of physicality and flexibility and all that, but also all your knowledge and pre-snap awareness and pre-snap keys. It’s hard to find guys who can rush the passer and play the run and be a three-down defensive lineman and do it at a high level.
[…] You don’t lose strength…That’s the last thing to go. That’s something I’m still able to rely on.
And if anything, I feel stronger than ever.”
That belief isn’t coming out of nowhere. Allen just finished playing all 17 games for the Minnesota Vikings in 2025, which fits neatly with his point about durability. Before that, he had been something close to an iron man, aside from a season in Washington when he was limited to eight games.
He’s also entering his 10th season at age 31, and this is the first time he’s been on a team with an offense as dangerous as Cincinnati’s. That matters, because it should keep the defense from living in bad situations all year. It also helps that Lawrence, who is 28, will be lining up next to him most of the time.
The numbers from Allen’s 2025 season need some context, too. Minnesota allowed only four yards per carry, even though opponents were often in position to lean on the run while protecting leads.
The Vikings faced 529 rushing attempts, second only to the New York Jets’ 539. So Allen’s 45.4 PFF run defense grade doesn’t tell the whole story by itself.
And Cincinnati should be able to get more out of him than Minnesota did. He’ll have more rest because of the rotation with Hill, and Lawrence’s 340-pound frame gives the Bengals another massive piece in the middle. Put that together, and a run defense that was the worst in the league suddenly looks a lot more stable.
There’s also the pass rush, which has been a long-running weak spot from the defensive tackle spot in Cincinnati. That’s supposed to be one of the strengths of both Allen and Lawrence, and it gives the Bengals another reason to believe this overhaul can actually stick.
So before dismissing the new-look front, it’s worth sitting with what Cincinnati just added. This is a veteran-heavy defensive line with size, experience and production the Bengals have been missing for a while.
In Other News...
Bengals May Have A Cheap Answer To A Familiar Backfield Fear
The Bengals have spent enough time worrying about backfield depth to know the drill: one injury, one slump, one unexpected workload spike, and the conversation changes fast. With that in mind, a modest trade idea has surfaced that would give Cincinnati another runner to lean on without forcing a major investment, especially after the Chargers added more bodies to their own backfield and made one of their younger runners easier to imagine moving.
For Cincinnati, the appeal is straightforward. The club already has Chase Brown and Samaje Perine in place, but the season has a way of testing how sturdy that arrangement really is, and a low-cost addition could help keep the offense from getting thin if the depth chart is stressed. The question now is whether the price stays in the range the Bengals would like, because the framework for a deal is there, even if the final details still need to line up. [Read more 🡒]
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Mims is expected to keep working on the right side alongside Dalton Risner, whose presence has been part of that development curve. Mims has publicly credited Risner for helping him grow, and if that progression continues, the Bengals could be looking at a much sturdier foundation than they have had in recent years. The bigger payoff may not come immediately, but the trajectory points toward Mims being a real breakout candidate in 2026. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals May Finally Have A Way To Protect Joe Burrow
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This time, Cincinnati may have a little more room to manage it. With Joe Flacco and Josh Johnson in the quarterback room, and with the coaching staff still intact and all 11 offensive starters back, the Bengals are in a better position to ease Burrows workload during 2026 camp without losing much continuity on offense. For a team built around its quarterback, that kind of stability could matter as much as anything else. [Read more 🡒]