The Bengals are still waiting on a real answer about Erick All Jr., and for now, there isn’t one. The tight end left Cincinnati’s Week 7 win over the Baltimore Ravens with a knee injury, and while the situation is serious enough to keep everyone on edge, the exact diagnosis and timetable have not been made public.
All’s injury history adds another layer of concern. His issues go back to his time at The University of Michigan and then his senior season at Iowa, when he suffered a torn ACL. He had been starting to contribute for Cincinnati before this latest setback, which makes the wait for an update feel even heavier.
The injury happened after Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith fell on All’s right knee during a tackle. All was seen in distress walking off the field under his own power and was soon declared out of the game.
On the field, the Bengals have also been getting big-time production from Joe Burrow, Amarius Mims and Ja’Marr Chase. The numbers are starting to pile up again the way they did in ‘24, when Burow led the NFL in touchdown passes and yards.
He’s tied with Purdy for 15 touchdown passes and they trail leader Kirk Cousins by one. Burrow’s 1,653 yards are 11 th, but only a 343-yard game behind Matthew Stafford.
There’s been a different kind of impact coming from the defensive side as well, where Boye Mafe has emerged as a difference-maker on a revamped unit. Against the Ravens, Mafe posted an initial 90.2 overall PFF grade, which would be a new career high. His biggest damage came as a pass-rusher, where he logged five pressures and two sacks on a 23.1% pass-rush win rate across 27 pass-rushing snaps.
Not every young piece has been in the mix, though. Shemar Stewart did not play, and Goldsmith reported that Stewart has been 10th in the defensive line rotation throughout the season, behind players including Cashius Howell, Cedric Johnson and Kris Jenkins.
Around the league, the NFL announced Jay-Z as the Super Bowl LXI halftime act. “As expected, the selection of Super Bowl halftime show producer Jay-Z to perform at halftime of Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium is . . . Jay-Z.“
There was also a strong reaction from John Harbaugh in another storyline involving a helmet penalty. “That’s how I felt about it,” Harbaugh said Monday.
“You can’t run in there and give tacklers your chest. When you run low, your head’s down there, too.
You can’t move your head off your shoulders. It’s a physical impossibility.”
And on the quarterback front, Raiders coach Klint Kubiak made his stance clear despite a four-game losing streak, opening Monday by declaring Kirk Cousins as the starter for Week 8 against the New York Jets.
In Other News...
Bengals Just Gained A Real AFC North Edge Over Pittsburgh
The Bengals win over the Ravens did more than bump Cincinnati to 4-2, it also strengthened the feeling that this team has a real path in the AFC North. A strength-of-schedule breakdown from Computer Cowboy on Twitter points to one of the more favorable remaining slates in the league for 2026, which helps explain why the Bengals are drawing plenty of attention as a playoff team with division-title upside.
November is where that edge starts to take shape on the field, with a run of games that should tell a lot about how sturdy Cincinnatis position really is. The Bengals still have to handle the week-to-week grind, but the combination of their early record and the schedule in front of them has them sitting in a better spot than most of their division competition right now. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Just Raised A Franchise-Altering Question After Crushing Baltimore
For one half, it looked like Cincinnati was staring at the same familiar problems. Then the Bengals flipped the game on Baltimore completely, rolling to a 35-13 win that suddenly gives this season a different feel. The offense did not find the end zone before halftime, but once the second half began, Joe Burrow and company turned the matchup into a showcase, and the defense matched it by keeping the Ravens out of rhythm and limiting them to 13 points.
Burrow finished with four touchdown passes, and the pass rush added four sacks as Cincinnati put together its most convincing performance of the year. It was also the kind of result that changes the conversation around a team, especially with the Bengals now riding a two-game winning streak and owning a plus-41 point margin on the season. After a start that left plenty of questions, the bigger issue now is what this version of Cincinnati might look like if it keeps showing up. [Read more 🡒]
Joe Burrow Just Turned The Bengals Into An MVP Watch Team
Joe Burrow and the Bengals came out of Week 7 looking much more like the kind of team that can hang around the AFC race than the one that stumbled through stretches earlier in the year. Cincinnatis 35-13 win over Baltimore was not just a divisional statement, it was another reminder that when Burrow is locked in, the offense can look every bit like one of the leagues most dangerous units. The victory gave the Bengals a marquee result against a Ravens team that had been one of their measuring sticks, and it came with Burrow steering a second-half surge that strengthened his case in the NFLs award conversation.
Burrows MVP buzz is no longer just a byproduct of big-name recognition. He has climbed into the thicker part of the race, and the next stretch of games will go a long way toward showing whether this is a real push or just an early-season spike. The competition at the top is crowded, which means every efficient outing and every win matters even more for Cincinnati, especially if Burrow keeps pairing production with results in games that carry real weight. [Read more 🡒]