The 2025 season has been a brutal ride for the Cincinnati Bengals, and Week 14 might just be the moment everything officially unraveled. A tough loss to the Buffalo Bills was bad enough, but what followed has only added to the spiral - from roster moves to injury news to a national TV snub that speaks volumes about where this team stands.
Let’s start with the roster shakeup. On Monday, the Bengals officially released wide receiver Jermaine Burton, a third-round pick who never quite found his footing in Cincinnati.
Cutting ties with a player that early in his career is never ideal - it’s essentially the front office admitting a miss - but given the headaches Burton brought on and off the field, the move felt inevitable. Still, it’s a tough pill to swallow for a team that had high hopes for its 2024 draft class.
Then came the injury updates, and they weren’t any kinder. Wide receiver Tee Higgins, already dealing with a concussion, had his situation mishandled, raising questions about the team’s medical protocols.
But the bigger blow came with the news that star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson suffered a new injury that will shut him down for the rest of the season. That’s a major loss for a defense that’s already been stretched thin.
And with Hendrickson’s future in Cincinnati now uncertain, it’s a gut punch on multiple levels.
As if that wasn’t enough, the NFL delivered another hit - this one to the Bengals’ national reputation. The league announced that Cincinnati’s Week 16 matchup against the Miami Dolphins has been flexed out of Sunday Night Football.
Instead, the primetime spotlight will shift to the Patriots-Ravens game. That’s right - the league opted for a struggling New England team over the Bengals, even though Miami is still in the playoff mix.
It’s a clear message: the Bengals just aren’t must-see TV anymore.
This isn’t how the script was supposed to go. Coming into the season, Cincinnati was expected to be a contender in the AFC North, a team with the pieces to make another deep postseason run.
But between Joe Burrow’s injury, Ja’Marr Chase’s suspension, and now the loss of Hendrickson and Higgins, the Bengals have been in survival mode for weeks. What was once a roster loaded with star power has been reduced to a shell of itself, and the results have followed.
Now, with the playoffs out of reach, the Bengals are playing for pride, draft position, and the chance to reset in 2026. Their Week 16 game against Miami still holds some intrigue - especially with the Dolphins fighting for seeding - but from a league perspective, Cincinnati just doesn’t move the needle right now.
That’s a tough reality for a team that not long ago was the toast of the AFC. But in the NFL, things can change fast. And for the Bengals, this season has been a harsh reminder of just how quickly a contender can fall off the radar.