Jonathan Allen has walked into Cincinnati with a clear message for a Bengals defense that suddenly has people talking. The praise can wait. The work comes first.
That mindset fits neatly with what the Bengals are trying to build. After spending much of the offseason trying to repair a defense that wasn’t good enough, Cincinnati added a veteran who has seen plenty and learned even more.
Allen, heading into his 10th NFL season, isn’t just bringing production. He’s bringing the no-nonsense approach he picked up at Alabama under Nick Saban, including the coach’s well-known warning about “rat poison.”
Allen put it plainly when he spoke with Charlie Clifford: “For me, I try to keep it stupid simple,” Allen told Charlie Clifford. “I try to focus on day-by-day, try to take it play by play, and you’ll end up where you want to be one day. You focus on the little things you’ve got to do to get to the ultimate goal.”
That kind of steady, process-first message was forged long before he arrived in Cincinnati. Allen spent four seasons at Alabama and became one of the top defensive players in the country.
As a senior captain in 2016, he posted 16 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks, earned unanimous first-team All-American honors and was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year. He also collected the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Chuck Bednarik Award and Ted Hendricks Award.
He was part of three College Football Playoff teams with the Crimson Tide and helped Alabama win the national title after the 2015 season. A decade later, those lessons are still showing up in the way he talks about his new team.
“This defense has a lot of potential,” Allen said. “Some people hear ‘potential’ and get excited. I just hear a group that hasn’t done anything yet.
“Our job hasn’t even started yet. Until the games start flying, we’ve got to keep our heads down and do the work.”
That’s exactly the sort of presence the Bengals had in mind when they signed him in March. Allen arrived after a one-year run with the Minnesota Vikings, where he started all 17 games in 2025 and finished with 68 tackles, seven tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks.
Before that, he spent eight seasons in Washington after being taken in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft. Across 126 regular-season games, Allen has piled up 469 tackles, 67 tackles for loss and 45.5 sacks. He also earned back-to-back Pro Bowl nods after the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
For Cincinnati, that kind of résumé matters because this defense is still being reshaped. Allen said the Bengals were attractive to him because he believed they could compete for a Super Bowl, and he pointed to the chance to line up behind Joe Burrow and the offense as part of that appeal.
At the same time, he knew the other side of the ball needed real improvement. There have been some encouraging signs already.
The Bengals opened the preseason with a 16-14 win over the Detroit Lions, and Al Golden’s defense forced turnovers while getting help from veterans and younger players alike. Jordan Battle and Russ Yeast each intercepted passes, while rookie pass rushers Cashius Howell and Landon Robinson were among the defenders who flashed.
Still, Allen isn’t in the business of handing out praise for August. He’s been around long enough to know what Saban meant by “rat poison,” and he’s carrying that lesson into Cincinnati with him.
Potential is nice. Compliments are nice, too.
But none of it means anything until the games start.
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Iosivas has spent the past two seasons carving out his place in Cincinnati after being drafted out of Princeton, and any off-field buzz around him naturally gets attention from a fan base that has grown used to following every angle on the roster. For now, the connection remains just that, a possible link rather than anything confirmed, but the overlap between Duddys public profile and Iosivas rise has been enough to turn a routine practice sighting into a talking point. [Read more 🡒]
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The question now is whether Cincinnati has done enough to cover the soft spots that can make a contender vulnerable over a long season. The Bengals still have salary cap room to work with, and there is always a chance they look for more help, but the bigger issue hanging over camp is whether the depth is sturdy enough at certain positions to support Burrow's urgency and match the standard he is setting. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Could Squeeze Out Familiar Names In 2026 Roster Reset
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One of the clearest examples is Jack Endries, whose rise gives the team a possible new direction at tight end and puts pressure on the current depth chart. Cody Ford is also in the mix as a potential casualty of the reshuffle, while the defensive line picture has become crowded enough that a once-promising reserve could be pushed to the edge of the roster as Cincinnati keeps sorting through its 2026 plans. [Read more 🡒]