It’s been 228 days (though it feels like 10,000 years) since the Kansas City Chiefs turtled against Denver on the final day of the 2024 regular season to eliminate our Cincinnati Bengals from the playoffs. Missing out on the postseason despite Joe Burrow’s MVP-level play, Ja’Marr Chase’s “Triple Crown” in receiving, and Trey Hendrickson leading the NFL in sacks represented an epic fail, as the kids say. No matter what happens going forward, even while looking back on Burrow’s (hopefully) Hall of Fame career, the 2024 disaster will stand out as a gigantic missed opportunity.
But the Bengals were undaunted. The theme of Cincinnati’s offseason was to essentially insist that the team was actually far better than its 9-8 record would indicate. “Nothing to see here, everything’s fine!” was the general theme, as though in synergy with the new Frank Drebin movie. The major Spring moves involved bringing back Chase and fellow wideout Tee Higgins for major dollars, and presumably they’ll give Hendrickson a raise as well (more on his situation later). Otherwise, not much happened.
In essence, they were content to pay more money for basically the same roster as the one that just disappointed mightily. Arguably, that wasn’t a terrible strategy. The team’s identity is, as it has been throughout franchise history, built around the passing attack.
Paying a No. 2 wideout big money instead of grabbing a raft of free agents at multiple positions raised eyebrows, but when scanning the list of available players it was apparent that Higgins was by far the best one. More importantly, Burrow went out and practically demanded, over and over again, that the team keep him. Chase was a foregone conclusion, but the fact they were extended in unison gave fans, so used to dealing with prolonged contract disputes, a rare celebratory offseason day.
The defense, having bottomed out in 2024 (27th in DVOA), couldn’t get any worse, so why change it? Hence everything was directed toward blaming Lou Anarumo. The disgraced defensive coordinator was let go after a season that, contrary to popular belief, closely resembled the rest of his six-season Bengals tenure, save a stretch between the 2021 Super Bowl run and the 2022 AFC title game. As I have written here many times, Anarumo’s rep—stemming from postseason flummoxing of the likes of Pat Mahomes and Josh Allen—far outweighed the overall production on the field. Last year’s breakdowns were ugly, poorly-timed, and generally involved the flotilla of highly-drafted defenders who uniformly failed to improve under Loudini.
Ergo, the hiring of Al Golden to coach up the defense. Linebackers coach for the Bengals during that special Super Bowl season, he spent the last three years defensive coordinating at Notre Dame. While in South Bend, his defenses were among the best in the nation, and he repeatedly turned young players into ferocious units.
Everything that happened in the offseason once Uno and Tee were secured, which wasn’t much, seemed to revolve around Golden’s presumed brilliance. Few imports were made; the lone free agent of note was nose tackle T.J. Slaton, and the secondary, the cause of so much trouble last year, was left virtually intact (save some addition by subtraction). In the draft, the Bengals grabbed wildly athletic but troublingly unproductive end Shemar Stewart from Texas A&M in the first round (a move hated by the fan base); took a linebacker, Demetrious Knight of South Carolina, in the second round (ibid); and added yet another linebacker, Barrett Carter of Clemson, in the fourth.
Golden overall emits a calm but highly dedicated and intense persona, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt. How his units will differ, in scheme as well as performance, from Anarumo’s is probably the main subplot of the coming season. Can they get to the quarterback with or without Hendrickson? Can they eliminate busted coverages that led to so many big plays? Can they, at long last, tackle with good technique and not take such poor angles and fill incorrect gaps?
Returns from training camp were encouraging, though when are they not? Knight in particular got glowing reviews for his speed and maturity on the field; he is 25 already, part of the reason his draft status was questioned. The injured defenders, including Dax Hill and Logan Wilson, seemed healthy and strong. Cameron Taylor-Britt, whose trajectory scythed downward during a buffoonish 2024, was cocky and excellent on the practice field.
Then they played the first preseason games against Philly and Washington, and it was as though nothing had changed—no one tackled, covered, or rushed. Of course, drawing conclusions from preseason is almost always a fool’s errand: Starters play variable snaps, if at all; the schemes are vanilla; the speed often 3/4 for all but the back-end guys trying to make the team; and winning or losing mean little compared to putting things of note on film. It’s like predicting a baseball team’s fortunes based on spring training games.
(Viewing note: The preseason finale is Saturday afternoon against Indianapolis at Paycor Stadium, an affair that promises to be meaningless even by exhibition game standards.)
The preseason game effort was still disturbing and reminds us why the Bengals missed out on the playoffs last season. After all, Cincinnati carved through the Eagles’ and Commanders’ defenses and those fanbases weren’t blind with panic—and the Commanders are hoping to improve a poor defensive unit almost as much as the Bengals. But those teams are coming off an NFC title game matchup. Cincinnati fans are desperate for any sign of improvement in order to avoid last year’s humiliation and not waste another year of Elite Burrow. So far, through a handful of ultimately meaningless drives, there is no evidence that’s happened.
Of course, the easy social media answer was simply to “Pay Trey!!” (ignoring that the Commanders ate Cincinnati’s D alive with Hendrickson playing last season). We know that in the big picture the Bengals can’t realistically make a Super Bowl run without their main pass rusher, regardless of what Golden does to transform the unit. But this isn’t Chase or even Higgins. Hendrickson’s age and insistence on a level of guaranteed money that’s burned the Bengals in the past (see Geno Atkins or Carlos Dunlap for details) changes this particular negotiation, as does the fact that Trey is under contract and recently signed an extension he’s now balking at.
Has he outplayed that deal? Undoubtedly. Am I, generally speaking, on board for players getting every possible dime from miserly ownership? Hell yes. Do I think it will ultimately get done before the opener, at a number that will cause us all to wonder, “Why didn’t they agree to this months ago?” Of course. But this isn’t a one-way street, and you can see the Bengals’ side of the argument, even as the (preseason) defense gets humiliated on national TV.
There are many other facets of the team’s crucial offseason I haven’t even discussed here, so tune back in next week for more ruminations. Perhaps that will be around the same time Hendrickson signs and is welcomed without rancor back into the bosom of the lockerroom.
Robert Weintraub heads up Bengals coverage for Cincinnati Magazine and has written for The New York Times, Grantland, Slate, and Deadspin. Follow him on X at @robwein.
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