ClutchPoints
The Cincinnati Bengals have stayed the course with head coach Zac Taylor. And quarterback Joe Burrow has done his part by restructuring his contract. But here is the hottest burning question the Bengals must answer during mandatory minicamp.
The Bengals’ offense is a constant. If that unit stays healthy, the Bengals know what they’re going to get, week in and week out. In a dandy Bengals world, they will finish as a top-five offense.
So to find the burning question at this point in the NFL calendar year, the Bengals have to look at the other side of the football.
The Bengals allowed 381 yards per game last season. Only the Commanders’ excuse-me-I-did n’t-mean-to-get-in-your-way unit allowed more. If the Bengals want to win more than eight or nine games, the defense must be better in 2026 by leaps and bounds.
So what did the Bengals do to fix things? One thing they didn’t do was keep Trey Hendrickson. The star edge rusher now plays for the Ravens. However, in terms of last season, Hendrickson totaled only four sacks in seven games. So he wasn’t much of a factor even when he was on the field.
The Bengals went hard and heavy in the offseason to improve the defense. Most notably, they added Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen to their interior defensive line. They signed Boye Mafe as an edge rusher and Bryan Cook at safety.
And their first two picks in the draft added edge rusher Cashius Howell and cornerback Tacario Davis. Add it all up, and the Bengals have made a big push to be better on defense.
It’s easy to point to Lawrence. He’s the guy who could transform the run defense into a legitimate tough chore for opponents. He’s a three-time Pro Bowl selection (2022-24) who is hoping to bounce back from an ineffective 2025 season.
But here’s the brilliance of signing Lawrence. They will put him beside Jonathan Allen, whose better days are in the rear-view mirror. If Allen had been tasked with being the force in the middle of the defensive interior, the Bengals would likely have been disappointed with his production.
However, with Lawrence drawing tons of attention from opposing offenses, it could be a turn-back-the-clock season for Allen. This duo could be among the league’s better one-two punches. But they should be a massive improvement over what the Bengals had in 2025.
Another bright spot for the defense should be the edge. But it comes with a big caveat. And it’s two-sided.
First, did the Bengals hit a home run with Mafe? He signed a three-year, $60 million contract. That means the Bengals expect somewhere in the neighborhood of double-digit sacks. The problem is that Mafe had nine, six, and two sacks over the last three seasons.
Granted, the Seahawks had their own style of defensive play. They counted on an every-man...
