Cincinnati Bengals fans have spent the past few years in particular praying for Joe Burrow's health and praying for organizational change. They've instead been preyed upon by their own front office, weekly opponents, and the invisible demon that whispers, "JOE'S PRIME IS BEING WASTED!" followed by a sinister cackle.
That just me? I can't be the only one having bad-vibe, Hamlet-style auditory hallucinations about the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that have plagued Cincinnati.
The good news is, meaningful change can be simple and subtle. Here are three rather straightforward ways to fix many of the Bengals' ills. They just need the will to act on them.
Good-faith contract negotiations with in-house talent
How the Bengals handled Trey Hendrickson is an all-time debacle. I'm appalled at how they kept low-balling him, especially after two consecutive 17.5-sack seasons.
What's even scarier is the fact that Hendrickson's season-ending injury may give Cincinnati's brass a false sense of confidence. Like they made the right call to *not* pay Hendrickson a lot of money.
The ultimate self-own of that variety actually came when they caused first-round pick Shemar Stewart to hold out over offset contract language. I waded into the oft-moronic waters of Bengals Spaces on X/Twitter, where a fan legitimately tried to argue that the front office was 100% in the right on Hendrickson and Stewart, and that another team quibbling over offset language justified Cincinnati's stance.
I will say this until I will it into existence: The Bengals' reputation is what it is for a reason. They should be doing everything in their power to ingratiate themselves with their in-house talent.
This isn't apples-to-apples. Cincinnati owns one of the worst reputations in the NFL. If you're alienating your own players on top of that, how are you ever going to convince the best free agents to sign there, or have any of your draft picks jazzed about playing for you? Not gonna happen easily!
It took them two years too long to extend Tee Higgins. One year too long on Ja'Marr Chase. Ended up costing them more. And both those critical relationships took a hit.
News flash to Duke Tobin and Co: DJ Turner is extension-eligible this offseason. So is tailback Chase Brown. GET THEM DONE! EARLY!
“Everything I’ve gotten here I’ve earned it, and as a coach, that’s what you want. I just wanna bring everyone here along with me.” DJ Turner, who acknowledged his agent and the Bengals are already talking preliminarily about an extension. pic.twitter.com/LTFrVo4JEj
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 7, 2026
Circling back to Trey: There's an article I'll link below that goes in depth about how Hendrickson's exit could pave the way for better all-around talent acquisition in free agency. Alas, that brings us straight to the second point of change...
Read More: Bengals may have a $45 million answer to likely Trey Hendrickson departure
Brush up closer to the NFL’s salary cap limit
Locked On Bengals' Jake Liscow points out some critical truths that can get lost in the shuffle and noise about how Cincinnati is allegedly changing in recent years (not really):
The reason I bring this up is that people often say "they spent too much on the offense"
— Jake Liscow (@JakeLiscow) January 3, 2026
When reality is, they didn't spend enough on their team to be an above-average spender in any of the last 5 years
Not only do the Bengals cheap out on cash spending and guaranteed money. They don't come close to pushing the salary cap for all it's worth. They'll leave a surplus of room for future years and meanwhile fail to fully capitalize on winning now.
The problem is, that promising "tomorrow" never arrives. We've seen it for three straight years now. Plenty of cap space to make bigger swings in free agency or on the trade market. Nothing done.
This seems pretty simple. Spend more money, get better players, win more games, make more money. With all the revenue the Bengals bring in on their own, plus the huge cut they receive from the evenly-split 1/32 of league-wide share, they're not near as cash-poor as they used to be.
Restructure the contracts of Burrow, Chase, or Higgins. That'd free up even more room than the projected $46.9 million Cincinnati should already have to play with in 2026.
Align free agency strategy with draft tactics
Demetrius Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter were bad enough 2025 draft picks on their own merits. What make it worse was the state of the Bengals' linebacker position at the time.
Explain to me how this sequence of events from last offseason makes any modicum of sense:
- Logan Wilson — Preparing to play on the second year of a 5-year contract extension
- Germaine Pratt — Solid starter under contract through 2026
- Oren Burks — Star of Eagles' Super Bowl run, signed in free agency
In what world does that justify spending two of your top four picks on the linebacker position? Pratt wasn't released until early June, more than a month after the draft concluded. Big shock: He played way better than Knight and Carter this past year.
Yes, Wilson got traded during the season, but that plays into both the main tenet of this topic subheading and the first one about in-house talent.
If your plan all along was to give up on Wilson, why not trade him during the offseason? If your plan was to move off Pratt, why not do it sooner so all parties involved would have more clarity on how to prepare for the draft and free agency? The Bengals' belated decision to cut Pratt limited his prospects, and forced them to reach on rookies in the draft who had no business starting in the NFL.
That's one of many examples over the years where there's this bizarre disconnect between how Cincinnati approaches the draft and free agency. Call it incongruous logic.
Double-dipping in the draft and free agency at, say, defensive tackle or safety would feel much more sensible.
Guess we'll see how big the logic leap is in a few months' time. Can't wait to see Duke Tobin's latest galaxy-brained scheme.