The Cincinnati Bengals' defense is balling out. Their pass rush matches the league lead with eight sacks, but certain metrics suggest they're only going to get better as the season goes along.
Yeah, that's a scary thought for the rest of the league. Consider that Joe Burrow is off to the best start of his career, too, and should have the offense lighting up the scoreboard at virtual will before long.
What does that mean? Opponents are forced into obvious passing situations, and Cincinnati can tee off. But it's worth diving a little deeper beyond that more macro, generalized phenomenon.
Dexter Lawrence is commanding double teams at a ridiculous rate...and it doesn't matter
Dexter Lawrence is seeing a lot of attention, but he's still finding his way to the QB pic.twitter.com/fhRu2ZI9OH
— PFF (@PFF) September 22, 2026
It may be difficult to see, but Dexter Lawrence is getting double-teamed almost 80% of the time. Love the graph visual to show he's in a class of his own in that department.
And getting doubled so often hasn't really fazed him, nor put a damper on his impact. Sexy Dexy's presence is freeing up the entire rest of the Bengals' defensive line to wreak havoc, and Lawrence is doing plenty of that in his own right.
Even though he's not yet credited with an official sack, this just goes to show how much box score scouting is a fool's errand.
If you won't take my word for it, take the word of Steelers legend Cam Heyward in his latest conversation with Rich Eisen ahead of the Bengals-Steelers Week 3 AFC North duel:
"Cincinnati's defense has been balling as of late. A lot of respect for what Dexter Lawrence is doing over there. He knows how to plug up the middle. If you're not double teaming that guy, that's crazy, because he's already a behemoth of a man. It's putting a lot on the center or guard to just block him one-on-one."
Jonathan Allen has benefited from Lawrence's presence in the middle, producing two sacks to match rotational defensive end Cedric Johnson for the team lead.
Myles Murphy and Boye Mafe are the literal NFL elite in at-snap explosiveness
Fastest snap get-off speed in the NFL (via Next Gen Stats)
- 1. Bengals DE Myles Murphy — 0.70 seconds
- 2. Bengals DE Boye Mafe — 0.74 seconds
- 3. Rams DT Aaron Donald — 0.75 seconds
- 4. Browns DE Jared Verse — 0.77 seconds
- 5. Raiders DE Maxx Crosby — 0.79 seconds
I mean my lord. Myles Murphy!? I'm not surprised about this from Boye Mafe, because we've known for some time he's a freak athlete. Always wanted him to be a Bengal.
But y'all. Myles Garrett was at 0.70 seconds when he set the single-season sacks record (23) last year in Cleveland. Murphy was actually a very respectable 0.81 seconds in 2025. Still elite, but resulted in only 5.5 sacks and a "meh" 11% QB pressure rate.
If we're about to see another level unlocked from Murphy as he gets more experience, and Mafe now that he's not buried in a stacked Seahawks rotation, my goodness. It's about to get serious for the opposition.
I've gotten this far in, and I haven't even mentioned how impressive rookie second-round pick Cashius Howell has looked in his situational role. Then, there's also the wild card of 2025 first-rounder Shemar Stewart, Howell's ex-teammate at Texas A&M who had a late sack versus the Texans and has all the talent in the world to contribute this season.
A solid pressure to sack conversion rate that leaves room for improvement
Next Gen Stats credits the Bengals with 41 pressures through two games, including a hilarious 27 from Week 2. We can't just view PFF's snapshot of the 55 total pressures Cincinnati has generated, because that creates a misleading pressure-to-sack conversion rate. As you can see from the disparity in those numbers, multiple Bengals are getting home on any given play.
Simple arithmetic tells us that eight divided by 41 equals a pressure-to-sack conversion rate of 19.5%.
According to TruMedia (h/t @PFN365 on X), the individual leader in that category last season was Brian Burns of the New York Giants (31.1%). Myles Garrett was third at 27.4%. The Bengals' current team P2SC% would've ranked eighth in 2025, just ahead of John-Franklin Myers (19.2%)
Why do I say there's room for improvement? Well, the Bengals are tackling a lot better in the trenches right now. PFF charged their defensive line with zero missed tackles in Houston.
Baker Mayfield and C.J. Stroud pulled off some pretty spectacular escapes just to evade getting sacked. In fact, Stroud didn't take a single sack till the fourth quarter, while Mayfield was scrambling for his life and ripped off some impressive runs, including a touchdown.
With the Steelers' suspect offensive line and an aging Aaron Rodgers on deck, this road trip to Pittsburgh could be an absolute bloodbath for the home team due to how lethal this Bengals pass rush is.
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