No, we are not going to talk about Cincinnati Bengals cornerback DJ Ivey. Cannot do it. Will not do it. Ivey and Bruno are simpatico this week, so we must give him the 'Encanto' treatment.
Bengals fans have been loud and clear at their opponents' stadiums this season. This time, those rowdy fans will surely see several 38 Bengals jerseys in the stands at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Bengals take on the Miami Dolphins, and DJ Ivey is poised to make the second start of his career as he returns home to South Florida. However, those 38 jerseys are to be seen, not heard about.
That is where our coverage of Ivey ends because to do anything else would be the equivalent of a broadcaster saying into a microphone that your favorite pitcher is throwing a no-hitter during the game or your favorite kicker hasn’t missed a kick in fifty-eleven-thousand attempts right before the next attempt. So we will not be singing his praises.
We don’t talk about Ivey, no, no, no. We don’t talk about DJ Ivey, but…
Whew, Ivey nearly gave us something to talk about
For Ivey, who made his first start against the Jacksonville Jaguars last week, let’s focus on his stone hands and how he fits the narrative of why defensive backs don’t play receiver, shall we?
When Ivey lined up against Jakobi Meyers, one-on-one in the red zone, Trevor Lawrence threw a strike that the Bengals CB broke up.
Good coverage from DJ Ivey to hold Jacksonville to a field goal. pic.twitter.com/Pu6YXPjlgl
— Bengals & Brews (@BengalsBrews) October 5, 2026
Ivey made an alright play, beating Meyers to the spot and showing strength coming through the Jags receiver and under the route to break up the pass, err, drop the interception.
Still, plays like that make it hard to want to see what else Ivey has in store this season if he keeps playing outside because of injuries in the secondary.
DJ Ivey's numbers are none of our business
Ivey’s head coach offered encouraging words about Ivey heading into his first professional start. But since those words came from the mouth of Zac Taylor, we should take them with a grain of salt.
Of Ivey, Taylor said, “He’s gotten better every single year. So I have a lot of confidence in him… he’s getting a lot of opportunities in these games. So I do have a lot of confidence in DJ Ivey.”
Nevertheless, what we definitely aren’t going to do is mention why we should follow Taylor’s lead and have more confidence in the former Miami Hurricanes defensive back. As if.
In 2026, albeit with a small sample size, Ivey has a 52.1 passer rating when targeted, a 25% completion rate, and a 0.0% missed-tackle rate. With the Bengals doing what they do and missing tackles again this year, Ivey is part of the problem.
We certainly won't discuss Ivey's opportunity
With Cincinnati’s secondary banged up, the Bengals could use a spark from someone other than Dax Hill, who is having a career-best season in passer rating and completion percentage allowed through four games.
If we were to talk about Ivey, we’d say that we hope he can take his hot start over the first four games in limited action and turn it into a hot season. And the Bengals are going to need that consistent play from him until the secondary is back fully healthy.
Now, we could say that three of Cincinnati’s starting corners, DJ Turner, Hill, and Ivey, are in contract years, making it critical that the Bengals can find out what they have in each of them.
However, there’s no need to mention that Ivey has an opportunity to show the Bengals and everyone else that he can be an NFL starting-caliber CB in this final year of his contract. That would be preposterous to intimate.
After all, we don’t talk about Ivey, no, no, no.
Add us as a preferred source on Google