The Cincinnati Bengals could use a little extra spark on their defense. To date this season they refuse to try to find it in the form of rookie seventh-round defensive tackle Landon Robinson.
And look. I suppose the coaching staff sees what they see in practice and do their darnedest to play the best players. I recognize that preseason is preseason, but Robinson was more dominant in that setting than Kris Jenkins Jr. has ever been on a football field in his life.
Bengals rookie iDL Landon Robinson led the NFL in sacks during the preseason with 4 and was 1st among iDL with 10 pressures.
— Gridiron Grading (@GridironGrading) August 29, 2026
Checking in on his college production profile, filling the stat sheet with sacks and pressures was the highlight.
Sometimes it’s that simple. pic.twitter.com/FuBGm77G1x
What is the harm of adding a more explosive athlete with more pass rushing juice? At the cost of what? Giving up a little something in the run game? The Bengals are terrible at run defense anyway, averaging five yards per carry allowed. They're susceptible to quarterback scrambles too.
As the Bengals construct their inactives list for Week 10 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, it'd be nice to see Landon Robinson not on it for once.
Bengals predicted Week 10 inactives list
- S Kyle Dugger
- OT Myles Hinton
- DT Kris Jenkins Jr.
- LB Jack Kiser
- OL Connor Lew
Whether it's stubborn commitment to a past second-round pick via the sunk-cost fallacy or some weird Joseph Ossai-esque Waiting for Godot breakout that'll never happen, Kris Jenkins Jr. keeps staying active ahead of Landon Robinson. I'm just trying to manifest a change-up here.
Because there shouldn't really be many other surprises in the inactives list. Backup swing tackle Myles Hinton is a weekly mainstay. The same goes for rookie center Connor Lew for the most part.
Maybe Lew stays up for today since starting left guard Dylan Fairchild is set to play despite being banged up. Jacob Bayer is a utility guy who can play center in a pinch or fill in at left guard for Fairchild if need be.
It's just hard to find many other spots for Cincinnati's inactives. They kind of need everyone they can get since wide receiver Andrei Iosivas and nickelback Jalen Davis are still on injured reserve. When Iosivas returns in particular, I could see wideout Mitchell Tinsley as a frequent inactive down the stretch of the season.
But the bottom line here is that Aaron Rodgers had a full three seconds' average time to throw in Week 3. Landon Robinson at least gives the Bengals a puncher's chance of improving on that, in lieu of Al Golden sending more blitzes.
Despite the fact that the Steelers have wide receivers Roman Wilson and Michael Pittman Jr. on IR and tight end Pat Freiermuth questionable for Sunday night, Cincinnati's pass rush still needs to get home. Not having Cashius Howell to rotate in at defensive end doesn't help. Having Shemar Stewart hasn't helped to date, either.
So I say give the rook Robinson some run. What could it possibly hurt?
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