The song remains the same for the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2025 season. Joe Burrow and their dominant passing game will keep them an exciting, competitive team, but they will not be able to compete with the likes of Kansas City, Buffalo, and Baltimore due to their terrible defense.
Even after investing some premium picks into their defensive core during the NFL Draft and breaking tradition by luring in some names of repute in free agency, the team's performance in the preseason has to be fairly alarming for Duke Tobin and the rest of the front office.
The interior of their defensive line has looked incredibly squishy in two preseason games against the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders. Even though they walked away from Washington with a 31-17 win, they allowed 14 points in the first quarter, when the starters were out there. The Commanders ran for over 100 yards in that quarter.
Rather than lean on the young guns like 2024 Day 2 picks Kris Jenkins Jr. and McKinley Jackson in a more forthright way, the Bengals decided to pay TJ Slaton a good chunk of change and lean on aging veteran BJ Hill. The defensive line, with or without Trey Hendrickson, is an area of weakness.
Bengals lack of DT talent shows Duke Tobin made a huge mistake
Hill is about as average as they come at the DT spot, for all of his positive traits as a player and locker room leader. Slaton is supposed to be a space eater on the inside, but his Pro Football Focus numbers may suggest that Green Bay sold Cincinnati a lemon by not retaining him.
Jenkins, in particular, has the potential to be a solid interior playmaker for years to come (as his father was in Carolina). However, even a fully developed Jenkins likely won't be enough to rescue this line. Both new DC Al Golden and the outgoing Lou Anarumo have reputations as quality coaches, so this might be a talent issue above all else.
The Bengals' inability to defend the run will be put to the test against in-division rivals Baltimore and Houston, who have consietntly managed to scrounge up solid running games in addition to strong quarterback play. Burrow can paper over some of these cracks, but he's not Superman.