Bengals rookie Cashius Howell's key strength is critical to slowing Baker Mayfield

The Cincinnati Bengals absolutely went off this offseason on the defensive side of the ball by recruiting free agents, trading for one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL, and drafting players who will pay immediate dividends. 

One of those drafted players, their first pick of the 2026 draft, Cashius Howell, could play a more important role than most realize against Baker Mayfield. 

Tampa Bay’s offense offers an excellent test for Cincinnati’s new-look defense. But if the defensive line does what we expect, the Bengals still have to be better in one area. 

Fortunately, there wasn’t a player better equipped to help in that department in April’s college player acquisition exercise than Howell.

Pressure rates are nice, to a point

One of the more in-vogue advanced stats to measure how good a defense is is pressure rate. 

Last season, the Bengals had a better pressure rate (20.9%) than the Washington Commanders (19.6%), Las Vegas Raiders (19.4%), and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (19.8%). Yet, each of them had more sacks than the Bengals’ 35, recording 42, 37, and 37 sacks, respectively.

One of the most important stats for the Bengals this upcoming season could be how much of that pressure they can convert into sacks. And Mayfield will test that on Sunday. 

Mayfield can escape pressure, so the Bengals better finish

Last season, Mayfield rushed for the most yards and the highest yards per carry of his career. His 56.4% rushing success suggests he picked up first downs at critical moments when taking off from the pocket. 

At the beginning of the 2025 season, Mayfield was able to escape the pressure. However, by the end of the season, he was the fifth-worst QB in allowing pressure to turn into sacks, despite facing the least amount of pressure.

And when Mayfield scrambles, he is one of the best at escaping pressure. Furthermore, at the end of runs, don’t expect him to run out of bounds, as he will take all of his internal frustrations about perceived slights and put them into lowering his shoulder into would-be tacklers. 

Dexter Lawrence, Jonathan Allen, and BJ Hill were among the most double-teamed defensive tackles over the past few seasons. With all of them on the same team, expect substantially more pressures than we’re used to at Paycore Stadium. 

Fortunately, the Bengals also added a closer who can capitalize on that extra pressure. 

Howell knows how to turn pressure into sacks

Heading into the draft, as every team was desperately looking for pass rushers, one stood above the rest at converting pressures into sacks. That one was Texas A&M’s Cahsius Howell.

Howell's 28% pressure-to-sack conversion led all edge rushers, according to Pro Football Network. 

Somehow, he lasted until the second round, the 41st pick overall, when the Bengals continued their streak of doing the unexpected this offseason by selecting the edge rusher with the shortest arms in draft history. 

Howell finished his final collegiate season with 11.5 sacks, which ranked seventh in college football last year.

Avoid testing improved tackling if possible

The Bengals must not only pressure Mayfield but also bring him down when those opportunities arise. 

The Bengals, notoriously, led the NFL in missed tackles last season by a large margin. While that will most certainly be mitigated with the addition of safety Bryan Cook, along with Geno Stone, who led the NFL in missed tackles, mercifully no longer in Cincinnati, the Bengals still have two of the top ten and three of the top 15 in that unfortunate category. 

Jordan Battle, Demetrius Knight, and Barrett Carter were third, sixth, and 12th in missed tackles, respectively. To his credit, Battle led all secondary players in tackles (125) while ranking only 46th in missed-tackle percentage. 

We expect significant improvement from the young linebackers in the tackling department thanks to the defensive line overhaul in front of them and the addition of outside linebackers Howell and Mafe, which will let them focus on middle linebacker. 

Nevertheless, we don’t want to have to find out if Knight, Carter, or Battle are improved tacklers on a third-and-eight as Mayfield scrambles to keep a drive alive late in the fourth quarter. 

The best way to do that is to make sure he doesn’t get a chance to scramble because the edge rushers or defensive tackles get to him for a sack. 

And the best player for the Bengals to make sure that happens could be the rookie, Cashius Howell. 

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