The Cincinnati Bengals turned over a new leaf this offseason by revamping their defense, and it's yielded an improved unit through five games of the 2026 season. Things aren't perfect in the midst of the Bengals' Week 6 bye, but their 3-2 mark is respectable enough.
As we know in the NFL, though, you can never quite predict what's around the corner. If one literal play in each of their two losses went differently, the Bengals could easily be 5-0. That's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
So what's most surprising about Cincinnati this year? Well, unlike the past two years' obvious, "I can't believe we can't be just average on defense — we'd be in the playoffs otherwise!" narrative, it's a bit of a different story this time around.
That has to bode well, right?
Bengals' most shocking subplots in 2026 are more positive than negative, but...
We have to start with Chase Brown's disappointing regression
Chase Brown is just not that good of a running back. I hate to say it. He doesn't look elusive in the open field. His contact balance is poor. When a defender has him cornered, I'm like, "Yup, he's going down."
Even when he does slip free from a tackle, Brown can't accelerate or laterally move fast enough to pick up many more yards, if any. Hence why Samaje Perine deserves to be the starter after the bye.
There's a semi-viral play of Brown making the rounds on Elon Musk's X/Twitter. You've been warned before proceeding to the link. It ain't pretty.
Brown kept showing signs of improvement every year up until now. The run blocking unit finally started hitting its stride once Joe Flacco took over the offense last season. I figured with Joe Burrow back, Brown having another year of wisdom under his belt, and the offensive line returning fully intact, that Brown was bound for greatness.
Hasn't turned out that way whatsoever.
Chase Brown has previously been just an average rusher efficiency-wise, but he has been straight up bad this year pic.twitter.com/F76TCs8fJr
— Box Score Scout (@boxscorescout) October 14, 2026
The Bengals haven't helped themselves with a half-butt commitment to running more from under center. Brown simply hasn't generated enough yards after initial contact to justify being a lead back.
Had to kick off this list with Brown because nobody has been more shocking, or more disappointing.
Barrett Carter is improving (in a meaningful way)
"Low bar to clear from last year" is what I was thinking heading into the season, too. Barrett Carter is still not a perfect player. He misses too many tackles, fits the run in shockingly poor fashion too often, and as the green-dot linebacker, the mixed results of the back seven speak for themselves re: how they reflect on his leadership.
Carter still has a lot to learn. He's not the best athlete to begin with. Whatever. The Bengals see something in him, and unlike 2025, I can't say that's 100% without merit.
At least as far as the passing game, Carter has made serious strides there. Not only is he stickier in coverage (ranked 20th by PFF out of 67 qualifying linebackers), but he's quicker to diagnose, trigger, and make tackles. Even when Carter does miss, he's often slowing guys down enough for someone else to come clean it up.
...Whether said guy does clean it up is another matter. Yeah, the Bengals still aren't great at tackling. Tough thing to be bad at on defense for so many years, but they keep finding a way.
Anyway, I thought by the bye week we'd be hitting the panic button and trying to find a desperate free agent to replace Carter. Doesn't seem like the situation is that critical, although Cincinnati did just pick up Al Golden's former Notre Dame linebacker, Jack Kiser, who was drafted 12 picks before Carter...
Cincinnati seems less content to double down on mistakes
Might be weird to say since they went 10 toes down on Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr. as starting linebackers in 2026. Still a mistake I contend, despite my praise for Carter in the prior section.
Really though. This is another occasion where I'm not trying to give the Bengals brain trust a backhanded compliment. The team I used to know would've kept Ke'Shawn Williams returning punts after he single-handedly cost them the Pittsburgh game. Nope. He was released shortly thereafter. He did sign back to the taxi squad. But still.
When they could've just rode things out with Brown due to the fact that he's in a contract year and they could really use a "win" from the draft, the Bengals weren't too proud. They pivoted to Perine in Week 5 and watched the running game finally show signs of life.
Shemar Stewart could (and probably should) be playing more snaps this year. Even if it's not deserved, he was just the 17th overall pick last year and needs reps to develop. Nope. The Bengals clearly don't believe Stewart is good enough, and rather than sabotaging the team for his sake, they've gotten more juice out of Cedric Johnson and Cashius Howell.
And again, was it a mistake to bring zero competition to the linebacker room? I believe it was. The Bengals lucked into Swayze Bozeman being good, but now that he's on IR. Kiser has entered frame.
This front office and coaching staff alike used to do nothing in instances such as all these. They'd rather stick to "the process" and "believe in the guys in the locker room."
We saw how that all turned out. The urgency Joe Burrow has preached all offseason through to present day has clearly resonated. And let's hope that trend continues, because yeah, time is of the essence. We can't be missing the playoffs four years in a row. Who cares what it looks like or what it takes, or who has to swallow their pride? GET IT DONE, BENGALS!
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