It's slim pickings for the Cincinnati Bengals when it comes to in-house solutions to their current woes. While the offense counts on Jake Browning to return to his 2023 form in place of superstar quarterback Joe Burrow, the defense is searching for answers, too.
Coming into this season, the secondary was a major point of concern. Although safeties Geno Stone and Jordan Battle have played like passable starters, the uncertainty of the cornerback corps has reared its ugly head of late.
Sadly, the player who's flashed the most upside among that group since he entered the NFL in 2022 is floundering again. Head coach Zac Taylor has confirmed ahead of Week 5 that he's skidded down the depth chart once more.
Cam Taylor-Britt's latest benching raises questions about Bengals future
As reported on-site by ESPN beat writer Ben Baby, Taylor addressed the mere five snaps Cam Taylor-Britt played in Monday night's 28-3 loss to the Broncos in Denver.
The bottom line? Taylor-Britt was coming off a hamstring injury, but his demotion was on a pure performance basis. In other words, regardless of how health or not he was, CTB has suffered another setback in terms of the bigger picture of his future in Cincinnati.
After showing quite a bit of promise as a rookie second-round pick, Taylor-Britt has failed to live up to his pre-draft billing. In the midst of a contract year where he could make himself a ton of money, he's continuing to fall short.
Burrow's injury is by far the biggest reason the Bengals have fallen off a cliff (trademark Max Kellerman) since their 2-0 start to fall back to .500. However, there's a larger, more disturbing trend of premier draft picks failing to make their expected impact.
Bengals picks between 10 and 60 since 2021:
— Gridiron Grading (@GridironGrading) October 1, 2025
➖Jackson Carman
➖Dax Hill
➖Cam Taylor-Britt
➖Myles Murphy
➖DJ Turner
➖Amarius Mims
➖Kris Jenkins
Dax Hill is the only one performing at a starter level right now.
Hard to be a team that relies on draft picks and win this way. https://t.co/DTF80GANpJ
For all the folks calling for Taylor to get the pink slip, de facto Bengals GM Duke Tobin deserves as much blame for the inexcusable on-field product.
You can't whiff on that many top draft choices, kick the can way too far down the road on in-house contract extensions, not shell out big money for outside free agents, and expect to build a Super Bowl-caliber roster. Up until now, Burrow has masked a lot of these team-building flaws. Now they're on full display for the football world to see.
Cam Taylor-Britt is merely the latest example of the Bengals' perpetual inability to both evaluate collegiate talent in the early rounds of the draft and failure to develop that talent. Benching him in favor of Josh Newton doesn't strike me as an upgrade. Looks like CTB has given Taylor and defensive coordinator Al Golden no other choice.
Maybe Cincinnati can rectify that by swapping out CTB for Seattle Seahawks star Riq Woolen before the trade deadline or in free agency next offseason. That's just the tip of the iceberg among many suggestions I have for Tobin and the Bengals' diminutive personnel department.
Best of luck to Newton, DJ Turner, Dax Hill, and whomever else Cincinnati lines up at cornerback this Sunday against the Detroit Lions' loaded cast of pass-catchers starring Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, and Sam LaPorta among others. It's liable to be a long late afternoon and evening in the Queen City.