The Cincinnati Bengals' season is almost here at long last, and one of the more underrated subplots to the dawn of the 2025 campaign is the return of star linebacker Logan Wilson.
Entering his sixth season as a newly minted captain for the first time in his NFL career, Wilson is poised to continue his reign as one of the elite players at his position. Unfortunately, a knee injury sidelined him down the stretch last year as the Bengals ripped off five straight wins to finish 9-8, just missing the playoffs.
I had the privilege of interviewing Wilson for Stripe Hype recently, where we discussed what to expect this season, Joe Burrow's continued ascent, and what it will take for the Bengals to get over that Super Bowl hump at long last. Plus, you'll be interested to learn about Wilson's partnership with Q30 Innovations' Q-Collar, a cutting-edge technology in the realm of player safety.
Logan Wilson talks 'balanced' training camp that bodes well for Super Bowl aspirations
One of the big takeaways from talking to Logan Wilson was how Bengals camp specifically differentiated itself from years past. Having Burrow healthy for the first time was a big bonus. Hearing Joe Brrr talk up the "different" vibe certainly helped the hype train. But after Wilson's take on the topic, Cincinnati fans should be all the more bullish on what's to come.
While the defense has taken its fair share of criticism for how last season played out and how shaky the preseason looked, what's transpired on the practice field has been a different story.
Wilson was reticent to compare this 2025 team to those that went on runs to Super Bowl LVI and the AFC Championship Game. However, the more balanced give-and-take between the offense and defense in camp leaves plenty of reason for optimism.
"The 2022 Bengals team is not the same as this team this year, and even though we might have some of the same guys, same as last year, it's just a different team. There might have been things last year that didn't work for us, and so you adjust, coaches adjust. There's just so many different factors, and I don't like to compare. I do think during this training camp, it was probably the most, I would say, balanced training camp in terms of the defense would have have a good play here, and then the offense would have a good play. And it was more back and forth this year...In years past, it might have been a full day's worth of the offense just kicking our tail, and then vice versa. So I think that that helped us get better. Iron sharpens iron. And so I feel like the more back and forth we were during this training camp is going to help us for the season."
Even with all the Bengals' continuity and talent on offense, and the defense adjusting to a new scheme, camps across the league often feature defenses getting the upper hand early. The sheer volume of playbooks plays a part in that.
Who Dey Nation has to love hearing that the defense held its own — even as Burrow's health helped him put on his best training camp performance to date.
Logan Wilson on how Joe Burrow impacts Bengals' defensive mindset
Piggybacking off that last point, Wilson dove in on expectations for Cincinnati's defense amid a transition from Lou Anarumo to new defensive coordinator Al Golden. Although the Bengals had 25 takeaways in 2025 (tied for seventh-most), there was still a huge emphasis on that in practices, in addition to tackling fundamentals.
Also echoing the sentiments of the coaching staff regarding the aforementioned preseason defensive struggles, Wilson expressed supreme confidence that when Golden opens up the playbook and the real games start, the results will look a lot different. Much of that is thanks to an offense that liberates the defense to play fast, free, and attack the ball.
"We've harped on turnovers every single day. Before practices even technically start, guys come out there 5-10 minutes early, and we're getting in these little extra drills [where] we can find ways to affect the ball. Whether that's with the ball-carrier, or a batted ball at the line of scrimmage, different ways that we can affect that. Because our offense is pretty damn explosive, so the more often that we can get the ball back to those guys, the better off we're going to be as a team. And we understand that, and so it's very, very important. Guys are thinking about it all the time during practice.
"[...] Preseason — it's so hard. I get the frustration. [...] But we're also only running certain things, and when they're getting explosives, and we're continuing to stay in these same coverages, they're gonna find ways to attack those coverages. That's just the nature of when you're not showing very much. And so I just take that stuff with a grain of salt. [...] Now that we're past that, we can learn from some of those mistakes. That's part of the reason why you do what you do. Learn from those mistakes so that they don't happen as much during the regular season. I'm excited to finally get to the regular season, and just open up the whole gamut."
I asked Wilson, too, how Golden and the Bengals defensive staff plans to strike the elusive balance between being over-aggressive and too cute scheme-wise with being more conservative. Because while Burrow and Co. give the defense a greater margin for error, there is a point where more traditional coverage and a bend-but-don't-break mentality is preferable. Wilson's take was very interesting.
"It just depends on the offense that you're playing, how explosive they are. If they're a more run-based offense, are they going to try to keep the ball away from our offense? [...] There's always these little intricacies within a game plan depending on really who we're playing...who they have at receiver, who they have at tight end. All those different factors. So it'll be, I think, a week-to-week basis, based on what we're trying to do. But at the end of the day, we gotta prevent explosives, and we gotta tackle better than we did last year. Those two things alone will help us be better on defense."
Wilson expounded on the turnover emphasis thereafter, indicating that the Bengals' goal is to be +2 in the turnover margin every game, since that historically translates to wins at a far higher rate. On a per-game basis, Cincinnati was +0.2 in turnover margin last season, which was just outside the top 10 in the league.
Talk about a scary proposition for the rest of the NFL if Wilson and the Bengals find a way to generate even more takeaways. Combine that with the offense looking to be its best iteration of the whole Burrow era? Look out!
Logan Wilson's partnership with Q-Collar, a groundbreaking player safety technology
At the top of the interview, I asked Wilson about what he's added to his offseason regimen as far as getting his body right for the gauntlet of a 17-game season, plus hopefully some playoff football. In addition to body maintenance initiatives like a hyperbaric chamber, cold plunges, and red light therapy, Wilson highlighted another safety precaution that was particularly noteworthy.
Traumatic head injuries are an unfortunate, brutal reality of playing football at any level. A few years back, Wilson learned of Q30 Innovations' Q-Collar through his agent and decided to give it a whirl through its multiple iterations. In the end, Wilson decided it was a "no-brainer" to make it part of his football hardware, and even offered it up to his high school alma mater's players at Natrona County High School.
The collar is a band that goes around a player's neck and, in the company's words, acts as "a seatbelt for your brain." The brain is stabilized, and the Q-Collar promotes blood flow from the neck to the skull. It's sound science that can't prevent concussions altogether, but as Wilson explains, the Q-Collar reduces impacts from routine collisions that can really add up over time.
What's most fascinating is, the science stems from nature and a certain head-beating bird.
"They're trying to replicate essentially what happens with a woodpecker. A woodpecker, when it's pecking wood all the time, it doesn't get all those subconcussive impacts [...] because it sends blood up into its brain — essentially makes it a cushion, so that your brain is not just hitting your skull every time. And so that just helps alleviate some of those...more regular hits throughout football games that can kind of lead to maybe long-term issues down the road. And so the science behind it makes complete sense, they've done a lot of research, they're still doing research. One of the doctors on the whole committee is actually based here in Cincinnati. And so there's been a lot of studies on it, and I've honestly felt so much better wearing it postgame. It doesn't prevent concussions from happening, but it just helps alleviate those subconcussive impacts from doing long-term damage. So to me, it's literally a no-brainer as to why I wear it. So it's important."
Logan Wilson discusses Wyoming background, rise to becoming Bengals cornerstone
Listed as a 2-star wide receiver recruit on 247Sports, Wilson actually clarified to me that he was coveted to play safety coming out of high school in Casper, Wyoming. However, he only received two official scholarship offers, one from the University of Wyoming — the state's glorified professional team in lieu of an NFL franchise — and one from FCS program Weber State.
To me, the "life plan" aspect of somebody in that position is always so compelling. I was keen to know when Wilson realized the NFL was a legitimate possibility for him, and how his goals shifted once a shot at the pros was within his grasp. Funnily enough, pro football was not at all on Wilson's radar when he joined the Cowboys and redshirted as a true freshman to transition to linebacker.
"I honestly just went there with the full intent of basically having free schooling, earning my degree, and then just starting my life and being able to play football on the side. And then the whole NFL thing kind of became a reality, I would say, going into my junior year-ish. When agents started to reach out and all that stuff, I honestly would just send them all to my dad, because I didn't want it to be a distraction. I didn't want to worry about it, and my dad just kind of took it all on and gave me updates here and there and whatnot. [...] Maybe the end of my junior year is when all that stuff started getting a little bit more serious, and I realized I might have a legit chance."
Of course, I made sure to let Wilson know that I was thrilled he fought his way to the NFL, and that the Bengals did, in fact, make the decision to draft him in the third round, 65th overall in 2020. The power trio of Burrow, Tee Higgins, and Wilson in that class formed the nucleus that turned the organization around and keyed their run to Super Bowl LVI against the Rams.
Falling only three points short of a Lombardi Trophy, and three points shy of another trip to The Big Game the next year, has Wilson and his Cincinnati teammates eager to return to the playoffs for more wins, and hopefully, a Super Bowl parade through the Queen City.
There are a lot of positive signs and good vibes that 2025 will be the year. Now we'll see if Wilson and the Bengals can deliver that elusive first Super Bowl for the franchise about a handful of months from now.