Recapping Bengals' horrible 2025 offseason that set up epic letdown

The Cincinnati Bengals' 6-11 record in 2025 can be directly traced to how they approached their offseason. Zero sense of urgency, minimal expenditures for outside talent, and a draft approach that will go down as one of the most illogical in NFL history.

OK maybe the Bengals aren't relevant enough to fulfill their destiny on that latter front. Nevertheless, as Cincinnati approaches maybe its most pivotal offseason of all-time, it's worth revisiting the mistakes of the past to ensure they don't repeat.

Wait, what am I saying? Of course the Bengals are doomed to repeat history. They don't listen to people like me! OK on with it regardless...

Abysmal offseason planning and worse execution caused Bengals' downfall in 2025

Free agency summarized in one word: Pathetic. And in-house policies are to blame

Which in-house policies am I referring to?

1. Not taking care of your own players in a timely fashion.
2. Not shelling out enough money in free agency year after year.
3. Leaning on perceived upside of draft picks to justify Nos. 1 and 2.

The Bengals waited for Ja'Marr Chase to have a Triple Crown season before they paid up for his second contract. They waited two extra years to extend Tee Higgins. They never extended Trey Hendrickson, and will likely see him walk in free agency this offseason.

Legal tampering began on March 10, 2025. Chase and Higgins' joint extension announcement didn't come until the 16th. By then, many of the big names Cincinnati could've signed on defense were off the market.

If only this could've been resolved months, nay years prior, the Bengals might've fared better than, you know, T.J. Slaton and Oren Burks as their splashiest free-agent signees.

I loved the addition of Burks. He couldn't even beat out Demetrius Knight Jr. or Barrett Carter for significant snaps. Slaton was meant to be a dominant run stopper. He was a nothing-burger and is a prime cut candidate this offseason. Well, he would be if the front office weren't so prideful.

Drafting two non-blue-chip linebacker prospects with three veterans under contract was...a choice

Speaking of the Oren Burks of it all, it was reasonable enough to assume that he and Logan Wilson could roll into 2025 as the starting linebackers.

You know how I talked about the whole weird-energy relationships Cincinnati routinely cultivates with franchise cornerstones? Yeah. Wilson got dumped at the trade deadline for peanuts, but before then, during the 2025 offseason, incumbent linebacker Germaine Pratt was still under contract.

The Bengals' brass had alienated Pratt to that point, but didn't release him until June. Who did that serve well in the end? Absolutely no one.

You almost have to admire Cincinnati's audacity to be so foolish and faux-flexing. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Knight and Carter were the NFL's worst starting linebacker tandem and it wasn't close. To the point where I'm begging for Devin White in a Bengals uniform.

That's not the insult to White it sounds like. He's not that bad, and "not that bad" would be an astounding improvement from the poor performance Knight and Carter put up as rookies.

The Trey Hendrickson debacle reached a new low

Anyone who follows the Bengals knows how ridiculous this whole thing is. Speaking of audacity, it's hilarious that some of the more toxic fans are calling out Hendrickson for "quitting" on the team when he got injured last year.

If I were Hendrickson, I wouldn't play another down in Cincinnati. I don't want him back. He doesn't want to be here. The front office has seen to that. The bridges are burned. It benefits no one to keep Hendrickson on the roster.

Hendrickson's years-long contract spat that ended with no good resolution is just further proof that the Bengals will stop at nothing to risk estrangement of their best players if it means saving trivial amounts of money.

Playing hardball with Shemar Stewart proved costly

That nicely dovetails into this section. The Bengals have constantly approached the first round of the draft with a successor mindset. They're preemptive in their efforts to find the next, cheaper version of a current starter.

In 2022, Dax Hill was meant to replace Jessie Bates at safety someday. The next year, Myles Murphy was tabbed as Sam Hubbard's stand-in. The year after that, Amarius Mims was meant to sit behind recent Houston Texans playoff starter Trent Brown until Brown got injured in Week 3.

And here we were again with Shemar Stewart. The Bengals paid Joseph Ossai $6.5 million to be their starter opposite Hendrickson, but drafted Stewart in the event Hendrickson was on another team.

Do you see how this leads to a loser's mentality? And how it doesn't maximize Joe Burrow's Super Bowl window? It's absolutely maddening to witness.

Gross negligence of the right guard position cost the Bengals another Prime Joe Burrow season

Dalton Risner didn't sign on the dotted line till late August. Bargain-bin free agent Lucas Patrick was the Week 1 starter at right guard. He got injured. Risner got thrust into duty. By Week 2, a pass protection breakdown that Risner owned up to as his fault resulted in Burrow's major turf toe injury.

The good news? Risner played so well thereafter and wound up being the best right guard the Bengals have seen in years. The bad news? The front office still hasn't re-signed Risner.

I just...don't know how much more of this I can take.

As Who Dey Nation awaits the news of Risner staying in Cincy, his case is a microcosm of everything I've just laid out above.

The Bengals routinely avoid obvious, needs-based, non-cost-prohibitive transactions. They shroud their strategy in secrecy as much as any team in the NFL, and the bottom-line results reveal a dubious plan that lacks any coherence, reason, or substance.

Not holding my breath that anything will change any time soon. After all, that 2025 offseason debacle was less than a calendar year ago. What will possibly change between now and then?