Cincinnati Bengals’ Offseason Failures on FULL Display in Loss vs New York Jets

The Bengals problems and their failures were on full display on Sunday in their loss to the Jets. It’s time to get to the root of the problem on defense. A defense that I’m not sure could tackle me. Let’s break it down right now on Cincinnati Bengals Talk. [Music] Hi again everyone and welcome in to CBT. I’m James of Bengal.com. That intro might be disrespectful to some. A of course James, they could tackle you. Well, yeah, obviously I know that. That’s not the point. The Bengals defense has awful is awful. And we’re going to get to uh reasons why. And then on Enungle Tuesday night, we’re going to talk about who to blame because there’s a lot of blame to go around. There is. There’s a lot of blame to go around. But when I look at this team and I think about where they’re at defensively, which they’re allowing 32 points per game, nearly 32 points per game, worst in the NFL. They’re they’re allowing uh the the most yards per game, the most rushing yards per game in the league. Not like in the AFC North, not like here there. I And I’ll pull the numbers here because it’s just it’s so so bad. By the way, I’m James. Welcome in. Make sure you check us out banglesalk.com. Hit that subscribe button. Check out all of our postgame video, including what Jamar Chase had to say. 31.6 points per game, dead last in the league. 408 yards per game, dead last in the league. 152 yards rushing per game, dead last in the league. 256 passing yards per game. 30th, third worst in the NFL. Uh, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful. And And so why why are they so bad? Like h like how can it be this bad? Well, it’s it’s a mixture of things, but during the off season when I and I take pride in doing this and part of why I do it, why I’m so over the top with it and and this is me being full fully honest with you on my approach, my professional approach. The reason why I push so hard for free agents, the reason why I push so hard for trades, the reason why I push so hard for this team to add talent is because they should add talent. And that’s what winning teams do. That’s how you win in 2025 is you’re aggressive and you add to your team any and every way you can. That’s NFL football in 2025. And there’s this weird narrative or idea that, oh no, that’s what Madden’s for and blah blah blah blah blah. No, that’s what good teams do. Good teams become great because they go get the right pieces. Good offenses become great because they add Saquon Barkley to their already good offensive line and they’re already stud quarterbacks and they’ve traded for AJ Brown and you get The reason I’m saying the Eagles and I’m not talking about right now is because they’re the reigning Super Bowl champs, right? You can always add more. And that’s my mindset. How do you add more? How do you better yourself even more? How do you go from point A to B? And then when you’re at B, how do you get to C? And if you’re at G, well then do you keep going? And I’m not going to go through the whole alphabet. My 2-year-old can do that. But you get my point is you want to move it farther. You want to keep pushing it forward. You want to keep it moving. The Bengals big free agent offseason addition on defense was TJ Sllayton and that’s it. And in the moment we said that’s it. I like TJ Sllayton. They needed a nose tackle. This has nothing to do with him and it sucks that I have to lead it that way because I really like him and I think he does matter and he is an important piece of this defense. That can’t be it. When you’re as bad as you were last year, as bad as you were last year, one and two in games where you score 38 plus, can’t stop Lamar Jackson, can’t stop Russell Wilson, quick game, quick game. What? Miss tackles, Germaine Pratt. You can’t do anything. And then you put it all on the coaching staff and you say, “Oh, we’re going to bring in a new coach and he’s going to get more out of these guys.” And it’s literally the same faces. Literally the same faces. That that that’s what’s that’s what sickens me today. Sickens me that we’re talking about Justin Fields completing 65% of his passes. Sickens me that we’re talking about Breeze Hall who on Twitter is laughing at Bengals Sans’s joke because he shook Demetrius Knight out of his shoes more and Demetrius Knight Shamar Stewart in the Bengals draft than just a bit. But it sickens me that they thought that Joseph Osai running it back. TJ Sllayton knew. BJ Hill running it back. Trey Hendrickson running it back. Rookie linebackers, then Josh Newton, Gino Stone, DJ Turner, Dax Hill, run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. Miles Murphy run it back. Chris Jenkins run it back. Logan Wilson run it back. Might as well run it back. Were they good on defense last year? Because they ran it back. And their major additions came in the draft, which is a whole another topic. But why do they stink on defense? Well, they stunk last year and then they didn’t do enough with proven talent to help themselves. And the talent they did bring in wasn’t DJ Reer. It wasn’t DJ Reer in his prime. It’s TJ Sllayton. Solid player. They didn’t go get Aaron Donald. They didn’t go get an a game wrecker. And by the way, I’m not saying one was available. But my point is is if you were only going to make one addition to a crappy defense and expect to be good, it would probably have to be a game wrecker. would probably have to be a game changer. And they didn’t do that. There’s more here. And it’s on the draft side. And boy oh boy, you know how much I love the NFL draft. We’ll get to that coming up next. Today’s Miserable Monday is brought to you by WinWin Athletics. And they’re not going to make you miserable. Look, they will have everything you need. And Jeff Baldwin and his team at WinWin Athletics. They’re one, awesome to work with. Two, you’re going to save money right now on the best flag football kit on the planet. Look, it’s got everything you need in their flag football kit for a five on five game of flag football. You can take it anywhere, whether you’re at the park, whether you’re traveling. It it doesn’t matter. And so, maybe you want to show everyone that you’re going to take better angles than Demetrius Knight Jr. and the rest of the Bengals defense. Well, you can today by going to winwinathletics.com right now. Use promo code CBT10. That’s CBT10. And you’ll get 10% off. again winwinathletics.com. This video also brought to you by Cipsy Klein Realtors and specifically my guy Christian Husky who during the game text me and said, “Man, look at this offense.” And then I mean it was like a switch flipped because the defense started to do what it did and he was going through it just like you. Uh he also knows what it’s like to deal with the whole house search, the house process, the house buying process, the house selling process, and he’s going to help you throughout any process. You need real estate advice, he’s your guy. You want to put your house on the market, you want to downsize, you’re looking for your forever home, doesn’t matter. Christian Husky has you covered. Check him out today at sipsyline.com/husky. The other part of this is the new additions. And outside of TJ Sllayton, the new additions are Barrett Carter, Demetrius Knight, Sheamar Stewart. Those are the new additions. Those are the guys that you’re banking on thriving, not just surviving. No, no, no. Because you need to start those guys thriving. And I think Shamar Stewart’s going to be a good player, but when you’re banking on him right away to be your second best pass rusher and once Trey is out, and he’s been out now for six of eight quarters and even more than that actually, but six of the last eight quarters of games that you thought you were going to win. Well, Shamar hasn’t been able to do anything. And Shamar’s been back for two games now. Doesn’t have a quarterback hit. The Bengals defensive front doesn’t have a sack since week five against the Lions. Think about how long ago that was. Jake Browning was their starting quarterback. The last time the Bengals defensive front had a sack. Gino Stone has their last sack. It was against Green Bay the following week. The problem is is when you revisit the draft, and I’m not always right, and that’s not what this is. That’s not to say I’m always right, but when you revisit the draft and you look at it and you’re like, “All right, well, what what transpired? What took place? Who did they take? Who they didn’t? Who were they considering?” We did a video a few weeks before the draft. The Bengals had the 17th overall pick. I could narrow it down. I gave you six names that I would seriously want. Kelvin Banks Jr., Walter Nolan, Derek Harman, Nicki Menor, Jiad Campbell, Cole, and Loveland. Well, Banks was picked. Nolan was picked right before the Bengals went on the clock. went 16th overall. Loveland was picked. So you had Harmon, Ian Wari, Campbell. Harmon, Emani, Campbell. Harman dealt with injury in Pittsburgh. We’ll see there. But Iman War and Campbell like I I was really high on those guys and Campbell’s been lights out for the Eagles and and so like there’s real questions there like because the Bengals needed instant impact like someone who was ready. And Shamar Stewart, you didn’t say that. Like I after they picked him, it was like, man, they’re banking on him to to reach his ceiling and all of those things. And could he make an instant impact? Sure. But he’s not going to be that dude from a pass rush standpoint right away. And when you throw him in on a defense where everyone looks lost, I think it makes it even tougher on him, a tougher situation. So they clearly thought they needed a linebacker. They pass on Jiad Campbell and take Jamar Stewart. And then in round two when everyone’s talking about Tate Ratlich, if he’s there round two, it makes so much sense, right? And he’s one of the best, by the way, Jiad Campbell, one of the best graded linebackers so far this season. Just been really, really good in coverage and and just played well for the Eagles. Then in round two, Tate Ratlage was the guy. And it’s like, well, that would make a ton of sense. and instead they take Demetrius Knight who is taking so many bad angles and gave up that two-point conversion to Justin Field. So, he had no business giving that up. No business. I tweeted out the clip like he should have easily been able to to keep him contained enough for other defenders to get there. It doesn’t mean he has to make the tackle, but you just come up flatfooted and you take a bad angle and you run straight straight to the camera. Well, then Field’s just going to run around you. It looked like Andrew trying to run at me. Like, well, that’s what’s going to happen. Sorry, Andrew Fox Miller. Happy birthday. you’re old, bro. I I’m out of there and I’m getting that two-point conversion. He’s a rookie. You got to take the right angle. And And so I look at what they’ve done in the draft. And so if you’re not going to add proven talent in free agency and you’re going to bank on the draft to do that, well then you better get the instant impact guys. You better do that. And they haven’t. They didn’t. and they they they really the draft is supposed to supplement what you’re doing in free agency and vice versa. And so if you don’t sign a free agent linebacker, but then you take Jihad Campbell, well then it makes a ton of sense. But if you don’t sign a free agent linebacker after cutting Germaine Pratt and you have questions about Logan Wilson and then you draft a guy who’s going to be 25 before training camp starts and a guy who doesn’t have a ton of experience at linebacker and your defensive end with the uncertainty with Trey Hendrickson that you add uh doesn’t have a he isn’t refined still needs to work on getting there as a pass rusher technique-wise has physical gifts but it’s a more of a project pick. What are you talking about? Like you take the projects if and when you add proven pieces in free agency that you can bank on day one. You take the instant impact guys if you didn’t splurge in that spot in free agency. And that my friends is the issue is this entire off season they failed to address issues that needed to be fixed. I’m not going to debate Louisa Rumo and Al Golden. I’m not going to do that. I think it was time. That’s fine. I I do like if if they were going to make a change there, fine. But that wasn’t the only issue. That far and away wasn’t the only issue. Clearly, they needed more talent. Clearly, they need more talent. They don’t have playmakers. They don’t There’s like three guys I’m confident in when Trey Hendrickson’s healthy on defense. Trey Hendrickson, DJ Turner, and Dax Hill. And that doesn’t mean DJ was perfect yesterday. He wasn’t. Doesn’t mean Dax was perfect yesterday. He wasn’t. But those are three. That’s three of 11. That sucks. And that’s where the Cincinnati Bengals are right now. They need playmakers. And they could have done it even with their way of free agency. They could have done it by getting proven guys that were going to come in and make an instant impact. They did not do it. Jiad Campbell, he’s someone that you could build this retool this defense around. You give him the keys. instead of Logan Wilson, you give him the keys and he’s going to make an impact. We knew that in April. That is not hindsight. Go back and watch the video. Go back and watch the video. That’s those are the things that are maddening today. And I get it. They’re going to say, “Oh, well medicals were in the way. Medicals, man. Like, you got to get good football players and and and football players that aren’t only good, but if you need them to be an instant impact player, you got to find those. That’s their job. That’s the front office’s job. They did not do that. They failed this off seasonason and that’s why they are where they are at three and five following a fourth quarter collapse against the Jets. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. We’re going to have you covered with En Jungle on Tuesday night. May have a few things between now and then. We’ll see. We’ll see. Stay tuned. You got to hit that subscribe button on YouTube. Follow wherever you get your podcast. And for Andrew Fox Miller, who I would make look silly in the open field with win-win athletics, flag football, baby. Uh, I’m James Pain. Thank you so much for watching and listening to Cincinnati Bengals Talk. [Music]

The Cincinnati Bengals’ defense is HISTORICALLY bad. Their offseason failures were on full display in their embarrassing collapse to the New York Jets.

James Rapien discusses their moves in free agency, poor picks in the NFL Draft and how it all came together to make the Bengals the NFL’s worst defense.

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23 comments

  1. I think going into this season, after LAST season, shows how delusional Bengal fans are.
    Last season was a big slide backwards. Look at the first round pick in the last draft. Look at what he did in college. Local sports media journalists made this puck look like it was good. 😂 Of course they do this to keep access to the team. Pathetic folks. Just like this franchise. Go Cyclones!

  3. Let’s get real. Mike Brown ain’t firing his daughter or son in law or the grandchildren, everyone under the grandchildren need to go…Duke Tobin, Mike Potts and his clown show of scouts and all the coaches

  4. This team has issues in the locker room. They absolutely need to get rid of some of the cancers that are roaming around other players. I have my suspicions on who is infected with the virus and dragging the defense down… no inside knowledge here and shooting from the hip. But CTB gives me bad attitude vibes. I see Jackson sitting on Sundays and talking negative energy about it. Burton either dresses and plays or gets cut because I see him as a bad energy in the locker room. You can’t get worse than Yoshi as a third receiver or Jones on KO returns… it’s time to see what all those high fives were about on draft day with that Burton pick.

  5. Murphy, Stewart and the first round pick in 2026 to Cleveland for Garrett. They were willing to trade Flacco. Can't hurt to ask. I would like to see this team take the old George Allen approach to the draft. Trade the picks for established players. It was hard to miss with Burrow and Chase, but through the years nearly everyone else has been a bust, and you mortgage the future to pay unproven talent. And no, success in college proves nothing. "If you keep on doing what you've been doing, you will keep on getting what you've been getting." Time for a different approach.

  7. I'm giving Rapien some blame here… He told us that the defense was giving the offense fits during training camp. That offense is putting up over 30 a game. I'm starting to believe they didn't have training camp and I went to the session open to the public this summer… I'm starting to believe it was a mirage.

  8. No James, all you could talk about was Joe Burrow and who we could acquire on offense to protect him. You hardly talked about the defense and when I would bring it up all your little followers in the comments would argue, and be hateful. That's what I remember!! Now here we are.

    So like I had stated on several of your podcasts…….

    NO DEFENSE NO PLAYOFFS

  9. Remember all you fan boy clowns saying shemar Stewart and his 3 sack college career was worth a 1st and pick. Same type of dumb, oh he's so athletic look at the measurable pick we always make. Just draft the best football player available not because of their size or 40 time., just draft football players you idiots.

  13. I'm soooo sick of this !!!come on front office either u want to win r u dont it's a waste of money and talent with this pop warner flag defense we suck!!! And it seems like the guys on defense don't care that there garbage!!!…this aint on offense to say well i dropped a pass qb i gotta be more consistent !!! No!!..fact is my defense sucks from office to the field sucks!!

  14. im already done for the year and onto free agency/mock draft season. we need a new real GM and new coach next season, if not we collectively as fans could draft better. lots of us loved jihaad campbell, tate ratledge, and xavier watts (in rounds 1,2,3) and look at that all 3 were available and all 3 have made impacts for their teams.

  17. I've been a Bengals fan since 1981, In the 90's everyone called us the Bungals. Then we had Andy Dalton who made us look much better, but couldn't win a playoff game to save his life. Then everyone gets excited about Joe Burrow, we had 2 great years with him, now the team is going down hill again. I still feel it's piss poor management from the Brown family.

  19. Zac seems to usually draft high character guys who are overachievers that have maxed out or near maxed their potential. Maybe that is why they aren’t developing? Or it could be just bad scouting, drafting, and developing. It’s pretty obvious Lou wanted nothing to do with many of these recent picks by simply refusing to play many of them. The stars of this team are fed up with the lack of accountability with ownership. They simply stick with things too long. Taylor should’ve been 86’d last year. With the offensive output despite the bad o line play, the easy schedule and the despicable defense there was no reason not to hit the reset button.

    While I can appreciate Taylor’s efforts to build a positive culture with high character and supposed leaders they just haven’t translated into production.

  20. Here's the reality — had the Bengals signed a veteran DB last year — they make the playoffs. Had they retained Jessie Bates, they could have afforded Higgins and Chase BOTH if they signed them early, and they'd have made the playoffs in 2023 and 2024 BOTH.

  21. good rant, James. now, time for MY rant.

    it's a combination of the players, the front office…………………..and zac taylor.

    when it comes to the players, the corners are competent. the safeties sucks, the linebackers suck, and the d-line………………………………is (LITERALLY) non-existent in both pass rush and at stopping the run. the lack of pass rush makes the corners look way worse than who they actually are (despite how bad cam taylor-britt has played). however, I feel like it goes way beyond the "lack of talent" narrative. out of the guys on the defensive starting lineup, the only players I would say truly have a "lack of talent" is geno stone, bj hill, and maybe tj slaton (head scratching move to re-sign bj hill smh). several guys aren't playing up to their "talent" level for different reasons.

    with guys like myles murphy and shemar stewart, they have great athleticism and physical tools; however, their game simply isn't polished and their game needs to be redefined. that is a SKILL issue, NOT a talent issue.

    speaking of shemar stewart, this is EXACTLY why me (and the majority of bengals fans) disliked the pick so much. they needed to get a defensive guy in the 1st round that is not only a future cornerstone, but also an instant impact player. stewart is a "potential" future cornerstone, NOT an instant impact player. the PRIME EXAMPLE of a "project player". that is the type of pick you make when your team is so great that you take a swing on a project player and have him learn behind the good players in front of him and unleash him in the future when the time is necessary. that's why the myles murphy pick was understandable (imo). you do NOT do that when your overall team is as flawed as the bengals were going into this past draft and you ESPECIALLY don't do that when you are in the midst of an era of having a superstar quarterback. that is improper drafting evaluation. that's a front office issue.

    with guys like cam taylor-britt, the dude has talent, but is straight-up mentally instable to say the least. how does go from looking like a pro-bowl caliber corner to looking like AT BEST a practice squad caliber corner while still being in his mid-20's and hasn't had any major injury setback in between that time frame??? even if he somehow magically regressed, he shouldn't be looking THIS bad. him being mentally off probably has something to do with the (bad) culture on this team. if cam was on a different team, he would probably be playing up to his potential instead of looking mentally off. I've seen other bengal fans admit this, too.

    also, one thing james rapien and most other bengals fans fail to mention is that zac taylor is ALSO part of the problem on defense. I am SICK AND TIRED of people giving him passes for the terrible defensive play and not holding him accountable (and zac taylor is apparently not holding himself accountable either which was proven in his postgame press conference). zac taylor is NOT dan pitcher (the offensive coordinator), he is NOT an offensive player, he is THE HEAD COACH. he's supposed to be responsible for the WHOLE TEAM and instead of trying to help elevate the team, he's in the mindset of being an offensive coordinator (even though he shows incompetency on his late game awareness on offense smh). all around, this is NOT a well-coached team and I could tell when watching last season that it wasn't a well-coached team either. the fact people in the national media are JUST NOW claiming that zac taylor is on the hot seat when he should have claimed to be on the hot seat BEFORE LAST SEASON ENDED is mind-boggling. it even felt like the bengals were winning plenty of games last season IN SPITE of zac taylor. to be honest, I had previous belief in zac taylor…………..but I NEVER understood why and I would NEVER have a good explanation for it. AT BEST, he's just a guy and doesn't help elevate the team. that alone is a problem in itself. if anything, he holds the team back from it's true potential.

    Long story short, the front office is bad, zac taylor should be fired (this game against the jets was the last straw if the last straw wasn't already gone), the CULTURE is bad, and there isn't enough true/legitimate different makers on defense to make up for these deficiencies. on offense, they have that with burrow, chase, and higgins as they make up deficiencies to a certain extent. however, there is just a full bunch of "just a guy" players on this defense.

    sidenote: it was time for lou to go as well. it suits better for the colts to have lou than it does for the bengals.

  22. if the eagles are a 10, and the bengals are a 3, with a 1 being dont sign anyone, let your recievers go….. what number do you think we could realistically be next season, after the draft and free agency? e.g. assuming ownership is bothered enough by it to do something, what is reasonable to expect by kick off in 2026?

  23. I have been screaming for years and years… we have NO pass rush. Interior pass rush is important this day and age of big offense in the NFL and we continue to devalue the interior pass rush. When Geno Atkins retired that was the last gasp for interior pressure. When Trey doesn't get home its horrific. This is in my opinion the worst pass rush I have ever seen. Not just the Bengals, just in general. Its so incredibly infuriating.

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