CINCINNATI (WXIX) – On one of the ugliest plays in years from the Cincinnati Bengals’ defense — the 68-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter that nearly cost the team Thursday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers — freeze the frame and look for the Bengals’ most experienced defensive players.
BJ Hill was on the sideline, hands on his hips, getting a rare play off during a season where he’s still playing too many snaps but isn’t providing enough value as a pass rusher.
Logan Wilson was further down the sideline, hands raised in the air in shock as Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth scored. Wilson has been benched for rookie Barrett Carter.
Cam Taylor-Britt was in street clothes, a healthy scratch as his contract season gets worse and worse.
Trey Hendrickson was out with a hip injury.
Joseph Ossai missed an opportunity at a sack on the play.
Cam Sample, a rotational run stopper who doesn’t have a sack since October of 2023, was rushing off the edge and never made it anywhere near Aaron Rodgers.
And then there was Geno Stone, a sixth-year player with postseason experience who still looked like a rookie as he made a flailing attempt for an interception and instead whiffed all together as Freiermuth picked up the easiest deep touchdown catch of his career.
“Rodgers got out of the pocket and scrambled,” Stone said. “We were in Cover-2. He hit the weak spot in the seam. I thought I had a pick, but at that point I’ve just got to get (Freiermuth) down. I broke too laterally. I was going for the ball. But at that point, I’ve got to get him down.”
These were the players who were supposed to be the stabilizing forces that prevented bad things from happening on the Bengals’ defense that ranks 29th in the NFL in points allowed per drive and 30th in Expected Points Added (EPA) per play. The Bengals knew that their defense was going to be young this year. The even more problematic issue has been what they’re getting from the veterans: players like Hill, Wilson, Taylor-Britt and Stone.
The Bengals are young by choice. This week, they technically could roll out a starting lineup that includes Hendrickson, Joseph Ossai, BJ Hill, TJ Slaton, Logan Wilson, Oren Burks, Taylor-Britt, Dax Hill, Turner, Stone and Jordan Battle. In that group, Dax Hill, Turner and Battle would be the young guys.
But the 2025 Bengals, looking for a “spark,” are giving a lot of playing time to less established players like Myles Murphy, Shemar Stewart, Kris Jenkins Jr., Barrett Carter, Demetrius Knight Jr. and Josh Newton. Outside of BJ Hill and Hendrickson, Dax Hill, Turner and Battle are the longest-tenured Bengals in the starting lineup.
The young guys will naturally take time to develop.
“I don’t know how many games Aaron Rodgers has played in, but as I’m watching the tape he’s probably in the 230s to 250s in terms of amount of games he’s played in his life,” Zac Taylor said. “I’m looking at two (Bengals) linebackers and Shemar playing in his second-and-a-half game almost and they’re playing games 6, 5 and 3.”
The Bengals’ defense’s young core is facing new situations and experiences. There are traits to like with these players, but they’re still putting the pieces together.
“Some of things Rodgers does really stresses you,” Taylor said. “He gets you in a look and then he likes to check the play and then he’s in no huddle and he’s in tempo and it causes a lot of stress. There’s a lot for these guys to learn from, and they’re going to continue to ascend and learn as they accumulate reps and get to game 7 and 8 and 9 and some day they’ll get to 250, hopefully.”
The problem is that the Bengals’ plan wasn’t to count on this many young guys to the extent that they are right now.
BJ Hill continues to make an impact against the run, but he hasn’t been an impactful pass rusher this season. He has 10 total pressures all season. Four of them were in Week 1 against a dismal Browns’ offense. Since Week 1, Hill has six total pressures. Three of those pressures were plays that Hill didn’t finish and resulted in big plays for the offense. Two of the pressures were on screens where Hill wasn’t blocked. One pressure was on a Rodgers scramble that Hill couldn’t chase down.
Hill just hasn’t shown enough juice as a pass rusher.
Jenkins is getting more playing time on third down than Hill even though Jenkins still hasn’t shown much pass rush ability. Hill, who was expected to be the Bengals’ best interior pass rusher and who’s their sixth-highest paid player, doesn’t have an impactful pressure since Week 1.
If the Bengals had lost on Thursday against the Steelers, the story of that game would have been how terrible the Bengals’ pass rush looked without Hendrickson. Sample was surprisingly getting key snaps on the edge for the first time in years. This season, despite Hendrickson’s production when healthy, the Bengals rank 31st in the NFL in pressure rate.
Wilson is the fifth-highest paid Bengal, and now he’s a backup. It’s still hard to understand why the Bengals benched Wilson, who hadn’t been making splash plays but had been an important presence in the middle of the defense and had been tackling well.
But that’s the decision that the Bengals made, and the coaching staff determined that he wasn’t giving the Bengals’ defense its best chance. That’s a disappointment for a defense that desperately needs the traits that Wilson brought to the table in his prime.
In 2022, Taylor-Britt was an exciting young corner on a Bengals’ team that had the best passing defense in the NFL. In 2023 and for the first few weeks of the 2024 season, he looked like an emerging Pro Bowler with the rare ability to cover any style of No. 1 wide receiver. Despite Taylor-Britt’s frustrating finish to the 2024 season, the idea was that the coordinator change would give Taylor-Britt a much needed fresh start. The new system was supposed to help Taylor-Britt more than any other player.
But Taylor-Britt, who’s the team’s 12th-highest paid player, has turned out to be one of the Bengals’ most mistake-prone players in 2025. Among defensive backs with at least 200 snaps this season, Taylor-Britt has allowed the seventh-worst passer rating in the NFL when targeted (Stone isn’t far behind Taylor-Britt on that list with the 13th-worst passer rating allowed).
Taylor-Britt played poorly against the Browns in Week 1 and said that type of performance wouldn’t happen again. He was benched after five terrible snaps in Denver in Week 4. He allowed a touchdown to Lions backup receiver Isaac Teslaa the following week. Taylor-Britt then was arguably the worst player on the Bengals’ defense in Green Bay as he allowed a deep reception, committed a penalty in the end zone and didn’t execute his assignment on the 3rd and 8 play that essentially ended the game.
His production felt like what you see from a baseball pitcher who just loses his command and can’t seem to find it again. When you reach that point, you fall into a tailspin.
Taylor-Britt was inactive against the Steelers, and second-year corner Josh Newton replaced Taylor-Britt in the starting lineup.
In the aftermath, nobody elaborated much about the decision to bench Taylor-Britt.
Taylor said, “Just be consistent. Consistency week-to-week, day-to-day.”
Taylor-Britt said, “Discipline. That’s the biggest thing. To play cornerback, be disciplined.”
DJ Turner’s progression into a No. 1 comer has saved the Bengals’ secondary from a complete collapse. But the regression of Taylor-Britt is the type of development that significantly damages the upside of a defense. The Bengals could have had one of the best cornerback trios in the NFL if Taylor-Britt had met expectations. Instead, he’s crashing down the depth chart during a contract year that could end up being his final season in Cincinnati.
Stone, the Bengals’ ninth-highest paid player, has been an inconsistent tackler all season. In coverage, he wasn’t really tested in coverage until the Steelers’ game. Rodgers targeted Stone twice on the same concept (four verts vs. Cover-2). The first example resulted in a touchdown on 3rd and 18, and the second example resulted in the 68-yard touchdown.
Stone said about the 3rd and 18 touchdown in the third quarter, “It was supposed to be a two-man concept on the other side. Someone was supposed to be carrying that. It is what it is. It happens. At the end of the day, we’ve got to do our jobs.”
After that first touchdown, Stone went over to Dax Hill for a conversation.
The Bengals’ defense is still ironing out plenty of details.
The young pieces should continue to grow. Dax Hill hasn’t even spent half of a season playing slot cornerback. Turner has been fantastic. Battle, Carter and Knight have allowed their share of negative plays, but they’ve also had moments where they splashed.
While an explosive run got right by him on Thursday night, Battle’s ability to get downhill on a Steelers’ third down pass in the fourth quarter resulted in a pivotal stop on a different drive.
While he was taken off the field for a few critical plays in the fourth quarter following consecutive missed tackles, Knight also had a beautiful play against a screen where he knew exactly what was coming, communicated like a veteran and showed off his athleticism for a tackle for a loss.
While he was out of position in coverage for an early Steelers’ touchdown, Carter consistently shows off his speed.
“I have to do a better job of just keeping it quiet for everybody on defense and just getting them to play fast,” defensive coordinator Al Golden said. “I understand the rookies are out there together, but the rookies are drafted for a reason and that’s to help us. And so it’s time to take that next step.”
The next step for the Bengals’ defense is a ton of player development for a young core that doesn’t know what it doesn’t know. The Bengals hired Golden to guide the group through this process. There’s a lot of coaching that’s going to take place during the second half of the season.
But coaching can only take a young group so far. Eventually, you’re on the field against an experienced quarterback in a high-pressure situation and you’ll see something you didn’t expect. Defenses need veterans on the field to take charge and carry the team through those stretches of uncertainty.
Aside from Hendrickson, the Bengals have veterans who aren’t productive enough, veterans who aren’t making plays, a veteran who isn’t trusted and veterans who the coaches aren’t showing faith in during the biggest moments of games.
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