CINCINNATI (WXIX) – You’re starting to see the first sliver of light at the tunnel during the rebuild of the Cincinnati Bengals’ defense. Whenever this unit is good again and whenever the Bengals are back in the playoffs, the outside corner duo of DJ Turner and Dax Hill should be what this defense is best known for.
During the offseason heading into 2026, the Bengals still need three-or-four more pieces on the defensive line, a starting linebacker or two, a free safety and a few more role players. But when you look at the identity that’s starting to take shape, it’s hard to find a young outside corner duo that’s much better than the one the Bengals already have.
This is the best outside corner duo that Zac Taylor has ever coached.
Turner and Hill in 2025 are better than what the Bengals had in 2024 (starting an inexperienced Turner and an inconsistent Cam Taylor-Britt), 2023 (starting a banged up Chidobe Awuzie), 2022 (starting Eli Apple), 2021 (starting Eli Apple), 2020 (starting LeShaun Sims) and 2019 (starting B.W. Webb).
Taylor said that Turner is having a Pro Bowl caliber season, and Turner has proven that he can take away opposing teams’ top pass catchers.
“He has earned all this,” Taylor said. “You can genuinely feel the confidence from him, oozing off of him. He has been a tremendous asset for us. He’s a really good communicator. It’s really important to him. He understands what it means to cover their best guy. He understands all that that entails, the good and the bad, and he’s willing to embrace it all.”
Dax Hill — who was a role player in 2022, a safety in 2023 and an outside corner for five games in 2024 until he tore his ACL — opened the 2025 season in the slot. Hill moved back out wide in November after Taylor-Britt suffered a season-ending injury, and now Al Golden said that Hill is playing the best football of his career.
Anyone who has watched the Bengals’ offense has seen how scary a passing game can be against a defense that doesn’t have two reliable outside corners. In those moments, Joe Burrow will pick on the corner who doesn’t stand a chance.
It’s not just that you can’t pick on either Turner or Hill. It’s that you can rely on each of them to win their one-on-one on a down-to-down basis.
That creates a lot of headaches for offenses.
“Any time you have a piece that’s going to perform above average and really be able to do some difficult things, it opens up the universe of things you can do with the other people,” Dan Pitcher said. “Teams that have good man corners, that means you can present some difficult front structures and pressures. Maybe you can do some more on early downs to knock a run out because you feel like you have guys that can cover by themselves.”
The well-documented story of the Bengals’ improvement on defense since the bye week is that Al Golden started dialing up more blitzes, using more complex wrinkles in the playbook and sending different types of pressures. Golden is being more aggressive, and Hill said that Golden has been calling more man coverage recently.
When defenses take risks at the line of scrimmage, they naturally leave themselves more vulnerable down the field. The recent scheme change wouldn’t work without Pro Bowl quality play from Turner and the Pro Bowl potential that Hill has shown recently.
The whole idea is that you can send more pressure because Turner and Hill are going to take care of receivers running down the field.
“DJ has been playing like the best corner in the league, and Dax is playing better than ever,” Jordan Battle said. “When you can trust your corners, it allows safeties to play better. It allows us to have different mechanics on the backside. Maybe we don’t need to double anybody and can just single them up. It frees up the safeties to go and make plays and run. That happens to us a lot. You can lean away from (a receiver) and steal something out of the slot or a tight end.”
When Taylor-Britt got hurt, the Bengals could have gone in a few different directions. The easy move would have been keeping Hill in the slot and giving a young guy (Josh Newton, DJ Ivey or Marco Wilson) a shot to start. Instead, the Bengals moved Hill out wide and moved Jalen Davis from the practice squad to the starting lineup in the slot. Al Golden said that the shuffling at corner has as much to do with the improvement on defense as anything.
Hill’s first start at outside corner was against the Patriots on Nov. 23. His five starts have come against Drake Maye, Lamar Jackson (two games against the Ravens), Josh Allen and a Dolphins’ offense with a lot of challenging speed at receiver.
In those five games, Hill has allowed five total catches. After going on an journey around the defensive backfield in the early years of his career, Hill has found his full-time home at outside corner.
The most impressive part of Hill’s performance at outside corner is that he’s guarding every style of receiver — speedsters like Kayshon Boutte and Jaylen Waddle, physical and powerful targets like De’Andre Hopkins and tight ends like Mark Andrews and Dawson Knox.
Because Hill is so versatile, Golden can throw Turner on any style of top receiver and have Hill match up against the other guy on the outside.
“Dax has done a great job,” Golden said. “He really has. He stepped up to the challenge.”
Hill also complements Turner in the Bengals’ run defense. As much as Turner has accomplished this year, he’s still working on defending the run. Hill can pick up some of the slack with his ability to make splash plays on the outside.
On Jalen Davis’ third down TFL before halftime in Miami — arguably the most important play of the game — Hill sealed off the edge and forced the back to reverse back inside.
In the second quarter last Sunday, Hill made one of the most athletic plays that any Bengals’ player has made all season. The Dolphins ran a flare screen for Waddle, had Hill blocked up and had a clear shot at an explosive play.
Hill essentially did a burpee under Dolphins tight end Julian Hill by diving to the ground and jumping up immediately. With cat-like instincts, Hill pounced up onto his feet and wrapped up Waddle on a 1-yard gain for the Dolphins.
“I told him his play on the flare pass was as good as anything I’ve seen this year,” Golden said. “When the ball was released, it looked like it was going to be a huge gain. They had a blocker in space, and you don’t want those receivers in space. (Hill) slipped the block outside and make the tackle. When I went to call the second down play, I couldn’t believe that it was 2nd and 9. That’s a tribute to him.”
The underdiscussed story of Hill’s season is that this is just his first year back following a torn ACL. Examples from recent seasons like Joe Burrow and Chidobe Awuzie are reminders of the time that it takes to really come all the way back from that injury.
Hill was fine during the first half of the season. Recently, he’s showing that he’s all the way back.
“He has always had that physicality and athleticism,” Taylor said. “That’s something that we’ve always been high on. It felt like he was really playing well before the ACL. It takes time to come back from that. So you’re starting to see that confidence and athleticism come back.”
The Bengals’ front office and coaching staff have shown over the years how much they believe in the value of the cornerback position. They’ve invested as many resources through free agency and the draft at cornerback as any position outside of quarterback and wide receiver.
In the big picture, the Bengals’ defense still needs a ton of help. But at least now at the end of the season, the strength of that unit going forward is as clear as it can be. The Bengals can build around their corners.
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