{"id":287346,"date":"2025-08-14T11:54:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T11:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/287346\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T11:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T11:54:18","slug":"why-eagles-cbs-struggling-against-bengals-is-concerning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/287346\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Eagles CBs struggling against Bengals is concerning ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio <\/a>should be worried about his new-look secondary after a few potential starters struggled in their preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night at Lincoln Financial Field.<\/a><\/p>\n

It was an unfair matchup because the Bengals started quarterback Joe Burrow<\/a> and his star wide receivers, Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Tee Higgins<\/a>, while the Eagles<\/a> didn\u2019t play their best cornerbacks, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s not surprising that Chase and Higgins took advantage of Philadelphia\u2019s incomplete secondary. But still the performance of Kelee Ringo <\/a>and Adoree\u2019 Jackson<\/a>, the two CBs vying to start opposite of Mitchell, was not encouraging.<\/p>\n

Ringo had the worst moment of the night when Chase beat him for a 36-yard touchdown on Cincinnati\u2019s second drive. <\/p>\n

Playing off the ball in zone coverage, he surrendered an out-route catch and took a poor angle on Chase, who ran past him and cruised down the sideline for an easy score. <\/p>\n

Chase also beat Ringo on the first drive for a 23-yard catch, creating separation near the sideline by turning back to Burrow. <\/p>\n

The Eagles don\u2019t need Ringo to cover Chase or other No. 1 wide receivers this season \u2014 that will be Mitchell\u2019s responsibility. But he can\u2019t lose so easily to No. 3 and No. 4 WRs. <\/p>\n

On a slant, Bengals backup wide receiver Charlie Jones beat Ringo for an 11-yard catch.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s defense could struggle with Ringo being a liability. He has not improved enough from last season, struggling with technique again. <\/p>\n

Jackson also played poorly, but his bad moments weren\u2019t as noticeable. <\/p>\n

On the second play of the game, Higgins beat Jackson to the middle of the field and dropped Burrow\u2019s pass. Chase caught a 12-yard pass against Jackson on the next throw, and later in the series, Jones beat him on a comeback route for 12 yards.<\/p>\n

Jackson allowed another catch to Jones for 21 yards. <\/p>\n

As a backup plan to Ringo, the Eagles signed Jackson, a solid starter in past years with the New York Giants, to a one-year deal this offseason. He has clearly lost a step. <\/p>\n

When the Eagles released Darius Slay <\/a>this offseason, they believed Ringo could take over as the starter. <\/p>\n

After one preseason game and through the first two weeks of practice, their assessment looks wrong. <\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s cornerback competition became more intriguing Monday when the team traded for Raiders cornerback Jakorian Bennett<\/a>, who started 11 games in his first two NFL seasons and performed well last season. <\/p>\n

Bennett, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, was inactive against the Bengals and hasn\u2019t practiced with the team yet. Soon he might steal the starting job from Ringo, especially after how tonight went.<\/p>\n

The Eagles also traded last year\u2019s starting free safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson<\/a> to the Houston Texans in March, creating another hole in their secondary.<\/p>\n

Second-round pick Drew Mukuba<\/a> suited up for warmups but didn\u2019t play. He missed three practices and was limited for another three due to a shoulder injury. For the first time in over a week, the former Texas standout was a full practice participant on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Third-year player Sydney Brown <\/a>could have emerged as the leader in the safety competition. Instead, he had a rough night too.<\/p>\n

After getting through Bengals wide receiver Andrei Iosivas\u2019<\/a> block, he missed an open-field tackle on Chase. Toward the end of the second quarter, he lowered his helmet and took a big hit from Bengals rookie Tahj Brooks<\/a>. He looked dazed leaving the field and never returned.<\/p>\n

Last season, Philadelphia had the NFL\u2019s best secondary, shutting down elite quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl. It might not happen again this season. <\/p>\n

The Eagles took a risk by getting rid of two starting defensive backs (Slay and Gardner-Johnson), and it doesn\u2019t appear to be a good decision. Fangio needs to find a solution at cornerback and safety to prevent a regression. <\/p>\n

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.<\/p>\n

Cayden Steele may be reached at CSteele@njadvancemedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio should be worried about his new-look secondary after a few potential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[55156,228,227,256,2296,7,6,31185],"class_list":{"0":"post-287346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-0d6a0777","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nflraw25"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115026989126869519","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}