{"id":331919,"date":"2025-08-31T23:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T23:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/331919\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T23:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T23:43:08","slug":"bengals-defense-spotlighted-in-bold-predictions-for-2025-nfl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/331919\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals\u2019 defense spotlighted in bold predictions for 2025 NFL season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new-look Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> defense came under fire this summer for some shaky-looking preseason performances as the unit gets underway with Al Golden at the coordinator spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But reports out of training camp practices and commentary from coaches have created an interesting scenario where ESPN\u2019s Dan Graziano<\/a> makes the bold prediction that the Bengals<\/a> could actually go back to the AFC title game this year:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outside concern about the way the defense has looked in preseason games is not shared by those inside the building. The Bengals are installing a new scheme under new defensive coordinator Al Golden, and the coaching staff made a conscious decision to put as little of that scheme on tape as possible in the televised preseason games.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: Bengals’ waiver wire claim at needy area thwarted by 49ers<\/a><\/p>\n

The idea of Joe Burrow\u2019s offense willing the team back to the playoffs isn\u2019t a bold one. It is, however, to suggest the defense could play a big role in that so soon after the shaky preseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Either way, Bengals fans were right to panic a little when the first string and beyond suffered in live action over the last month. Whether it was a case of the team holding things back for the regular season or a hint of something more concerning will reveal itself pretty quickly with Week 1 here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED: Trey Hendrickson\u2019s Bengals contract has big pay bonus incentive<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new-look Cincinnati Bengals defense came under fire this summer for some shaky-looking preseason performances as the unit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2338,2345,247,265,825,228,227,256,324,12,388,7,2339,20842,379,246,88,6,35196,245,264,9,266],"class_list":{"0":"post-331919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-al","9":"tag-al-golden","10":"tag-american","11":"tag-american-football","12":"tag-american-football-conference","13":"tag-bengals","14":"tag-cincinnati","15":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","16":"tag-conference","17":"tag-espn","18":"tag-espn-inc","19":"tag-football","20":"tag-golden","21":"tag-hub","22":"tag-inc","23":"tag-neutral","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-nfl","26":"tag-nfl-hub","27":"tag-overall","28":"tag-overall-neutral","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-sports-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115126036541477983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331919","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=331919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}