![\"Cincinnati](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-1464836324-e1770423211245.jpg\")
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The Bengals Hall of Fame candidates were not inducted this season<\/p>\n
The Cincinnati Bengals\u2019 2025 season was filled with disappointment. After a 6-11 campaign, Cincinnati failed to meet expectations as they missed the postseason for the third consecutive season. Injuries played a big role as they missed Joe Burrow and Trey Hendrickson for significant portions of the season.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for Bengals fans, the team still has upper-echelon talent on offense. They had four Pro Bowl selections<\/a> on offense, including two quarterbacks. This offseason, the Bengals front office will try to improve their defense, which finished third-worst in scoring this past season. However, before the Bengals can make any big additions, the league season must come to an end, and that includes the NFL<\/a> Honors event which took place recently.<\/p>\n Cincinnati Bengals Receive Bad News During NFL Honors<\/p>\n During this year\u2019s NFL Honors event, the Hall of Fame committee announced the newest class of inductees and did not feature either of the two Bengals finalists. Willie Anderson and Ken Anderson were both on the doorstep<\/a> of induction as senior nominees, but only San Francisco 49ers<\/a> running back Roger Craig was an inductee from the senior nominees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Willie Anderson played 12 years of his career in Cincinnati as a right tackle, and earned three consecutive first-team All-Pro selections while being selected to the Pro Bowl in four consecutive seasons. He finished his career by playing one season with the Baltimore Ravens<\/a>, where he received votes for the NFL\u2019s Comeback Player of the Year.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, quarterback Ken Anderson played his entire 16-year career with the Bengals. During those 16 seasons, he made the Pro Bowl on four occasions, was selected to two All-Pro teams, and won the Most Valuable Player Award in 1981. He led the league in completions twice, completion percentage three times, passing yards twice, and passer rating four times. He reached the Super Bowl once in 1981, as the Bengals lost 26-21 to the 49ers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Bengals announced that Willie Anderson was the closer of the pair to entering the Hall. They announced,<\/a> \u201cAnderson finished in the top seven, meaning he\u2019ll automatically advance to the final 15 for a sixth straight year in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, the Bengals will have longtime tackle Andrew Whitworth eligible for the Hall of Fame next season. Whitworth spent 11 seasons in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n Offensive Player of the Year<\/p>\n During the NFL Honors event, some Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> fans noted that Offensive Player of the Year winner Jaxon Smith-Njigba received different treatment than Bengals wide receiver Ja\u2019Marr Chase did last season. In 2024, Chase achieved the receiving triple crown as he led the NFL with 127 receptions, 1,708 receiving yards, and 17 touchdowns. And yet, he finished third in Offensive Player of the Year voting as he finished behind Saquon Barkley and Lamar Jackson, as he failed to receive a single first-place vote.<\/p>\n This year, Smith-Njigba finished with fewer receptions and touchdowns than Chase did in 2024, but he received 14 first-place votes as he took home the award. Bengals analyst Joe Goodberry commented on the situation, saying<\/a>, \u201cJust a little funny after Ja\u2019Marr won the Triple Crown last season and came in third place for OPOY.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJose Esquer<\/a> Jose Esquer is a Mexican-American sportswriter and communications student based in San Diego, CA. His work spans football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. He has written for platforms like RotoWire and DolphinsTalk. You can find him on Twitter\/X @JEsquer8, usually talking Dolphins, world football, or both. More about Jose Esquer<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Bengals\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Bengals Hall of Fame candidates were not inducted this season The Cincinnati Bengals\u2019 2025 season was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-734638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-cincinnatibengals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116026735186037589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734638","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=734638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}