{"id":824608,"date":"2026-03-21T05:33:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/824608\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T05:33:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:33:19","slug":"bengals-still-look-like-big-winners-for-boye-mafe-bryan-cook-signings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/824608\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals still look like big winners for Boye Mafe, Bryan Cook signings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 20, 2026, 4:46 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While not everyone has loved how the <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> handled some of the <a href=\"http:\/\/bengalswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/bengals\/2026\/03\/18\/bengals-under-fire-free-agency-contract-details\/89207923007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">contracts, cap hits and salary cap in NFL free agency<\/a>, most agree on one thing:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/cincinnati-bengals\/327\" data-autotag=\"6d3e484d-5133-4c06-a871-967f8646390b\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Bengals<\/a> got much better with their two big swings in free agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Boye Mafe is an edge rusher who echoes the initial Trey Hendrickson signing years ago and helps the pass-rush. Bryan Cook is a massive upgrade at safety who can fix a years-long problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Sketching out the best moves of NFL free agency to date, PFF\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/news\/nfl-best-moves-of-2026-nfl-free-agency?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=dhtwitter&amp;utm_content=null\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gordon McGuinness<\/a> highlighted the Mafe move: \u201cMafe has earned a PFF overall grade above 70.0 and produced 40 or more pressures in each of the past three seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The praise was just as high for the Cook addition:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cCook&#8217;s 83.5 PFF overall grade in 2025 ranked fourth among all safeties. Meanwhile, the Bengals\u2018 starting safeties ranked tied for 57th and 72nd. This moves the needle for Cincinnati\u2018s defense, giving it a sure tackler who notched PFF grades above 80.0 both against the run and in coverage last season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Bengals added Jonathan Allen to the defensive line, too, in the hopes of boosting the interior pass-rush in a notable way before the draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Adding a veteran at linebacker and more edge rushers and cornerbacks is next on the to-do list for the Bengals, with those last two items very much in play at No. 10 overall in the draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 20, 2026, 4:46 p.m. ET While not everyone has loved how the Cincinnati Bengals handled some of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[95878,228,227,256,2296,7,6,13078,95905,95882,107118,104162,95913,95896,95888,95906,95883,95911,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-824608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflbengals","16":"tag-sstsnbengals","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagboye-mafe","19":"tag-tagbryan-cook","20":"tag-tagcincinnati-bengals","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagoverall-positive","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-tagtrey-hendrickson","26":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116265537187829014","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824608","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=824608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}