{"id":907174,"date":"2026-06-01T15:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/907174\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T15:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:27:16","slug":"4-quick-bengals-otas-storylines-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/907174\/","title":{"rendered":"4 quick Bengals OTAs storylines to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> OTAs getting underway means a brief batch of football for fans to watch before the summer break.<\/p>\n

And in Cincinnati, it means droves of new storylines, especially this offseason. The Bengals<\/a> went all-in with the Dexter Lawrence<\/a> trade and big spending, signaling a critical hot-seat year for Zac Taylor and staff.<\/p>\n

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Right out of the gates in OTAs, a few big things to watch stick out.<\/p>\n

The LB fallout<\/p>\n

Fans know the drill by now. The Bengals elected to not address linebacker this offseason, going all-in on Demetrius Knight<\/a> and Barrett Carter<\/a>. The hope is that a much-improved line in front of them, paired with natural development, is the key. But they also can\u2019t repeat the mistake of last year in only signing Oren Burks<\/a> as veteran depth, so if things don\u2019t look good, it ups the chance of a free-agent signing.<\/p>\n

The hyped edge rushers<\/p>\n

Former first-rounder Myles Murphy<\/a> flashed at the end of last year. Will it continue? How\u2019s Shemar Stewart<\/a>, last year\u2019s first-rounder, starting to come along in his first normal offseason? Don\u2019t forget Boye Mafe<\/a>, the big free-agent signing and guy they hope can take a leap in a new system? We\u2019ll see some flashes from all in this early summer work. Plus, we\u2019ll see if rookie Cashius Howell sees a nice chunk of coverage snaps as they figure out ways to get him on the field.<\/p>\n

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A revamped secondary<\/p>\n

Bryan Cook<\/a> is in Cincinnati as the latest attempt to fix the Jessie Bates<\/a> mistake. He\u2019ll line up next to Jordan Battle<\/a>, but don\u2019t forget the other new arrival, Kyle Dugger<\/a>. At corner, Dax Hill wants to stay on the boundary, as he should. But we\u2019ll get a first look at whether the Bengals make that happen, or ask him to kick inside to the unaddressed slot position.<\/p>\n

Bonus: The WR room<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an interesting battle or spot going on behind Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Tee Higgins<\/a>. Andrei Iosivas<\/a> had a down year as the third wideout last year and they drafted Colbie Young<\/a>. Charlie Jones<\/a> is pretty strictly special teams, while names like Mitch Tinsley, Kendric Pryor<\/a> and others will fight for roster spots too.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: 4 quick Bengals OTAs storylines to watch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Bengals OTAs getting underway means a brief batch of football for fans to watch before the summer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[14707,2778,228,14163,35570,12164,227,256,2296,45347,9316,1489,7,1516,6485,14704,7882,4672,6,4447,1496,4969,32814,2978,2729],"class_list":["post-907174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-andrei-iosivas","tag-barrett-carter","tag-bengals","tag-boye-mafe","tag-bryan-cook","tag-charlie-jones","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-colbie-young","tag-demetrius-knight","tag-dexter-lawrence","tag-football","tag-jessie-bates","tag-jordan-battle","tag-kendric-pryor","tag-kyle-dugger","tag-myles-murphy","tag-nfl","tag-oren-burks","tag-shemar-stewart","tag-storylines","tag-summer-break","tag-tee-higgins","tag-zac-taylor"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116675558998953926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907174","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=907174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}