{"id":94771,"date":"2025-06-01T03:14:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/94771\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T03:14:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:14:12","slug":"bengals-x-factor-for-2025-nfl-season-flying-under-the-radar-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/94771\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals&#8217; x-factor for 2025 NFL season flying under the radar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to x-factors in 2025, the <a href=\"https:\/\/bengalswire.usatoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> have a few who come to mind.<\/p>\n<p>Think, someone like rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/bengalswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/bengals\/2025\/05\/30\/bengals-rookie-demetrius-knight-learning-joe-burrow\/83948058007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Demetrius Knight being able to step in and help on the defense<\/a> right away. Or the front office when it comes to solving the contract standoffs with both Trey Hendrickson and rookie Shemar Stewart.<\/p>\n<p>Somewhat joking about the front office aside, another key x-factor is second-year offensive tackle Amarius Mims, who just found himself spotlighted as such by Pro Football Focus&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/news\/nfl-2025-roster-rankings-strengths-weaknesses-x-factors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Chadwick and Dalton Wasserman<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/cincinnati-bengals\/327\" data-autotag=\"6d3e484d-5133-4c06-a871-967f8646390b\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bengals<\/a> had the second-lowest-graded offensive line in the league, finishing above only the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/new-england-patriots\/348\" data-autotag=\"04de4087-8f54-4765-a468-9b4c74f7fb14\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Patriots<\/a>. The unit remains mostly the same from 2024, and the player whom most are expecting to make a jump is right tackle Amarius Mims. The 2024 first-round pick mostly had a rookie season to forget, placing 67th among all tackles with a 57.8 PFF overall grade. If he doesn\u2019t experience a sophomore breakout, Cincinnati\u2019s offensive line could struggle mightily once again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>RELATED:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bengalswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/bengals\/2025\/05\/28\/bengals-udfa-turning-heads-otas-jordan-moore\/83904351007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bengals UDFA is already turning heads at OTAs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Bengals are certainly counting on Mims to make a second-year leap and stay on the field. They could also trot out two new starters at guard with free-agent arrival Lucas Patrick and rookie Dylan Fairchild.<\/p>\n<p>Arguably more than anything, the Bengals hope that a new-look coaching staff overseeing the offensive trenches offers a big solution too, helping to get the most out of their guys while finally developing some of their own draft picks properly.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bengalswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/bengals\/2025\/05\/29\/cincinnati-bengals-players-missing-otas-list-training-camp\/83917755007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cincinnati Bengals players missing OTAs list ahead of training camp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to x-factors in 2025, the Cincinnati Bengals have a few who come to mind. Think,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[11160,2979,247,265,228,227,256,2296,207,7,2341,10536,10142,11161,246,206,249,88,6,245,264,858,208,9,266,2340,1503],"class_list":{"0":"post-94771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-amarius","9":"tag-amarius-mims","10":"tag-american","11":"tag-american-football","12":"tag-bengals","13":"tag-cincinnati","14":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","15":"tag-cincinnatibengals","16":"tag-england","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-hendrickson","19":"tag-lucas","20":"tag-lucas-patrick","21":"tag-mims","22":"tag-neutral","23":"tag-new","24":"tag-new-england-patriots","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-nfl","27":"tag-overall","28":"tag-overall-neutral","29":"tag-patrick","30":"tag-patriots","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-sports-news","33":"tag-trey","34":"tag-trey-hendrickson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114605933957466188","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94771","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=94771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}