The Cincinnati Bengals had a real problem with both the pass rush and protecting Joe Burrow.
Then they added Amarius Mims, Dylan Fairchild, and Dalton Risner to the line in 2024 and 2025.
And then this past offseason, they went out and got Dexter Lawrence, Jonathan Allen, Boye Mafe, and Cashius Howell.
The result is a stunning turnaround.
As of right now, they are on pace for the greatest differential between sacks allowed and defensive sacks since sacks were first tracked in 1982.
Currently, the Bengals have a +11 differential (Burrow has been sacked 10 times, while the defense has made 21 sacks), which puts them on pace to be +31 by season’s end.
To put into perspective how far they’ve come, in 2020, the year Burrow was drafted, the Bengals were -31. You read that right.
That’s the second-worst year recorded for the franchise, after 2008, when they were -34.
They’ve been negative every year they’ve had Burrow, but started to improve last year, when they were only -1.
You can see the gradual progress by looking at their ranking of sacks allowed and defensive sacks per year in the Burrow era:
2020 – 28th and 32nd
2021 – 30th and 12th
2022 – 22nd and 29th
2023 – 25th and 18th
2024 – 22nd and 26th
2025 – 14th and 23rd
2026 – 5th and 1st
