The first five weeks of the 2026 NFL season are in the books, and the Cincinnati Bengals are coming out of their bye week with a 3-2 record. They’re absolutely still “in it,” but they’ve been a mixed bag so far.
After missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season in 2025, the Bengals completely rebuilt their defense. They traded the No. 10 overall pick to the New York Giants for Dexter Lawrence and signed Boye Mafe, Jonathan Allen, Bryan Cook, and Kyle Dugger in free agency.
Unfortunately,
after starting 2-0 and looking like everything was heading in the right direction, the Bengals spent the next two weeks repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot.
Then, against the 0-4 Dolphins, they squeaked out an ugly win in which the defense surrendered 24 points to arguably the worst team in football. Before facing Cincinnati, the most points Miami had scored in a game was 13.
So, yeah. Mixed bag.
Here’s a progress report for the defense, starting with the…
RUN DEFENSE
The Bengals started the season doing an excellent job limiting explosive plays on the ground. The longest run they allowed to a running back against the Buccaneers and Texans was just 13 yards.
That changed in Week 3 against the Steelers.
Over the next three games, the Bengals surrendered runs of 35, 25, 39, 26 and 22 yards. Suddenly, a defense that had been effective at preventing big plays was giving them up with alarming regularity.
Lawrence has been outstanding against the run. Even when he isn’t directly involved in a tackle, he’s often occupying two blockers, which should create opportunities for his teammates to make plays.
Unfortunately, someone doesn’t always get the job done.
Missed tackles have once again become a significant problem for Cincinnati’s defense. According to PFF, the Bengals have a tackling grade of just 50.3, the seventh-worst mark in the NFL, and have been credited with 47 missed tackles.
That’s simply not good enough.
With the Bengals returning from their bye week, they’ll play their second divisional game of the season, this time against Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson, and the Baltimore Ravens.
AFC North games are typically messy affairs, but Cincinnati absolutely cannot allow Henry and Jackson to get going on the ground. If they do, the Bengals risk spending much of the afternoon watching helplessly as Burrow and the offense remain stuck on the sidelines.
Run-Defense Grade: 75% (C)
PASS DEFENSE
Pass defense really consists of two components: the ability to cover receivers and the ability to rush the passer.
The Bengals have been very good at one of those things.
The other? Not so much.
Cincinnati’s defense has brought opposing quarterbacks down in the backfield 17 times through five games, tied for the third-most sacks in the NFL. That puts them on pace for approximately 58 sacks over a full regular season.
For perspective, that’s 16 more sacks than the Bengals recorded during the 2021 regular season, when they eventually reached Super Bowl LVI.
So, clearly, that part of the defense is working.
Unfortunately, when the pass rush doesn’t get home, the defensive backs left on islands have struggled to keep opposing receivers from getting open.
Take the Steelers game, for example.
Aaron Rodgers, who is 42 years old, was somehow able to scramble around the backfield and evade pressure like he was Burrow’s age. When he extended plays, Cincinnati’s secondary struggled to maintain coverage, allowing Pittsburgh to move the ball effectively through the air.
Of course, the Bengals couldn’t stop the run in that game, either, so there was plenty of blame to go around.
Evaluating pass defense can be tricky because there are so many moving parts. A great pass rush can make an average secondary look outstanding, while poor coverage can make even an effective pass rush look inadequate.
With that in mind, I’m breaking the pass defense into two separate grades.
Pass-Rush Grade: 94% (A)
Pass-Coverage Grade: 78% (C+)
Overall Pass-Defense Grade: 86% (B)
There’s a reasonable argument that the Bengals missed the playoffs in 2023 primarily because of Burrow’s injury.
The same excuse can’t be made for 2024 or 2025.
Following the 2024 season, the front office fired defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, hoping a change in leadership would fix the defense’s problems. Unfortunately, those issues persisted in 2025 under his replacement, Al Golden.
Rather than make another change, the Bengals decided to trust the process, retain Golden and give him considerably more talent to work with. So far, the results have been mixed.
Of course, injuries haven’t helped matters. Bryan Cook, Jordan Battle, and Kyle Dugger have all dealt with injuries, while Jalen Davis and Ja’Sir Taylor are on injured reserve.
Still, injuries or not, the defense hasn’t consistently performed at the level expected of a unit that received such a significant offseason investment.
Fortunately, the Bengals got an early bye week to get healthy, evaluate what’s working, and iron out some of the issues that have plagued them through the first five games. And they’d better take advantage of it. Taylor and his entire coaching staff have a lot riding on this season. It would be difficult to imagine the Bengals allowing four of the prime years of Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins to slip away without a single playoff appearance and still deciding Taylor is the right man for the job.
The offense has the firepower to compete with anyone in the league, but that won’t matter if the defense continues to give away explosive plays and miss tackles.
Taylor needs this defense to get right coming out of the bye.
Otherwise, he could find himself in serious trouble when the regular season comes to an end.
Overall Defensive Grade: 81% (B-)
So, how would you grade the defense? Sound off in the comments section!
