The Cincinnati Bengals offseason will be defined by a few things. One thing that cannot be argued is that they have put a decent amount of their capital into winning now.
So it isn’t surprising to see more of the national media start to finally come around after looking at what upgrading the defense means for this team.
Fox Sports writer Eric Williams included them in his bold predictions for the season. It is exactly what fans are hoping for.
Bengals make a deep playoff run
In the offseason, the Bengals
finally went all in and spent major resources to fix an ailing defense, trading with the New York Giants for Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. They also signed defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and edge rusher Boye Mafe, along with safeties Bryan Cook, Kyle Dugger and Ja’Sir Taylor in free agency. The Bengals added defensive linemen Cashius Howell and Landon Robinson, along with cornerback Tacario Davis, in the draft. So, the defense should be much better than No. 31 in total defense, which is where the Bengals finished last season.
The thing many detractors forget is that the offensive line was actually pretty good for Joe Burrow. The amount of “Lawrence isn’t going to keep Burrow upright” type comments proved that.
It was clear that defense was the biggest immediate need. The offense had a need for depth or future starters, but the defense needed to add four to five starter-level players. They seemed to pull that off, as Williams noted.
The only real criticism is that they didn’t add a solid veteran linebacker to either start over, mix in, or even have as a backup plan for the pair of rookie linebackers in Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr., who both struggled. They could take a step forward with better talent around them, but it is a pretty big risk.
Either way, this offense not having to score well over 30 points per game to win would do wonders for their win total.
