The Cincinnati Bengals splashed cash to remake their defense this offseason, and a considerable free-agent addition of theirs only needed one game to make a swift impression.
Sports Illustrated’s Eva Geitheim included safety Bryan Cook among 10 NFL offseason additions making their new teams look smart in the wake of Week 1.
Cook signed a three-year, $40.25 million contract with Cincinnati in March after four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“One of their biggest splash plays defensively on Sunday came from safety Bryan Cook,” Geitheim wrote.
In the Bengals’ 33-27 season-opening win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cook finished with six tackles while contributing to two takeaways. He knocked the ball loose from Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving
in the first quarter for the first forced fumble of his NFL career, then recovered a fumble near Cincinnati’s goal line in the second quarter.
The performance followed an offseason in which Cook quickly emerged as a leader. His teammates voted him one of Cincinnati’s three defensive captains alongside Dexter Lawrence II and DJ Turner II.
Cook, a Cincinnati native who played at the University of Cincinnati, was brought in partly to improve a secondary that struggled with tackling. He posted a 4.5% missed-tackle rate in 2025, second-best among qualifying NFL safeties, per Bengals.com.
One game in, Cook is definitely living up to the hype.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals’ $40 million signing named among smartest offseason additions
