Despite trade, spending, Bengals still face one of NFL’s top questions
The Bengals can't duck questions about this for much longer.
It’s all love for the Cincinnati Bengals right now. The Dexter Lawrence trade and huge spending that reshaped the defense in an all-in way for Joe Burrow has things looking good. It helps that a soft schedule has the Bengals getting some major record predictions opinions , too.
But big questions linger. It all has to come together on Al Golden’s defense. And the Bengals left one big thing about the unit mostly untouched: Linebacker.
ESPN’s Ben Solak stressed this point recently during a national column looking at the second-year players around the NFL under the most pressure in 2026. “With Lawrence (and Boye Mafe, Jonathan Allen and Cashius Howell), the Bengals are clearly communicating that they think the issue started on the defensive front,” Solak wrote. “And it's tough to argue when you see those stats.
But the best teams last season were getting stuff rates around only 20%; runs will still get to the second level. There's no way to hide poor linebacker play in the modern NFL. Opposing coordinators have gotten too good at putting those guys in conflict.