The Bengals can address what went wrong in 2025. Here's how
The Cincinnati Bengals' 2025 season ended Jan. 4 . Cleaning up the rubble should begin immediately.
If the franchise is willing to learn from mistakes of its recent past and survey the wreckage of 2025 with clear eyes, next season doesn't have to end the way the now-concluded season did: With nearly a month of meaningless games and empty green seats coloring the Paycor Stadium landscape.
Considering what we've seen and learned from the failed 2025 season, this is a simple to-do list for the Bengals to solve a lot of their problems.
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Spend real money on defensive free agents
Sure, the Bengals' defense improved after the bye week. We heard all about it, especially after the team's playoff fate was decided. To be fair, that improvement pointed to player development and some effective midstream alterations and coaching by defensive coordinator Al Golden. But still, it entered Week 18 against the Browns ranked the worst total defense in the NFL.
The Bengals' offense faltered in 2025, too, but is generally one of the more effective units in the NFL. Plenty of money was spent on that side of the ball, and now it's time to spread that around.
The defense needs an injection of talent that's proven at the NFL level. Existing starters ( Jordan Battle ) need to be challenged through competition, and the team can't in good faith go into 2026 with the frontline plan at linebacker being Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr.
If the Bengals are serious about 2026, they need to go out and spend money on their defensive needs in free agency. Go for production in the glaring areas of need: Linebacker, safety, edge rusher and defensive end.
The simple, expensive truth for the Bengals after an accumulation of draft missteps, bad tackling by safety Geno Stone and a lost, one-sack campaign for first-round 2025 NFL Draft pick Shemar Stewart , is that Cincinnati needs to reinforce through free agency. The good news is that this is a proven means of getting better quickly in the NFL (see: the 2025 AFC East champion New England Patriots , who spent heavily after a 4-13 2024 and were 13-3 entering Week 18).
Reinforce the quarterback position
Six years into Joe Burrow 's career, he's had season-ending injuries (knee injury in 2020, wrist injury in 2023) or season-altering injuries and medical situations (ruptured appendix in 2022, turf toe requiring surgery in 2025) in more than half of his seasons. As Burrow prepares to turn 30 years old in 2026, it would be foolish for the Bengals to not plan for the franchise quarterback to miss some time. And while Jake Browning became a cult hero for how he finished the 2023 season, he was not good in the backup role this year and Cincinnati needed to trade draft capital to find a bona fide quarterback in Joe Flacco (whose status for 2026 remains an open question).
Browning's contract is up, and the Bengals might consider drafting a quarterback to mold into their backup or investing in one of the league's proven backups or journeymen signal-callers. Sure, no one wants to see the backup play a single snap when your starter is Burrow, but that's the nature of the NFL. Burrow has had his share of injuries over the years, and he's not getting younger.
Offensive line continuity is key. Keep Dalton Risner
Most of the Bengals' offensive line is contractually locked up, and that's good. For weeks and including in the days leading up to the Week 18 season finale, Burrow and Cincinnati coaches continually praised the 2025 offensive line as the best Burrow's had during his time with the franchise. One of the loose ends the Bengals need to tie up is Dalton Risner, who is having a career year but played the Jan. 4 season finale on an expiring, one-year contract.
Risner is having a career year for the Bengals, including a career-best 69.3 Pro Football Focus grade. He'll likely have other suitors in the free-agent marketplace but the Bengals have a good thing going with this group, from starters to the depth pieces. Keep them all together.
Invest in your rising outside CB tandem
Cornerbacks DJ Turner II and Dax Hill represent a situation where the Bengals can improve on past practices by locking them up contractually before it costs too much to retain them.
Turner will be in the final year of his rookie contract, while Hill will play in Cincinnati in 2026 on an option year the Bengals exercised last spring.
Both players have earned raises. Both are leaders. Just as Burrow said of Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins in 2024, Turner and Hill are players you don't want to be in the habit of letting walk out of Paycor Stadium. Extending them now will probably equate to a savings versus trying to to keep them around after 2026 (which is what happened with Chase and Higgins this past offseason).
Extend running back Chase Brown 's contract
Chase Brown, who on Jan. 4 surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing threshold, grew into a versatile weapon for the Bengals in the second half of the season as he's been a dual-threat as a pass-catcher and a running back. And like other players discussed here, he's a player that would be cheaper to put on an extension this offseason than in a year from now.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The Bengals can address what went wrong in 2025. Here's how
