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After the preseason concluded, the Cincinnati Bengals must now make the necessary cuts to lower their roster to 53 players.
The team's front office must decide which players warrant a spot on a team with postseason aspirations, and which players the team can be comfortable moving on from.
Unfortunately, contract and former draft pick status can get in the way of these decisions as they are not always made based on their performances. However, that did not appear to be a factor for the Cincinnati Bengals, as they announced they had released a former third-round pick who failed to impress this offseason.
NFL insider Ian Rapoport posted on X : "The #Bengals are releasing DT McKinnley Jackson, source said. He had drawn some trade interest over the last few weeks."
After being drafted in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft, Jackson appeared in 22 regular season games while making only one start with the Cincinnati Bengals. The defensive lineman failed to register a sack in the 2025 season and made only seven tackles. Despite this, he received an above-average 62.1 grade from Pro Football Focus, primarily due to his strong work in run defense.
Additionally, Jackson requested a trade or release during the 2025 season as his playing time had decreased from his rookie season. Cincinnati opted to keep the defender in 2025, but after Jackson failed to impress in this preseason and offseason training program, the team decided to move on.
Despite his status as a third-round pick, Jackson was viewed as a reach during the 2024 NFL Draft. NFL.com 's Lance Zierlein originally projected him as a sixth-round pick and gave him a grade that resembled a player who could become an average backup or special teamer.
Zierlein wrote of Jackson: "Squatty interior defender who felt somewhat miscast as a 0-technique nose over the center. Jackson is explosive off the snap with the ability to get into blockers quickly or to attack their edges as a penetrator. He tends to ride on blocks once they land squarely and needs to develop his hands for better counters as both a run defender and a rusher. Jackson plays with good strength, but he's more gradual than twitchy in his battles. He might be more consistently effective at a lighter weight and as a rotational nose in a one-gapping even front."
Instead, Cincinnati opted to go with defensive lineman Landon Robinson, who was selected in the seventh round of this year's draft, for that roster spot.
Unlike Jackson, Robinson impressed in training camp. Regarding the team's decision to keep Robinson, SBNation's Jason Marcum wrote: "Robinson is coming off a fantastic preseason in which he led the NFL in sacks and QB pressures. However, he was facing an uphill climb to make the roster with so many quality defensive linemen on the roster.
Many thought this would be an easy decision with the rookie seventh-round pick, and Robinson really did leave the Bengals no choice but to keep him on the Week 1 roster.
Now, Robinson will look to provide a much-needed pass-rushing boost to the Bengals defense when the games really begin in Week 1 vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ."
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