The Bengals Just Made Some SHOCKING Roster Decisions...

After finishing the preseason 3-0, Cincinnati has officially trimmed its roster to 53 players. Now, John Sheeran takes a position-by-position look at the Bengals' final roster and breaks down the biggest surprises, toughest decisions and players who were left off the team.

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Video Transcript

Just like that, the Cincinnati Bengals are down to 53 players on their roster, as week one is now under two weeks away.

I'm John Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati.

This is A to Z Sports Cincinnati, covering your Cincinnati Bengals, now at the official conclusion of the 2026 off-season.

Guys, we are down to 53 players for the Cincinnati Bengals.

They officially waived 29 players.

They released four vested veterans.

If you don't know what that means, it's essentially any player that was on the Bengals roster with at least four accrued seasons gets to immediately enter free agency and sign with any team that they desire, and 29 players are now set to enter waivers for the next, I think, something like 20 hours or so.

They will clear waivers if they are not claimed by a team tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 PM Eastern, and that is when teams can officially start, creating and forming their practice squads.

That's really the next step for the Bengals and every other team in the NFL right now, figuring out who is gonna be on their 16-man practice squad.

But right now, the Bengals are set with their 53 players on the roster, including two players that are on the roster but are still technically part of the team.

They will start the season off on injured reserve, and we're gonna get to all of that here.

So let's go ahead and share our screen here and break down what the Bengals roster now looks like when go- going from each and every position.

So Wow, that is not the camera that I want.

That's better.

All right.

So going off of what our projection was, our, our official prediction was at the end of the pre-season, it was fairly correct.

You know, they had two quarterbacks in Joe Flacco and Joe Burrow, obviously.

Josh Johnson ends up getting released.

Sean Clifford gets waived.

I imagine one of them comes back to the practice squad.

Three running backs, as expected.

Taj Brooks, keeps RB3 in that role.

Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Andre Osikwa, Colby Young, and Dante Myers, all at receiver.

The first big surprise here is KeShawn Williams taking over for Charlie Jones.

Never cease to be amazed- We have that in the fully redesigned Lexus ES.

Yeah, let's go ahead and just end that.

Okay.

But I, I did wanna get to some of these, these key takeaways here, and we're gonna start actually with Charlie Jones and KeShawn Williams because this was actually pretty surprising to me.

I expected Charlie Jones to win this battle as he got the majority of punt return snaps in the final pre-season game.

Maybe that was an indication of giving Charlie Jones a chance to earn a spot with another team and basically use the last pre-season game as a tryout.

Maybe this decision had already been made before, the end of the pre-season actually arrived, and that was how they wanted it to go down.

But I think KeShawn Williams has been right next to Charlie Jones throughout the, the pre-season and training camp in terms of the punt return and kickoff return battle, and this was a decision of basically keeping, in their mind, the best returner, maybe someone that gives them a little bit more value as a receiver.

As we all know, Charlie Jones hasn't really done that much as a receiver for the Bengals in his four years on, on the team, or at least almost four years.

KeShawn Williams was added last year late in the season when Charlie Jones was hurt, and he did really well as a kickoff returner and a punt returner.

And I think when he's been in practice and pre-season, mainly lining up as a slot receiver, he's provided value there on offense.

So if they feel like, you know, they, that, this gives them another option behind Andre Osikwa, potentially adding into the rotation, along with Colby Young and no more Mitchell Tinsley, as Tinsley ends up being the odd man out with Dante Myers being kept around at wide receiver.

That is something that, you know, was going to be interesting to watch develop a- you know, entering final cuts and entering the last week of the pre-season.

And again, like, I kind of expected, based off of just how, the pre-season ended, for the Bengals, that, that Charlie Jones ends up taking the spot, but he, he does not.

And now he will enter waivers, and KeShawn Williams is gonna be the new kickoff returner, primary kickoff returner and punt returner for the Bengals.

And I would imagine that Dante Myers probably has value as a backup in that regard, but this was my first really big surprise here.

And I, and I, just as I kind of expected, Mitchell Tinsley ends up being really the most talented player that the Bengals end up cutting because the, the, the guy who ends up staying on the roster that I didn't expect to stay was Jacob Baer.

And I, I want it to be known that Jacob Baer definitely deserved to make this roster because of how he, how well he played in the pre-season.

You know, he starts training camp as the backup center behind Ted Karras because Connor Lue, while he's healthy enough to practice, you know, they wanted to k- you know, slowly bring him on as he was coming back from his torn ACL.

He doesn't play in the first pre-season game, Lue doesn't.

So Jacob Baer ends up being the second team center, and he looks really good.

And for the next two weeks of the pre-season, again, like both at center and at both guard spots, he's filling in really nicely.

And the Bengals definitely value that versatility for all three interior spots.

And I think now that he's on the roster because Brian Parker unfortunately is on injured reserve to start the season.

He looked like he injured his leg in the final pre-season game.

He was a This is, it's essentially why Jalen Rivers ended up finishing the game at right guard and, or after he was in- initially at left tackle or right tackle during the game.

So that, that's kinda how that ended up going down.

Jacob Baer now, who was I think on the cusp of missing the roster just because of a numbers game and- Them not being able to keep 10 offensive linemen, he's now staying on the roster for at least the next four weeks, and he deserves to be here.

He's definitely one of the Bengals' nine best offensive linemen.

I think he's probably one of the best eight, to be honest.

I think he's better than Jalen Rivers is, and, you know, Rivers was a draft pick, and J- Jen, Jacob Bayer was an undrafted guy who would join the team in the middle of the, of last season on the practice squad.

So a great off-season for Bayer.

We don't, we didn't really talk about him earlier in the off-season like we kinda did with Dante Myers and other guys like that.

But he, I think, has really earned his spot, and I think that he should stick around even after, Brian Parker comes back from injury.

We don't know how long P- Parker is going to be out, w- with his whatever leg injury that he has, but at least for the start of the season, Jacob Bayer is gonna be one of these key backups on the offensive line.

And I think that's good because, again, like, if you're still trying to ease Connor Lue into more snaps, more opportunities, this gives you a, a backup center that you may be more confident in just because he's more physically ready to take that on.

But luckily, you know, the Bengals have not had any issues in terms of Ted Karras's health and knock on wood that that remains to be the case.

Like I mentioned, Brian Parker is gonna start the s- the season on injured reserve, along with backup nickelback, Jahshea Taylor.

And Jahshea Taylor is the reason why Josh Newton is actually on the 53-man roster.

And I did not expect Josh Newton to make the team, and I do not think that he would've made the team had Jahshea Taylor been healthy exiting the preseason.

But it sounds like, according to s- to some reports, that Jahshea Taylor has a hamstring injury and, you know, that could be something that drags on for several weeks, or it could just be something that they need to give him a handful of weeks of rest in.

I think because Josh Newton played well in the final two weeks of the preseason, he's practiced well sparingly in training camp as well, I think that gives him an advantage and some momentum.

I thought that he was gonna be cut just because they weren't, they weren't able to keep more than six cornerbacks, and obviously you have to keep Dakario Davis, who played out of his mind in the final preseason game.

They like DJ Ivy enough as both a special teamer and one of the first cornerbacks off the bench.

So it was really hard to see Newton fit in here because there was just six cornerbacks ahead of him, including J- Jahshea Taylor.

But with Jahshea Taylor hurt, this gives Newton at least four weeks, I would imagine, of being on the roster, probably not even active on game days.

It was gonna be tough to have six cornerbacks active anyways, but, I- I- I could see just, Josh Newton active on some weeks ag- against some teams that really like to air it out and maybe a- against some teams he'll be inactive.

But should still provide some value on special teams as well, and g- g- good for Newton, right?

Like, he's a great story, you know, and I, I don't think he's good enough to start for this team anymore, but I did think that, that in, like, a different reality, he could still be a backup on this team, and that's gonna be the case at least for the start of the month.

And like I said, Mitchell Tinsley, I believe, is pr- pretty much the best player that they ended up waiving at the conclusion of this preseason.

He didn't really make that much of an impact in any preseason game, aside from this past one in which he had a 31-yard catch down the sideline.

He ended up fumbling that right after the catch was made.

But it just wasn't the same as, you know, when he first ascended up the depth chart last off-season, and he was last off-season's Dante Myers, right?

You remember Mitchell Tinsley was added last February on, like, a, like, the cheapest NFL contract that you could possibly sign.

He was a no-name guy throughout mini camp and at the start of training camp.

And just like Dante Myers, you know, he, he, you continue to make plays against the third stringers on defense.

You get more and more opportunities.

You look the same against better competition, and you prove that on the preseason field.

And that's what Mitchell Tinsley did last off-season.

That's what he did, you know, leading up to the regular season.

It's even what he did during the regular season.

It's N- there are not a lot of receivers that beat Christian Gonzalez in one-on-one coverage and score a touchdown, but that's exactly what Mitchell Tinsley did in a regular season game last year.

So Tinsley is definitely good enough to make an NFL roster somewhere.

It's just not gonna be with the Cincinnati Bengals.

I imagine they will be desperate to get him back on the practice squad because he is still, in my opinion, one of their six best overall receivers.

But unfortunately, with the value that KeShon Williams provides as a kickoff returner, the, the fact that you have to keep Dante Myers after, after the off-season that he had, it's again, just one of these numbers games in which there's just not enough room.

There was room, however, for six tight ends, or excuse me, six defensive tackles, including both Landon Robinson and Chris Jenkins.

I thought Chris Jenkins was going to be this, you know, trade piece possibility the Bengals could dangle for other teams for a backup offensive tackle.

But it seems like they are going forward with Jeffean Foster in that role, and Chris Jenkins will be am- amongst this defensive tackle, th- this defensive tackle group, along with Landon Robinson, the seventh round pick that proved to be undeniable in preseason.

You definitely should not have waived Landon Robinson, and he's going to stick around, along with fellow seventh round pick, Jack Andrews, as the, the Bengals' tight end room is gonna be five deep.

The position that is the lightest right now is gonna be at linebacker, and the fourth linebacker, the last linebacker reserved to make this team, is Swayze Bozeman.

A shout out to Swayze Bozeman, who w- we also didn't really talk about at the beginning of training camp, but he was the only NFL player at the linebacker position that the Bengals added from another team this off-season.

He was claimed off of waivers back in May when they were still signing draft picks.

He most recently played for the New York Giants, but he had a really impressive preseason.

And because of the structure of this defense and what the scheme is going to be, it's gonna be a 3-4 defense with only two off-ball linebackers on the field.

Basically, at all times, whether they're in their base 3-4 or they're in, they're in nickel, they're only gonna count on two linebackers on the field, two off-ball linebackers on the field.

So you have two guys behind them as special teamers.

One of them's gonna be Oren Burks, who's just relied, who is going to be relied for that role.

And Swayze Bozeman's gonna be his backup essentially.

He's gonna be, th- the backup to either Demetrius Snyder, Barrett Carter, and Oren Burks is gonna back up the other one.

So that's all they really need on the depth chart.

And they can have multiple linebackers on the practice squad, and they can elevate, a- any one of them if necessary, if depth gets light there.

But because of what this defense is now going to be, in which they need to be heavy a- along the d- the defensive line, where they're going in some of these five-man fronts for most of the game, and having basically a backup to every single defensive tackle now, when you have Robinson, Jenkins backing up th- the three techniques in John Allen and BJ Hill, and then you have TJ Slayton backing up Dexter Lawrence, this is exactly what the Bengals envisioned with their defensive line.

And the result of that is going really light in the arguably the weakest position on the roster, depending on any potential growth that both D- Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter end up taking.

So that's gonna be it for this Bengals 53-man roster, man.

Like, it was an uneventful cut down day, I think.

There wasn't any big surprises there.

It was just a matter of are they actually going to be light at linebacker and carry, you know, five tight ends, 11 defensive linemen.

It's unconventional for a lot of teams, but specifically for the Bengals and the scheme that they run on defense, I think it was necessary to go heavy at defensive line, especially with both Jenkins and Robinson proving that they still belong on the roster.

And you definitely wanna keep Jack Andrews around as a developmental piece.

And you want an extra tight end just because Mike Eseke re- isn't really a tight end.

He's just a tight end in name only.

He is their starting slot receiver, and he's going to receive more targets than any other receiver on the Bengals roster aside from Tee Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase.

But did the Bengals screw up in your opinion?

Was there a player that they cut that you think should still be on the team right now?

And there, are there any moves that you wanna see the Bengals make now that the 53-man roster is settled?

Let me know down in the comments below.

We'll talk to you guys soon.

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