The Bengals Have More Talent Than The NFL Thinks
John Sheeran breaks down ESPN's latest top-10 NFL position rankings, where Ja'Marr Chase earned the top spot among wide receivers, Joe Burrow was ranked as the league's No. 4 quarterback, and Dexter Lawrence came in at No. 7 among defensive tackles. John explains which rankings make sense, which Bengals stars may have been underrated, and why Cincinnati's roster could be stronger than the national perception suggests heading into the 2026 season.
Video Transcript
Who are the best players on the Cincinnati Bengals roster?
Let's go ahead and see what dozens of people who work within the NFL think.
I'm John Shearon of A to Z Sports Cincinnati.
This is A to Z Sports Cincinnati, covering your Cincinnati Bengals throughout the 2026 off-season.
One of the traditions around the league this time of year is when ESPN unveils its top 10 position rankings for all major positions in the NFL by polling over 70 executives, coaches, and scouts within the league.
It's an interesting exercise as we go through what is deemed to be ranking season, just giving a layout of what the league looks like entering a new season.
And this way, I think has a lot of weight and validity as, obviously, they're asking the people who are employing these players, who are coaching them, who are scouting them, who should know them best more than analysts and maybe even the players themselves.
There certainly isn't a perfect way to do this, but I do think that these are the most qualified people because these are the people who should know more about these players than anybody else.
And from a Bengals perspective, this gives us a chance to see how the rest of the NFL views the Bengals roster, because there are teams in which they have, you know, six, seven, eight, even nine players who have made these lists across all these positions.
I believe the Lions lead the league with nine players across these position lists.
The Bengals did not quite get nine.
They did get three that made a top 10 list in their respective position, and they had a little bit more than that in terms of players who also received votes but didn't even become honorable mentions.
But still, receiving any vote at all means that there is someone within the league that views that player for the Bengals as a top 10 player at their position.
These are the best players on the Bengals roster according to the people actually within the NFL.
And for a little bit of a twist, I'm gonna give my reactions to these rankings and determine if I would've ranked them either higher or lower in their respective list.
I'll admit, I was a little bit surprised that the NFL still considers Ja'Marr Chase to be the number one receiver so unanimously, or not unanimously, but by a wide margin.
I figured that Jackson Smith-Njigba was going to really close that gap after he just came off of his Offensive Player of the Year type season.
He obviously won the Super Bowl with the Seahawks, and he outproduced Chase in some ways.
But even with Ja'Marr Chase playing with the likes of Jake Browning and then Joe Flacco for about six weeks, half the year he spent, you know, catching passes from Bengals backup quarterbacks, and he still had a really productive year, which I think left a mark on a lot of people within the NFL.
Obviously, la- this time last year, he was coming off of his Triple Crown season.
There was no debate at all about who the best receiver in the NFL was, and I think the debate was gonna open up a little bit this year.
But turns out, the majority of voters ranked Ja'Marr Chase as the still the top dog at the wide receiver position.
As far as where I would have Chase, I do think the one spot is fair and accurate.
I think that he's still the most dominant receiver with the ball in his hands.
He is a threat to score a touchdown every time he touches the ball.
His ability as a route runner has only increased since he got into the league.
His combination of speed and strength at his size, I think is still underrated according to most people who watch the game.
His hands are not an issue.
His instincts have improved.
He is the best all-around wide receiver, even if he doesn't completely dominate every single stat every single year.
Any valid quarterback ranking is going to have Joe Burrow within the top five.
Where he is in your top five is completely up to your preference on what makes a good quarterback a good quarterback, but there is no argument that there are only a handful of quarterbacks who are better in terms of overall skill set than Joe Burrow.
I understand why Josh Allen is considered the best quarterback in the NFL right now.
His ability to stay durable despite his play style of adding so much value to the Bills offense, both with his arm and his legs, it is very much one of one in today's game.
I understand giving Patrick Mahomes still the benefit of the doubt coming off of an unfortunate season in which he ended with a knee injury, and the fact that his supporting cast has been lackluster in the last handful of years.
I, I understand putting either of those two above Joe Burrow.
There is a clear argument for Joe Burrow to be above every other quarterback aside from them, and there's still a debate to be had over whether or not you prefer Burrow to Allen or Mahomes.
I understand why the majority of people would prefer those other two, but I believe fourth is about right for Burrow coming off of a season in which he missed half the time.
Again, I don't really have a strong preference about where Burrow belongs here.
As long as he's within your top five, I think the reasoning matches the placement.
But would I rather have any one quarterback in the Cincinnati Bengals?
No, I would not.
Last year's defensive tackle rankings for ESPN had Dexter Lawrence taking the top spot, and now he's at number seven.
And I understand that he had a down year in terms of box score stats.
He only had a half sack.
But I still think he is getting more flak than he deserves in that regard.
I understand that the Giants had a really stacked defensive line in which he was in the middle of it, and there was production that was to be had elsewhere across that line, but he was still winning at a really high rate for a pass rushing defensive tackle who was double teamed more than any other defensive tackle in the NFL.
It was also a year in which a lot of new defensive tackles kinda took the stage and really elevated themselves.
I mean, Leonard Williams was atop this list for the Seahawks, man.
Like, he wasn't ever viewed as the top defensive tackle in the NFL until just this past year.
Jeffrey Simmons was a first time All-Pro at the position as well.
But there is something to be said about adding the seventh best defensive tackle in the NFL in an off-season in which you only had to pay him $28 million over the course of one year.
I think it makes sense, at least from my perspective, as to why the Bengals traded the number 10 pick for a player that highly regarded still, despite coming off of a, quote, unquote, "down year."
So I would personally have Lawrence a little bit higher than number seven.
I think the drop-off from number one is too stark in that regard.
Again, I understand the production questions and I understand that he's only getting older, but it is also a position in which players can play into their 30s and still play at a high level.
So I think Dexter Lawrence is better than the seventh best defensive tackle, but this gives him even more motivation to prove himself in 2026 Chase Brown is one of a handful of Bengals that were outside of both the top 10 and honorable mentions at their positions, but Chase Brown did receive votes for being, in some capacity, a top 10 running back.
And I would not have him amongst the top 10 running backs in the NFL, and I think it's hard-pressing to tell if he's, like, top 12 or 14.
I do think above average is a good label for Brown compared to the 31 other starting running backs in this league, but it's also a different dynamic with that because of how often and how prevalent rotations are in backfields across the NFL.
What c- what constitutes as a starter anymore?
Do you have to play all three downs?
Do you have to play a certain amount of snaps in a game?
Do you just have to be out there to start the game, right?
Running the ball still very much matters, but who is your lead tailback matters less and less as we progress in the NFL.
And personally, I don't see an issue with Chase Brown being outside of that top 12 or 14 ranking in terms of, like, the lead tailbacks.
I think he is fine for what this Bengals offense needs him to be, and if he can continue to prove himself in a contract year, the offense should still perform well, especially with better blocking in front of him.
There are 64 starting safeties in the NFL and I do believe that Brian Cook is well above that 32 mark for being above average.
But top 10, I understand the argument of leaving him off there.
He did receive at least some votes to make the list, but he was not included as an honorable mention, so he probably finds himself between that 25 to 16 range.
And again, that's an above average starting safety, and I do believe that is who Brian Cook is, and that's honestly what the Bengals are paying him.
Like, they're making him, I believe, the 11th highest paid or the 12th highest paid safety in the NFL with his three-year, $40 million contract.
The Bengals knew exactly who they were paying for, and they are going to get an above average safety.
A top 10 safety?
Probably not.
Cook doesn't have the production for that, and maybe he does get that production in the Bengals' defense with a rejuvenated defensive line.
He gets more opportunities to make plays on the ball, and that definitely ups your reputation and your perception as a defensive back in the NFL.
But still, a very solid tackler, someone the Bengals are lucky to have.
I think having him as just on the border of a, of an honorable mention for the best safeties in the NFL, that's pretty accurate for who Brian Cook is.
But this is where I start having problems with this, because, yes, there is a ton of wide receiver talent in the NFL, and Tee Higgins, I can understand the argument of leaving him outside of the top 10.
I do think he does have a good argument for being in the top 10, but I can understand leaving him just outside of it.
The fact that he didn't get enough votes to, just to be an honorable mention I think is completely disrespectful.
What more does Tee Higgins have to do in this Bengals offense to get the respect of being the best number two receiver in the NFL, who rivals a lot of the number ones?
I don't know how many people voted for Higgins, but more people should have voted for Higgins.
This is not right.
But the biggest injustice here is DJ Turner not being anywhere in the top 10 quarterbacks.
That he's not even an honorable mention is frankly absurd to me after the season that he just had in which he should have been a Pro Bowler.
And this is my biggest issue, because I understand if you are covering the NFL and you're very new to DJ Turner, and he's putting on his breakout season and the Bengals defense is not very good, I understand omitting him from some of these rankings.
But for those in the NFL who should know the NFL inside and out, that DJ Turner didn't get enough votes just to be an honorable mention, let alone a top 10 cornerback, that he was last year, absolutely absurd.
He should be in the top 10.
He should be, even if he's just either eight or ninth, he should have had that honor this year.
As if I couldn't be more excited about the start of another Bengals season, I'm very elated that all these guys have another chance to really, really elevate their standing amongst the NFL with a good season, with just a season in which the Bengals are back to their winning ways, because that just impacts the perception of these guys so much.
It's great that Ja'Marr Chase and Joe Burrow are still considered dominant for their positions, and it's great that the NFL still has a recognition of who Dexter Lawrence is.
But for the likes of DJ Turner and Tee Higgins, and potentially Brian Cook and Chase Brown, all those guys have even more reasons to dominate in 2026.
