Cincinnati Bengals: Fact or Fiction on the Defensive Line?
John Sheeran takes a closer look at the Bengals' rebuilt defensive front and asks whether fans and analysts may be overrating the team's offseason additions. While newcomers Dexter Lawrence, Boye Mafe, Jonathan Allen, and Cashius Howell have generated plenty of excitement, John examines how they fit alongside returning contributors B.J. Hill, T.J. Slayton, and Myles Murphy-and whether this group is truly ready to transform Cincinnati's defense.
Video Transcript
Are Bengals fans over-hyping Cincinnati's new defensive line, or just not enough people understanding how special this unit can be in 2026?
I'm John Scheeren of A to Z Sports Cincinnati.
This is A to Z Sports Cincinnati, covering your Cincinnati Bengals throughout the 2026 off-season.
And guys, I am so thankful that I only have to say that for another week, because the off-season is about to end with training camp right around the corner.
The off-season is very long.
It has to be for how grueling the sport is when it's actually being played.
But when there is a long period of time between, you know, the end of the regular season, free agency happening, new additions come into the building, and then all for them to eventually take the field in pads for the first time several months after they come to the building, it does lead to discussions about how good or bad the team can be, and we don't have any proof of that happening until, you know, they actually take the field in pads.
The regular season could start tomorrow, and we would know exactly what this offense is going to look like and how they're going to eventually play once the regular season gets rolling.
We know who Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Chase Brown, we know who all those guys are when they're playing at their best.
We've also seen the highs and lows of the Bengals back seven, particularly with their cornerbacks and their linebackers.
Yes, Brian Cook is a new addition at safety, but in general, most of the defense is rather well known with the secondary and the second level.
Cincinnati's defensive line is the section of this roster that is under the most pressure to perform well, considering how much change has happened at that part of the roster and how high expectations are for that part of the roster.
It was the undeniable story of the Bengals off season, and they said it from the jump.
They said how important it was to get this pass rush back on the right track, while also not sacrificing their ability to stop the run in AFC North clashes.
And sure enough, Boye Mafe, Jonathan Allen, Dexter Lawrence, and Cassius Hail have all now joined forces with the likes of Myles Murphy, Shemar Stewart, B.J.
Hill, and T.J. Slayton to form what they hope to be a catalyst for a successful 2026 season.
The Bengals have invested so much in their new defensive line that naturally, expectations are high.
When they put forth such a concerted effort to improve a unit of the team, they put forth so much money and also draft picks and an uncharacteristic and unprecedented trade to reshape and reform the unit, naturally, expectations are gonna be through the roof.
But it turns out not everyone is expecting great things from this defensive line.
In fact, some people are expecting rather bad things from this defensive line.
Warren Sharp of Sharp Football, one of the more well-known football analysts on the internet, he released his NFL defensive line rankings, and when clicking on it, I was expecting the Bengals to be somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Never did I think the Bengals would be ranked 26th in defensive line rankings after all that they did this off season to improve the unit.
Like, after all that they did, they can only say, according to Warren Sharp, that they are better than the Las Vegas Raiders, the New Orleans Saints, the Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons, and the lowly Miami Dolphins.
Like, what?
26th?
That's the best that he thinks that they're gonna be?
I saw this on Twitter and I jokingly said, "Are these rankings from January of 2026, before the Bengals did anything?
How is this accurate in July?"
Because don't get me wrong, last year's unit was bad.
It was Trey Hendrickson, B.J.
Hill, T.J. Slayton, and Myles Murphy leading the way, and Hendrickson missed half the year, so it was also Shemar Stewart and Joseph Ossai picking up the slack.
It was not a very good unit.
But after spending tens of millions of dollars, a new contract extension for Dexter Lawrence, and the 10th overall pick given in exchange for Dexter Lawrence, on top of the second round pick that they drafted Cassius Hail with, the Bengals can only say they have a, still a bottom eight unit?
I don't think so.
Did we crown this defensive line a little bit too early?
Are we too optimistic about what the likes of Lawrence and a 31-year-old Allen can do in their new roles alongside a 31-year-old B.J.
Hill?
Are we too optimistic about Boye Mafe coming in and immediately being a game changer on, on the edge?
I think it's time that we recalibrate with this defensive line and focus on what our realistic expectations are for the season.
Starting with the centerpiece, I do have pretty lofty expectations for Dexter Lawrence, and I think that's fair.
I think he's still one of the very best defensive tackles in the NFL, and I think he might be underrated now that executives, coaches, and scouts told ESPN that he's the seventh best in the position as of right now.
I do think that there is tremendous weight to Lawrence getting, even if he doesn't say it's a fresh start, he is getting a fresh start with the Bengals.
He is getting reinvigorated to really reassert himself as one of the dominant forces in football.
He knows that he has a better chance of winning and doing the things that Leonard Williams and Saquon Barkley have gone to do with better teams after they left the Giants.
I think that matters to him, and I think it's going to show with his play, at least for this year.
I will say if there's been any overrating with this defensive line in the new editions, it probably centers around both Boye Mafe and Jonathan Allen.
Allen is 31 years old.
He's not exactly the Pro Bowl caliber defensive tackle that he was during his heyday with the Commanders, and Mafe has yet to really ascend into that caliber of player.
You only have to look back a year with Allen, like the Minnesota Vikings thought that they were gonna get a high quality player with him, and, you know, they got decent production out of him, but he was a cap casualty this off season.
I don't think the Vikings wanted that to happen.
The Seahawks also had Mafe on their roster for four years, and after his second year when he was a starter for at least half the season, they kind of reverted him back to a role player and favor some other players off the edge.
There is definite projection with both of these guys, the hope that a more reduced role with Allen alongside Hill can better his effectiveness over the course of an entire season.
And with Mafe now being a featured player, obviously he's making $20 million, he better be starting and playing the, the majority of snaps.
The hope is that he finally takes that next step, a lot like what Trey Hendrickson did five years ago.
I at least understand waiting to see how these guys actually perform in their new roles before crowning them as, like, definitive assets of this defense.
But I still think it's reasonable to assume that Mafe will take at least somewhat of a jump in production, and that Allen will benefit from playing next to Hill in a more reduced rotational role.
Where I think people's expectations need to be higher, though, is with Myles Murphy.
I think there's an argument for him already being the best defensive end on this roster right now, before Mafe takes what they hope to be a significant jump.
And if you're a Bengals fan, that may surprise you.
That may even concern you, considering that the sample size at which Murphy has played well isn't very large.
But it was real last year.
That jump that he made in the second half, that was very noticeable.
And at just 24 years old, with the athleticism that he's had for his entire career, I don't see it going away.
I don't see it stopping.
Hendrickson and Ossai are gone.
There's no one stopping him from making that progression as a full-time starter.
And especially if the Bengals don't get an extension with him and he's playing on a contract year, yeah, I imagine he's gonna be pretty motivated to keep doing what he did in 2025.
And don't forget about this guy.
Cassius Hal, in my opinion, is one of the three best defensive ends or edge rushers on this roster already.
I think he's ready to play right now more than Shamar Stewart.
Hal won't start, and neither will T.J. Slayton in nose tackle.
But the fact that T.J. Slayton is your fourth defensive tackle on the roster, that is a luxury that not every team can boast.
There is projection when you're looking at the Bengals unit, but there's projection when you're looking at every unit that's made significant changes.
And it just feels like with this ranking specifically, the Bengals are not getting that benefit of the doubt, when in reality, Dexter Lawrence is a well-known high-level player, and Myles Murphy did make significant progressions with this defensive line, with a worse iteration of the defensive line last year.
Hill and Slayton are solid players, and they are now going to be in smaller roles because of other good players from other teams joining forces with them.
I think it's somewhat valid to have a concern about the age of some of these guys, but if there's going to be a part of your roster that is a little bit up there into the 30s, defensive line, defensive tackle specifically, is definitely one of those positions that you can feel comfortable with that aspect of it.
So even taking a step back and just trying to rationalize expectations for these guys, 26 still feels very low.
I think if you have the Bengals anywhere between 10 to 20, I could find value in that argument.
Because at the end of the day, there's still a lot of good defensive linemen in, in the NFL, and there's still a lot of better defensive lines in the NFL compared to the Cincinnati Bengals.
If these guys all work together in harmony and are all playing at their peak level, then yeah, this is probably a top 10 unit.
But not everything is going to go according to plan, the depth is gonna be tested, and yeah, maybe some guys won't be as good as we hope that they are.
If nothing else, we all know how Bengals training camp usually unfolds.
The defense is gonna look very dominant early on and probably closer to the regular season beginning as well.
We're gonna see a lot of flashes from these guys when they're gonna be putting on pads for the first time and getting into the backfield.
Hopefully not actually touching Joe Burrow and Joe Flacco, but we're gonna see some flashes nonetheless.
And if they can carry that success in August into September, October, November, December, they're gonna be ranked a lot higher than 26 in Warren Sharp's end of season defensive line rankings for sure
