{"id":810191,"date":"2026-07-19T12:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/810191\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T12:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:50:48","slug":"bengals-front-seven-gets-ranked-near-the-bottom-of-the-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/810191\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals\u2019 front seven gets ranked near the bottom of the NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Cincinnati Bengals went to work on fixing one of the NFL\u2019s worst defenses from last season. They made a number of moves, but according to one analyst, it was nowhere near enough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Warren Sharp from Sharp Football Analysis has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/analysis\/best-nfl-front-seven-rankings\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ranked Cincinnati\u2019s front seven 26th in the NFL<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">The Bengals overhauled their struggling front seven, but it\u2019s hard to imagine the pass-rush unit drastically improving after the loss of Trey Hendrickson. Last season, Cincy generated pressure in 2.5 seconds or less on just 15% of opponent dropbacks, ranked 31st.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The addition everyone knows is their trade for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence from the New York Giants. But that wasn\u2019t the only move the team made to improve that area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Bengals also signed pass rusher Boye Mafe, who was one of the top available players at his position as well. He generated 40 pressures last season in a rotational role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">They also landed Jonathan Allen to help the interior defense as well. He can add some help getting to the quarterback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The linebackers definitely needed a reliable veteran added to the group. Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter had really rough rookie years. They were also surrounded by one of the worst defensive units in the NFL. Still, that would definitely keep them from being too high on this list.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Speaking of the list, though. There are quite a few issues that need to be pointed out that are directly tied to the Bengals. Truly, if all the Bengals did was lose Hendrickson and add Lawrence, there wouldn\u2019t have been too much movement up, but there should have been at least a minor boost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">When you look at <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/1947315534799712323\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sharp\u2019s 2025 rankings for front sevens<\/a>, you will find something strange. Cincinnati was ranked 26th last year as well. But Sharp also mentioned two names in his analysis, Lawrence and Henderickson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">So, how did those players impact the rank of their former and new teams?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Well, the Giants fell 14 spots from No. 4 to No. 18. Somehow, the loss of Lawrence is worth absolutely tanking a unit, but adding him means nothing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Although the Bengals lost Hendrickson, obviously, he must have also had a huge impact, right? Well, maybe too much of an impact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Sharp ranks the Baltimore Ravens as the 10th best in the NFL. He even notes the defensive line was at or near the bottom of the NFL last year. Somehow, adding Hendrickson, Calais Campbell, and Zion Young makes it a top 10 unit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Hendrickson also isn\u2019t going to be very helpful in improving that running defense. He is still a fantastic pass rusher, but anyone watching Bengals games knew the offensive plan included running right at him. And unfortunately, with his age, he likely won\u2019t be getting better in that area. So, somehow saying the Lawrence move is equal to the Hendrickson one just seems silly and disingenuous.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">There is plenty of uncertainty surrounding this Bengals defensive unit, but it is really hard to make this math work out for everyone except Cincinnati.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cincinnati Bengals went to work on fixing one of the NFL\u2019s worst defenses from last season. They&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,337485,593,85],"class_list":["post-810191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cincinnati-bengals-analysis","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}