Defensive Line Debuts<\/p>\n
Among the most notable areas of improvement on the Bengals’ roster this offseason was the defensive line, where Cincinnati added talented pieces via free agency, the draft and a headline trade. The team rebuilt its front to generate consistent pressure without blitzing, and Sunday provides the first test of whether that investment will pay off.<\/p>\n
Both head coach Zac Taylor<\/a> and defensive coordinator Al Golden<\/a> have stressed the importance of deploying “waves” of fresh pass rushers throughout the course of a game.<\/p>\n “I think that’s critical,” Taylor said. “As a play caller, the first thing I look at is who we’re facing up front \u2014 first and foremost. I feel like if that’s a deep group that continues to come at you, that makes it challenging to see sometimes beyond the back seven. I feel like we’ve got that group right now.”<\/p>\n The newly acquired defensive linemen making their regular-season debut in stripes include nose tackle Dexter Lawrence II<\/a>, who came to Cincinnati in a trade with the Giants and now enters his eighth NFL season. A three-time Pro Bowler, Lawrence was double-teamed on 55.8 percent of his pass rush snaps last season, the second-highest rate among all players according to Next Gen Stats (minimum 100 pass rush snaps).<\/p>\n In free agency, the Bengals signed 10th-year tackle Jonathan Allen<\/a>, who has 45.5 career sacks and 67 tackles for loss, and edge rusher Boye Mafe<\/a>, who helped Seattle win the Super Bowl in February. Cincinnati then added another dynamic defensive end during the draft when it selected Cashius Howell<\/a> out of Texas A&M in the second round. Howell totaled 11.5 sacks last season with the Aggies, earning SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defensive Line Debuts Among the most notable areas of improvement on the Bengals’ roster this offseason was the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[42386,45454,7874,8943,43990,135,131281,137,136],"class_list":["post-398209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-42386","tag-centerpiece","tag-game-preview","tag-latest-news","tag-latest-stories","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers-at-cincinnati-bengals-2026-reg-1","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}