INDIANAPOLIS — Anyone who was vaguely paying attention last season knows 2025 was not a banner year for the Bengals on defense.
The numbers have been beaten into the ground. From an analytics standpoint and a technique perspective, not much played out the way the Bengals wanted it to for the first 10 games.
They finished ranked 31st in total yards allowed (380.9/game), 32 in rushing yards allowed (147.1), yards per play (6.18) and 31st in rushing yards per play (5.22) and 30th in points allowed (28.9), though that stat was skewed by six pick-6s and a scoop-and-score. In total, the Bengals offense allowed seven touchdowns this past season.
Still, there were plenty of moments before the bottom fell out against the Jets and Bears, where the defense had a chance to make a stand and didn’t. That needs to be fixed this season. The first-year architect of that unit – Al Golden – didn’t pull any punches Wednesday in acknowledging that.
“I’ve got to do a better job. It starts with me. As a staff, we got to look at those, each one of those circumstances, individually. And there’s no stone unturned. Again, for me, I went to work the day after the last game. Looking at everything fundamentally, what do we need to improve on? Like, little things like, we’re not batting enough balls, not betting enough balls, like, at the end of the day, like, if you bet more balls, good things happen. Interceptions happen. You win more third downs. Just little things like that that that could be impactful. But yeah, so more closers. So again, if we’re going to blitz, let’s get home again, if we got one on ones, let’s win the one on ones, all of those things and again, I got to put the guys in the right position to win those games.”
This means closing out games with pressure and being able to get to the quarterbacks with the front four. A big part of that is occasionally running stunts and twists with your defensive linemen, something the Bengals were not able to do in ’25. With the possibility of a Peter Woods (Clemson) available to add to the defensive line, the Bengals are on a mission to be better – much better – in the middle of the line.
“We have to build. This was the least amount of pressure that I’ve had in forever, by a long margin, the least amount of line stunts,” Golden told me. “We made a lot of progress with that, and a lot of it was Barrett and D-Knight settling in and being able to call some of those on the field. Because it’s hard to call line stunts just as a pre- snap call. It really is, because you’re calling it in your mind, you’re envisioning one thing, but if the Y’s off and the tailback’s over there, well, you know what? That’s not a great stunt against it. So those need to be called on the grass.
“And I think we made a lot of progress at the end of last year with that. Those guys settled in nicely for us. And again, that’s my fault. We asked them to do more than we should have early on. Those guys responded, and we made progress there. And hopefully, there’s a nice starting point for us, but we have to have a good offseason. We need everybody here and focused in, and, we need to be really clean and sharp coming out of June.”
That means Kris Jenkins Jr., BJ Hill, TJ Slaton and McKinnley Jackson all need to take a big step forward or compete with whomever the Bengals target in free agency and the draft. The middle of the Bengals defensive line simply needs to be something it hasn’t been for the last several years – a game-wrecking force.
“We’ve got to continue to improve,” Golden said. “Obviously, we love BJ, and BJ went through a lot last year. Missing the offseason, missing most of the training camp, really fought through some things. I know he had something fixed after the season. So excited to get him back healthy. T.J. was a good acquisition. Jenks improved. We’ve got to continue to build that group. You’ve got to play a lot of guys in there. In the AFC North, we’re playing a lot more bigger base packages. Sometimes I look back and I laugh, because the mind’s eye is so important, and when you look at it from the linebacker standpoint. But Demetrius and Barrett didn’t really play two-back systems in college. They didn’t play any two-back, you know? We’ve got to build those types of things into the offseason program, and that’s what I’m going through now. How do we get more of that so they’re comfortable? But as it relates to the D-line, you need layers of it. You need layers of guys. You need middle push on third down. You need three techniques that can win on third down in a one-on-one, all of those things. We’re looking to improve every position in the defensive lines.”
The Super Bowl featured two defensive fronts that were anchored by massive defensive tackles and game-changers in the middle. Seattle built through the draft and trades. New England went out and signed Milton Williams away from the Super Bowl LIX champion Eagles to anchor their line and teamed him with Christian Barmore. In a word, both the Seahawks and Patriots were STOUT in the middle of the D-line. How does Golden define that quality?
“I think strength, explosion, get-off, the ability to block- destruct, how well you get off blocks, how well you can win one-on-ones if you are light box. What I mean by light boxes, either you’re playing middle field open, or you’re allocating someone to double someone so that you’re taking away a go-to guy on the back end. The more that your defensive line can do that, obviously, the more options that you have in coverage,” Golden explained.
The Golden schemes increased in the second half of 2025 and it paid off in much better pressure, coverage and tackling due to players not being completely out of position. In short, the rookie linebackers – Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr. – were more comfortable on the field.
“My biggest thing is consistency. These guys are grown men,” Golden said. “Just be honest and at least try to relate to the best of each one of them, their best version and they responded. There was a little bit of a leadership vacuum. Trey wasn’t there and Logan was in Dallas, so a lot of guys stepped up at that bye week, that break. There was a changing of the guard if you will. It started with those guys in the locker room and the will to get better. To do that you have to be honest, starting with me. What do we need to do better? What is the direction we have to go. Just the growth of the linebackers and all that started to come to fruition shortly after that.”
Then there’s safety Jordan Battle, the third round pick of 2023 and a player the Bengals still hold in very, very high regard because of his communication and leadership on the field. He had his mistakes like the whiff on Coleston Loveland of the Bears that cost the Bengals a key game at home before the bye. He was third in the NFL in missed tackles with 21. But he also had a very positive impact on the defense according to Golden, specifically in his leadership and the way he put players in position.
“Yeah, I mean again for me, Jordan really came on as a box safety, as a guy that can play near the box, and then there was a lot of times we had him in the post or playing quarters,” Golden said. “His communication was great. So again, ideally, maybe someone that, as you as we just mentioned, maybe someone that can go into the slot and cover a little bit more, or feel better about certain matchups or whatever, or somebody that just really complements Jordan’s skills, and maybe not somebody that’s exactly like him. And if we can do that, obviously, I think we’ll improve our defense.”
When Golden meets with Zac Taylor and Duke Tobin about rebuilding the defense this offseason, he has an idea now of what will complement his corners DJ Turner and Dax Hill, his safety Jordan Battle, his two defensive ends in Myles Murphy and Shemar Stewart, his linebackers Carter and Knight and his tackles. This offseason is about adding impact and intellect.
“Absolutely, football guys, do they love football? It’s really, really important,” Golden said. “The football intelligence piece is really important. Sometimes, as coaches, we like to hear ourselves talk. And the reality of it is, I love being in the back of that meeting and listening to them. I want to know who can riff, and I use the word riff because that’s what it reminds me of, like who does not have a canned answer that they’ve been working for a month, and who can just go up there and riff whatever direction the conversation goes? Do they, you know, have the confidence to just sit there and talk about what’s on the screen? This is the formation. This is my pre-snap awareness. I’m alerting to this. This was my call. These are the options we also could have done this. This is the coverage that we played.
“But if, if this guy went in motion, we could have done that. So the more guys that you get that talk ball, and that’s what I love about Jordan battle. I keep coming back to him, but, man, I walk in, I walk in the meeting room, and Jordan’s got all these questions. He’s answering every question. He brings energy, like he’s, like, I’ve said to you guys before, like, those are the guys that make me want to get up, and – we don’t have our Starbucks anymore – but I’ll go find a Starbucks that’s that’s open because of guys like that, Barrett Carter and D-Knight and guys like that, like DJ (Turner), just guys that raise the energy of the room, and they’re force multipliers and they’re culture makers. And I know that’s a long way to answer, but that’s my answer.”
If the Bengals get the defensive rebuild right, maybe that unit can finally start to complement the high-powered offense for 17 games instead of just eight or nine.
“Yeah, I think again. I love where we’re at attacking this offseason and that won’t (change),” Golden said. “That statement you just made won’t change. And we have to rise to that standard. We have to continue to improve, do whatever we can to support those guys and be good enough to finish a game, to win a game. And that’s going to take the collective it’s not going to just be one guy in free agency or one guy in the draft, to be honest with you. So it’s going to be the confluence of the scheme, the leadership, the pieces we add in this offseason, combined with the guys who made a lot of progress at the end of last year and are coming into this offseason with a lot of, like I said, a lot of energy, a lot of synergy and a lot of confidence.”
