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Cincinnati Bengals 2025 NFL Season Preview and Picks: Has Enough Been Done with the Defense to Save Zac Taylor’s Job?

Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar28/07/2025 - 12:31 pm
CINCINNATI, OH - SEPTEMBER 17: Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) is introduced before the game against the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals on September 17, 2023, at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, OH.
(Photo by Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

It is 2025, and the Cincinnati Bengals are still getting some mileage out of those back-to-back appearances in the AFC Championship Game in 2021-22. While the Bengals still seek their first NFL championship, the reality is this team is flirting with becoming old news and passed by other contenders, especially if they were to miss the playoffs for a third-straight year.

That’s why the 2025 season is a crucial one for head coach Zac Taylor. We cannot say definitively he’ll lose his job if he misses the playoffs again, because after all, this is a franchise that employed Marvin Lewis for 16 seasons with his 0-7 playoff record.

But everything from the Bengals’ way of doing business to Taylor’s coaching shortcomings should be under the microscope in this pivotal season. The Bengals blamed their defense for last year’s 9-8 season that was one game behind a final wild-card berth, and their biggest move was to fire defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, who was key to their success during those 2021-22 playoff runs.

That just puts more pressure on Taylor and the offense to deliver in 2025. In fact, one could argue the team should have already fired Taylor after missing the playoffs again. Let’s not forget the original post about the Five-Year Rule was about the Bengals letting go of Marvin Smith after the 2017 season.

The Five-Year Rule is that no team has ever won its first Super Bowl by starting the same quarterback for the same coach for more than five seasons. It’s actually true for every NFL champion going back to 1950, and you’d have to go back to the 1948 Eagles (coach Greasy Neale and quarterback Tommy Thompson joined the team in 1941) to find a duo who broke the mold, and that occurrence was impacted by World War II (Thompson served for two years in the army) and the lack of a true postseason system.

Taylor and Joe Burrow just finished Year 5 together, so they’ll have to try breaking that trend that’s lasted through 59 Super Bowls. Frankly, this a wide-scale AFC problem right now as everyone is trying to topple the Chiefs, and we’ve seen that John Harbaugh-Lamar Jackson (Ravens) and Sean McDermott-Josh Allen (Bills) can’t even get to one Super Bowl after each has had seven years together.

At least the Bengals got past Kansas City once and played in a competitive Super Bowl. But it’s time to stop living in the past with that run and try to make another trip. The Bengals trying to get there with the most expensive wide receiver duo in NFL history is certainly a topic we’ll have to discuss as well as pointing out the real reasons they missed the playoffs again this past year.

Let’s see what the best Bengals bets are for 2025 in a season where they are favored to make the playoffs, but it won’t be easy in a tough AFC North (challenging schedule too) and a deep AFC.

Previously on BENGALS: That’s Green Day, Who Is Supposed to Wake Up When September Ends   

Slow starts have become all too common for the Bengals in this era. Maybe it’s not a coincidence that their Super Bowl season (2021) was the only good first quarter they’ve had under Taylor and Burrow, with a 3-1 start that year.

It’s also not a coincidence that both of their playoff seasons (2021 and 2022) which they won the AFC North, were years in which Lamar Jackson was injured in December while the Ravens were leading the division, and he never played another snap in either season. That was the impetus for why we picked the Ravens to win the AFC North in 2023, which they did while the Bengals missed the playoffs entirely.

That was blamed on a season-ending injury for Burrow, but he was back and healthy for 2024. Ja’Marr Chase was about to get signed to a huge deal to reset the wide receiver market at over $40 million per year, and the Bengals were a trendy playoff pick for 2024.

But while the defense was largely blamed and scapegoated for the 9-8 finish, the truth is this team largely blew its season in the first two games, and both games were fine performances by the defense. Good enough to win each game, but it was the offense that underwhelmed.

The Bengals were the biggest upset loss in Week 1 last year, losing 16-10 as a 7.5-point home favorite to the lowly Patriots, who started Jacoby Brissett at quarterback and finished with a 4-13 record. You’re only going to score 10 points at home against a rookie coach in his debut game?

Then Week 2 was the big showdown in Kansas City, where the defense did a very respectable job, holding Patrick Mahomes to 151 passing yards (lowest full game of his career) and intercepting him twice. But with a fourth-quarter lead, the offense gave it up when Burrow had a strip-sack returned for a touchdown, a cardinal sin in that spot. Chase also had a costly 15-yard flag in the fourth quarter.

CINCINNATI, OHIO - JULY 26: Joe Burrow #9 of the Cincinnati Bengals walks to the field during training camp at Kettering Health Practice Fields on July 26, 2023 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

But the penalty that everyone remembers is the 4th-and-16 pass interference penalty on the Bengals’ defense when it looked like the game could be over on a stop. However, people tend to forget the Bengals just got a call on the Chiefs after they converted the 4th-and-6 into field-goal range, then it was a pretty obvious case of DPI on the 4th-and-16 that set up Kansas City’s game-winning field goal in a 26-25 final.

Just like that the Bengals were 0-2 again. The rest of the season was largely a case of the flaws we’ve come to expect from this team that have been there for all five years in Burrow’s tenure. It all comes back to a struggle to win shootouts and to win the close games, and oftentimes there is overlap there:

  • Burrow has more nicknames than he has wins in games where the Bengals allow more than 27 points as he’s just 2-16 in such games.
  • Burrow is 6-18 (.250) at fourth-quarter comeback opportunities, or games where he has the ball with a one-score deficit in the fourth quarter or overtime. That’s a below-average win rate.
  • Burrow has won one game in his NFL career (2022 Saints) where the Bengals trailed in the final 8:00. Andy Dalton had 10 such wins for the Bengals in 2011-15.

For a team that is trying to win through its quarterback and offense, you can’t lose every shootout you get involved in. You have to pull your weight at least once.

The Bengals fell to 0-3 after losing a 38-33 game to Washington, where Jayden Daniels had his coming-out party on national TV. But they also never led that game after the opening drive for a touchdown.

The two games against Baltimore were basically the same script, with the Bengals having a real shot to win both, which could have had a huge impact on the AFC North standings. Neither defense played well in either game, but again, the Bengals struggled to close the deal on offense in both games.

In the first game, Burrow threw an interception with the Bengals up a field goal and a chance to run out the clock. The Ravens forced overtime, then after Jackson fumbled, the Bengals got super conservative and settled for a 53-yard field goal, which Evan McPherson missed. Derrick Henry broke off a long run, and that was that in a 41-38 loss.

In the Week 10 rematch, Burrow avoided any picks, but he also twice turned the ball over on downs by going deep on fourth-and-short. Was that really the smart play in either situation? Then, with a chance to go ahead in the final minute on a 2-point conversion, Burrow’s pass was incomplete, and the Bengals lost another one 35-34.

Make no mistake about it, the Bengals have a Lamar Jackson problem too as they are now 1-10 against him in his career. But both of those games were very winnable had the offense just executed a little better in them.

But the offense sputtering in key moments and the special teams not always being trustworthy these are issues that have crept up in the past for this team. It happened in the Chargers’ loss last year, another game where the offense had no killer instinct to take the lead after a big rally, settling for long, missed field goals.

Even when the Bengals finally won a tight one in overtime with Denver, they botched the end sequence as they could have run down the clock to set up a short field goal in a 20-17 victory. Instead, they scored a touchdown, and Denver was able to force overtime with a touchdown before the Bengals finally won 30-24.

This team just does not have it at any phase (offense, defense, special teams, coaching) to trust them in the tight games and the high-scoring ones. The only game Burrow’s won in the last 2.5 seasons where the Bengals allowed more than 24 points was a total farce against the Titans last year.

If you want the most misleading final score of 2024, it’s the 37-27 game in Tennessee. Mason Rudolph threw a pick-six, so the Titans were sitting on a net 14 points with seconds remaining. Then Rudolph threw a garbage-time touchdown as time expired to make it 37-27.

The Bengals just don’t win shootouts and don’t finish enough games in crunch time – two pretty big sins if you’re going to pay a historic amount of money to your quarterback and two wide receivers.

Anyone can see the Bengals need to start seasons better, and everyone in that locker room will likely admit that. But writing off 2024 (or 2023) as the defense let the team down, that’s just a bad cop-out. Hold the more expensive side of the ball – where the price tag is only getting higher – more accountable than that.

They have lingering issues that need to be improved.

Cincinnati Bengals Offseason Review

NFL Cincinnati Bengals

Whether the Bengals ultimately win this season or not, they should serve as the case study for why it’s better to pay your stars early. The longer you wait, the higher that price tag gets. Now, a team that’s gone 9-8 and missed the playoffs in consecutive years will try to make it further by fielding the most expensive wide receiver duo in NFL history, and they still haven’t satisfied their only great defender’s contract demands this offseason.

What could possibly go wrong?

Has Cincinnati Done Enough on Defense for 2025?

Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is out after six years on the job with Taylor. His defenses did an incredible job of forcing key turnovers in the 2021-22 playoffs, which is why those runs went as deep as they did. But things soured in the two years since, the defense was at its worst in 2024, and he’s out after falling on the sword for the team.

But it’s not like the Bengals reached deep to find a replacement at DC. They hired Al Golden, who actually served as the team’s linebackers coach in 2020-21, so he’s already got some familiarity with working under Taylor. He’s 56 and has been around the game for decades, last coordinating Notre Dame’s solid defense last season. Golden was also 32-25 as the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes in 2011-15.

So, it’s not like a Vic Fangio-level signing. It’s not someone with any real NFL success to point to in their coaching career. But it’s a known name, and the bigger issue is did the Bengals really do enough to change the players that are going to make the difference for Golden on the field?

I’m not sure how signing free agents like defensive tackle T.J. Slaton Jr. (Packers) and Oren Burks (Eagles) are going to suddenly bring this defense into the top 10 again. In fact, a lot of the players from last year’s defense are back. One who isn’t is edge Sam Hubbard, who retired after a quiet 2024 season (9 quarterback hits and 2.0 sacks). Jordan Battle has also supplanted veteran safety Vonn Bell, who came back for one year with the team.

But the player the Bengals need to make sure is there is edge rusher Trey Hendrickson, and that’s looking like it could be the biggest contract dispute of the summer. Hendrickson led the NFL in sacks last year with 17.5. He was a third-round pick by the Saints, who struck gold in his contract year (13.5 sacks), and the Bengals paid him a fair deal for someone who had one quality year to that point.

But since joining the Bengals in 2021, Hendrickson has had four Pro Bowl seasons with 57 sacks in 65 games. Hendrickson turns 31 in December, so in an offseason where Maxx Crosby ($35 million per year), Myles Garrett ($40 million), and T.J. Watt ($41 million) all broke the bank for defenders with their extensions, it’s no wonder Hendrickson wants to be paid big time. This is basically his last shot at a huge payday.

Hendrickson is in the final year of his contract, and he has a 2025 cap hit of $18.7 million. He’d probably like to at least double that number for his new yearly average. Is Hendrickson worth as much as Watt or Garrett or Micah Parsons when Dallas pays him? Maybe, maybe not. They did just miss the playoffs twice with him posting 17.5 sacks both years, but they also play much worse when he’s off the field:

There’s a good chance some team would be willing to pay him close to $40 million if he was on the free market. You can understand his frustration, especially with the record money the Bengals have given to their wide receivers when everyone knows the defense needs more help. It’s a bit of a slap in the face to your best defender.

If you take Hendrickson out of this defense, where exactly is the pass rush supposed to come from? That’s why the 2025 NFL Draft needed to be huge for this team, and what they did there is questionable to say the least.

The Bengals used the No. 17 pick on Shemar Stewart, who had 1.5 sacks in each of his three seasons at Texas A&M. That kind of “great athlete, shoddy production” prospect is always a big gamble in the draft.

Worse, the relationship has gotten off to a rocky start as the Bengals played hardball with money with this young edge rusher, too. They may have had a point, though. Basically, Stewart wanted to change the language in his contract about voiding future money if he gets into serious trouble off the field. But why should the team guarantee future money to someone who does something to hypothetically land in prison? That feels a bit shady if you ask me.

Stewart didn’t want to start practicing with the team until this was resolved, and in the last week, he finally signed his rookie deal after apparently convincing the team to change the language and give him a fully guaranteed deal.

Good for Stewart, but will he produce as a rookie? That remains to be seen. The only other likely rookie starter for the defense is South Carolina linebacker Demetrius Knight. The Bengals used a first-round pick in 2023 on Myles Murphy, so it’d be nice if he could ever get going for the pass rush too as he looks like a bust with no starts and 3.0 sacks in 30 career games.

It just doesn’t look like a defense that put in enough changes with the talent to expect significantly better results in 2025. That puts more pressure on the offense to deliver a big season.

How Much Better Can the Bengals Get on Offense?

You can argue Joe Burrow had the best season of his NFL career in 2024, and yet it still wasn’t enough to make the playoffs. He’s missed the playoffs in more seasons than he’s made it in his career to this point.

The pressure should only mount on him to deliver. Lest we forget, the Bengals making Ja’Marr Chase the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history ($41 million per year) and Tee Higgins the most expensive No. 2 wideout ($28 million average) was something Burrow fought for publicly.

No, he didn’t necessarily say to wait this long to where the price went up so much at wide receiver. But he mentioned the Philadelphia model of paying your wideouts as they did with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

But the difference is the Eagles built up a great defense with the draft and free agency and their coaching staff. They have probably the best offensive line in football too, and we know that’s been a sore spot in Cincinnati for years. The rosters aren’t very comparable outside of the Bengals are paying a quarterback and two wideouts a ton of money right now.

We covered this topic in detail four months ago, so you can always go back and read that. But the fact is most teams would let a receiver like Higgins walk and get paid handsomely elsewhere, because you are supposed to have this great quarterback who can make the receivers better with his accuracy and decision making. Chase is a keeper because of his great connection with Burrow and his YAC talent is an elite skill you can’t simply replace.

Higgins has good hands and would be a WR1 on a lot of teams, but he’s not irreplaceable. He’s also never had an 1,100-yard season, and he’s missed five games in each of the last two years, so he hasn’t even been that durable.

It’s a bold strategy for an offense that is still trying to develop Andrei Iosivas or Jermaine Burton to be the third wideout. Burrow’s never gotten huge production from the tight end, but Mike Gesicki is back after 665 yards last season.

Chase Brown showed promise in the backfield last year, and he’s back along with Zack Moss and a return of Samaje Perine, their 2021 AFC Championship Game hero. But it’s largely the same backfield to what they’ve had in the past, but with a new guard combo of third-round rookie Dylan Fairchild and veteran Lucas Patrick (Saints). Neither is likely to be a stud here, but it’s a new attempt at fixing the guards.

But it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where the Bengals get much better on offense this year if it’s Burrow, Chase, Higgins, Gesicki, Brown/Moss, and the same tackles and center all over again.

You could argue the offense was fine as is last season. They were No. 5 on third down conversion rate and in the red zone, so it’s not like the situational play was lacking there. It’s just more of a timing thing with this team as the offense never seems to deliver the definitive touchdown or game-closing drive you want to see with the game on the line.

Simply put: Don’t score 10 points at home against a 4-win team in Week 1 again. That probably would have been enough to make the playoffs last year.

Best Bets for the 2025 Bengals

The Bengals are such a tricky prediction since they are not the best team in the division. That should still be Baltimore, and you have to respect the fact that these Bengals haven’t even made the playoffs in seasons where Lamar Jackson stays healthy. The Steelers should also be formidable with Aaron Rodgers and their best group of corners in a long time. The Bengals also face the NFC North, which could be an elite division again.

Cincinnati is relying heavily on a similar group of players, but with an emphasis on new guards and a pass rusher who had terrible college production and a defensive coordinator with no real NFL track record. Oh, and that’s assuming they get Hendrickson in the building with a new deal soon. It’s not the greatest argument for big improvement.

On the bright side, the fast start the Bengals need is very possible thanks to this schedule:

  • Week 1 at Cleveland: Don’t let a 40-year-old Joe Flacco shred you and this should be a 1-0 start for the Bengals.
  • Week 2 vs. Jaguars: Home game against a rookie coach (Liam Coen) and a team trying to figure out how to use Travis Hunter.
  • Week 3 at Vikings: Maybe young J.J. McCarthy can’t take advantage of this defense and the Bengals can quick throw the defense to shreds in a road win.
  • Week 4 at Denver (MNF): The Bengals had that defense on its heels last year, but this one will be at Mile High in prime time.

This is quite favorable for the Bengals to get a coveted 3-1 start. Things get tougher with the Lions, Packers, and Steelers up next, but then home games with the Jets and Bears are quite winnable before having a bye week to prepare for that trip to Pittsburgh where the Bengals play the Steelers better than they do in Cincinnati.

There are also winnable home games late in the season with the Patriots, Cardinals, and the Browns to end things. The toughest stretch begins Thanksgiving night when the Bengals are in Baltimore, then it’s a trip to Buffalo, followed by another game with Baltimore. With no Kansas City on the schedule, this 3-week period will be the best sign of whether or not this team has any real championship potential this season.

Of course, how a schedule looks in July is not indicative of how it turns out when the games actually happen. Last year, the Bengals played 10 games against teams with a quarterback who was not their starter in 2025. The only returning starter they beat was rookie Bo Nix, who took them to overtime, and the Bengals were 0-6 against Mahomes, Lamar, Herbert, Daniels, and Jalen Hurts.

That’s a big reason why the 2024 Bengals had the weakest strength of victory (.314) for a team with a winning record since the 2017 Ravens.

We don’t know which quarterbacks they’ll surely face this year when it’s all said and done, but it could be a tougher slate than 2024 if players stay healthy and if some of those second-year passers they face (Caleb Williams, Bo Nix, Drake Maye, J.J. McCarthy) turn out to be good.

If the Bengals miss the playoffs, they absolutely need to fire Taylor. Find your next coach for 2026, because this clearly isn’t working.

However, I’m willing to bet things work out for the Bengals this year, even if it’s by pure, dumb luck. A random bounce going their way with a turnover on defense, a clutch kick going their way for a change, and maybe Burrow will even win a game or two that the Bengals trail in the closing minutes just to spite me.

CLEVELAND, OH - SEPTEMBER 10: Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) is hit by Cleveland Browns defensive end Za'Darius Smith (99) after throwing a pass during the third quarter of the National Football League game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns on September 10, 2023, at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland, OH.
(Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Hell, after the way the MVP voters like Dan Orlovsky, Emmanuel Acho, and Chris Simms gifted Josh Allen the award out of pity last year, don’t be surprised if they try to make Burrow the next DEI MVP winner for the same “he doesn’t have one yet” reasons. That’s even if the Bengals finish 10-7 and are a wild card team, as you usually need 12-plus wins and a high seed to be the MVP at quarterback.

But don’t discount the media’s love for Burrow, handing him an MVP even if he doesn’t actually play the position better in 2025 than he did in 2024. If the team record is better and they’re in the playoffs and the numbers are decent enough, someone is going to make that argument for him, and it’ll be up to someone like me to point out the actual reasons the Bengals have won an extra game or two in 2025.

But miss me with the Super Bowl with this team. They didn’t make nearly enough changes to expect that to happen, and they still have a big issue of beating the Ravens with a healthy Lamar, and the Chiefs have basically ended their last three seasons with losses at Arrowhead.

September will be the key this year. Start strong, finish strong, and we’ll see if the new defense can force the turnovers the old one did the last time the Bengals made the postseason.

  • NFL Pick: Cincinnati Bengals over 9.5 wins (-115) at FanDuel
  • NFL Pick: Cincinnati Bengals to make playoffs (-150) at FanDuel
  • NFL Pick: 2025 NFL Most Valuable Player Award – Joe Burrow (+600) at FanDuel

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Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar28/07/2025 - 12:31 pm