A putrid Bengals defense must turn it around -- or risk tarnishing the legacies of Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase

Bengals edge rushers Trey Hendrickson and Shemar Stewart may have ended their high-profile holdouts, but it remains to be seen if this new duo can spark one of the worst defenses in the league that is currently wasting Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase in their primes.

The Bengals have already missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons despite having a top-four quarterback and the best wide receiver in the NFL. That's because Cincinnati has a bottom-five defense in that span, at least in terms of defensive expected points added (EPA). 

Last season truly took the cake as the Bengals lost a ton of track meets:

• The Bengals scored 27.8 points per game in losses, the most by any team in a season in NFL history. 
• Burrow became the third quarterback to miss the playoffs with at least 40 touchdown passes in a season (1986 Dan Marino, 2012 Drew Brees)
• Chase was the fifth player since 1970 to win the receiver triple crown. 

Essentially, there's never been a defense in NFL history that did more to spoil their superstars' monster offensive seasons.

No money invested on defense

It won't get any easier going forward, either, and that's without knowing how the holdouts will impact two of the Bengals' most important defenders in Hendrickson and Stewart, their top draft pick. The Bengals have deservedly paid an obscene amount of money to keep Burrow, Chase and Tee Higgins together through at least 2028. They are the highest-paid trio in the NFL by average yearly salary ($124 million combined), which does not leave much left to build a championship defense.

The Bengals have the second-most cap dollars spent on offense this upcoming season ($174 million) and fourth-fewest cap dollars on defense ($104 million), according to Overthecap.com.

They will be just the 14th team in the last 13 seasons (since overthecap began tracking this information) to rank top five in spending on offense and bottom five in spending on defense. There's mixed results here. The 2024 Rams and 2024 Chiefs won playoff games and overcame the grand canyon-sized spending disparity because they drafted and developed well on defense.  

The 2014 Packers and 2019 Saints are also on this list, two franchises that struggled to surround their all-time great quarterback with a good defense for years and never made it back to the Super Bowl with them after winning in 2009 and 2010, respectively. 

Rank top 5 in offensive spending and Bottom five in defensive spending (since 2013)

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John Breech

Bengals have not drafted well on defense

The Bengals are much closer to being like the Packers and Saints with Rodgers and Brees than they are last year's Rams and Chiefs because they have not drafted well on defense.

The Bengals drafted 59 defensive players from 2011 to 2024, and not a single one made a Pro Bowl for them (2018 second-round pick Jessie Bates III made a Pro Bowl, but it was for the Falcons). The last time Cincinnati drafted a defensive player who made a Pro Bowl in a Bengals uniform was in 2010 with Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap. It's the longest active drought in the NFL of its kind.

The Bengals have hit on some picks, don't get me wrong. Bates, Logan Wilson, Germaine Pratt and Sam Hubbard had their moments, but overall their draft picks have left a lot to be desired. It's catching up with them now because the winning formula with highly paid superstars on offense includes a productive defense with a solid core of defenders on rookie contracts. 

Cincinnati isn't getting that. Here's its top eight defenders in terms of snaps played last season who are still on rookie deals. Between these eight, there's not a lot of standouts. None were in the top 25th percentile at their position in player grades by Pro Football Focus last year. Five of the eight were ranked in the bottom half at their position. 

2024 Bengals defensive snap leaders still on rookie deals

There hasn't been nearly enough playmaking from defensive backs DJ Turner, Jordan Battle and Dax Hill. Those players were all drafted in the first three rounds and have combined for four interceptions in seven total seasons. 

2023 first-round pick Myles Murphy has been a complete whiff. He has 3.0 sacks in 30 career games played across two seasons. He's yet to start a game in his career and ranks 15th on the team in defensive snaps (633) in that span. 

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Tyler Sullivan

Can 2025 class turn it around?

Murphy's lack of production and the retirement of Hubbard created a hole opposite Hendrickson, who had nearly half of the Bengals' sacks last year, the highest rate in the league. Cincinnati responded by taking a gamble on Stewart in the first round this year. He had a Myles Garrett-esque workout at the NFL Scouting Combine but had 4.5 sacks in 37 career games in college, so he's an unknown commodity whose career is not starting on great footing after the contract dispute. 

NFL combine results

Based on Stewart's holdout, his college pedigree and the Bengals track record with playing rookies, I'm not expecting a leap from him this year. The Bengals drafted five defensive players in the first round from 2011 to 2024 and they combined to play 10% of the Bengals defensive snaps as rookies. That is a criminally low number. It's the lowest total defensive snaps played (518) by any team's rookie first-round picks in that span. 

Defensive snaps played by Bengals first-round picks as rookies (since 2011)

There's more opportunity for the Bengals 2025 draft class to shine though because rookie linebackers Demetrius Knight Jr. (second-round pick) and Barrett Carter (fourth-round pick) will have a chance to fill the void left by Pratt, who was released following a trade request after he led the team in tackles (143) last season. 

Burrow's legacy could be defined by Bengals defense

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How the Bengals defense navigates a tumultuous offseason that included replacing well-respected defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo with Al Golden could determine if this franchise is able to capitalize on a championship window with two potential all-time greats in Burrow and Chase. A step forward from defensive players on rookie deals and big impacts from their rookie class are desperately needed.

Unfortunately, the way things are going, we could be talking about Burrow with names like Rodgers, Brees and Marino in a few years. That's great in some respects, just not in terms of winning championships, as the trio of all-time greats only made one Super Bowl each in their careers.

• The Dolphins lost to the 49ers in the Super Bowl to cap the 1984 season with a record-breaking performance by Marino in his second year (NFL-record 5,084 pass yards and 48 touchdown passes). The Dolphins ranked 15th on average in scoring defense during Marino's 17-year career, and they only ranked in the top 10 once in the 10 years following their Super Bowl trip.
• Aaron Rodgers' teams have ranked 15th on average in scoring defense in his career, and Green Bay only ranked top 10 in that department one time in his final 12 seasons in green and yellow
• Drew Brees' teams ranked 18th on average in scoring defense in his career, and New Orleans was bottom five in that category four times in a five-year span from 2012-16. 

That's the trajectory Burrow is on with the Bengals after coming within a play of winning the Super Bowl in 2021. Cincinnati has ranked 18th on average in scoring defense since drafting Burrow in 2020. They've been in the bottom half of the league in four of his five seasons, and perhaps this is the most sobering statistic of them all:

The Bengals have allowed 23.1 points per game in Burrow's starts throughout his career. That's tied for the second-most by a quarterback who started a Super Bowl. The troubling part is that if you look at the top 12 signal-callers on this list, Eli Manning is the only one to make multiple Super Bowl starts. 

Most points per game allowed by team in career among QBs to start a Super Bowl

It's very tough to overcome a bad defense to make multiple Super Bowls. Manning was clearly a case of lightning striking twice, too. If the Bengals defense does not pick it up, we'll be talking about Burrow in the same light as Rodgers, Brees and Marino, wondering how he never made another Super Bowl. 

I suppose that's better company right now than some of his contemporaries who have never even made it to that stage (Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen), but you have to hope for more as a Bengals fan, especially after the video game numbers Burrow and Chase produced in 2024.

For now, it's up to the beleaguered Bengals defense to pick it up despite limited resources.