Cincinnati Bengals v Philadelphia Eagles - NFL Preseason 2025
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The Cincinnati Bengals had one of the worst defenses in the NFL last season, and this year, they're somehow worse, and that was on full display during the team's 39-38 loss to the New York Jets on Sunday. 

The Bengals defense gave up 502 yards to a Jets team that had only totaled 302 yards in their previous two games COMBINED. It was an ugly defensive performance that had former NFL coach Jon Gruden seething. 

"I'm from Ohio, and these Bengals pissed me off [on Sunday]," Gruden said on FS1's Wake Up Barstool. 

The Bengals defense has now surrendered 27 points or more and at least 350 yards in seven straight games, which is tied for the longest streak in NFL history. 

Gruden noted that the Bengals' biggest problem on defense is that they haven't been able to develop any players. 

"The Bengals, defensively, have drafted a lot of players, a lot of players over the past several years," Gruden said. "Their philosophy, obviously, is draft and develop, kind of like Green Bay. This defense has not developed."

Ding. Ding. Ding. Gruden hit the nail on the head: The Bengals have plenty of problems, but that's definitely their main issue. According to CBS Sports research, the team drafted 59 defensive players from 2011 through 2024 and not a single one of those players made the Pro Bowl while playing for the Bengals. That's 14 seasons without sending a defensive draft pick to the Pro Bowl, which is the longest active drought in the NFL. 

The Bengals have been trying to improve their defense through the draft, but the plan just hasn't been working. In three of the past four years, the Bengals have used their top two picks on defensive players. There's only been one season in that span (2024) where they didn't use their top two picks on defensive players, but they still drafted two defensive players in the first three rounds. 

Let's take a look at the defensive players they've taken in the top four rounds since 2022: 

When you look at the 11 players in this group, Turner feels like the only true hit. That's one out of 11 and a 9.1% hit rate isn't going to build a strong foundation in the NFL. 

If you look at the group from 2022, Taylor-Britt got benched for Cincinnati's Week 7 showdown against the Steelers (he was inactive for the game) and Carter isn't even on the team anymore (He was cut in October 2024). 

The 2023 group has been a mixed bag. The Bengals were hoping that Murphy would be their pass rusher of the future, but that hasn't happened. He's played in 38 games since being drafted in 2023, but he's only had one start, which isn't ideal for a player taken in the first round. Despite his struggles, Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden made it clear this week that the team hasn't given up on him. 

"I think he's continuing to make progress," Golden said Monday, via Sports Illustrated. "He's playing stronger at the line of scrimmage. We need him to win his one on ones in the pass-rush game. He's long. Just know who you are as a pass rusher. He's continuing to make progress there, and we've just got to get it to translate to the game now, which I'm confident it will."

As for the rest of the 2023 class, Turner has been the best player in the Bengals secondary this year while Battle has turned into a full-time starter who is second on the team in tackles this season, but he also has 11 missed tackles, which is tied for the third-most in the NFL. 

If you look at the 2024 class, Jenkins has shown flashes at time, but he's not quite where the Bengals need him to be. As for Jackson, that's looking like a lost pick: He's been inactive in seven of Cincinnati's eight games this year. 

And then we have this year's draft class. When the Bengals used their first-round pick on Stewart, they knew he would be raw and so far, he hasn't developed much just yet. Of course, he did miss all of spring practice and the beginning of training camp due to his contract situation, which set him back. He also missed four weeks this season due to an ankle injury. Stewart is set to play in just his fifth career game this week and the Bengals still have high hopes for him. 

"Raw talent," Golden said of Stewart on Monday. "You see it, but a long way to go in terms of catching up to the number of reps that the guys to left and to the right and behind him have had. Every one of those reps is a learning opportunity. We're just trying to get him better and do whatever we've got to do to compound his reps in practice so that we can get him caught up. Hopefully it will start to slow down for him."

The other two picks from 2025 -- Knight and Carter -- are now both starting. Knight has missed 11 tackles this season, which is the third-most in the NFL, so that's something that will have to improve. Carter has also struggled with missed tackles, but he's playing about as well as you can expect when you throw a fourth-rounder into the starting lineup. Carter got thrust into the starting job after the Bengals decided to bench Logan Wilson before their Week 6 game against the Packers. 

The young defense has been making some mistakes that you'd expect from a young defense, but they've also been making some frustrating mistakes, like all the missed tackles: The Bengals have the most in the NFL. That's a coaching issue and a player issue that there's not really a good excuse for. 

If you're drafting players and they're not developing, there's usually one of two reasons why: The coaching staff isn't doing a good job of developing them or the front office isn't doing a good job of identifying talent. According to Gruden, it's pretty obvious what the issue is in Cincinnati. 

"They just fired Lou Anarumo, the defensive coordinator. Guess where he is right now, calling them up: He's with the 7-1 Colts," Gruden said. "So you bring Al Golden, Al Golden is a good coach, but if you don't have players, I don't care what kind of coach you are."

Gruden seems to think that the blame here falls on the front office and de facto general manager Duke Tobin, especially considering Anarumo's success in Indianapolis. The former Bengals defensive coordinator was in Cincinnati from 2019 through 2024 before getting fired in January. Anarumo got let go because the defense was one of the worst in the NFL last year and things haven't gotten any better this year under Golden, but as Gruden said, it's hard to blame the coaches when they "don't have players."

Gruden, who won the Super Bowl in 2002 with the Buccaneers, also took a shot at the Bengals' coaching staff, saying that Cincinnati wasn't "ready to play."

"But the Bengals defense, that was disgusting," Gruden said. "That was a terrible effort yesterday, 500 yards versus the Jets, and the Jets don't have a receiver that I can name, I can't name their wide receivers, and they got gashed, and they weren't ready to play."

Gruden was mad about the Bengals' performance and so were fans in Cincinnati. If this defense doesn't get things turned around soon, the Bengals will need to take a look at themselves in the mirror and ask why the problem isn't getting better.