Bengals Passing Attack vs. Browns Secondary
Among the most intriguing matchups for this game is Cincinnati's high-powered passing offense against a talented Cleveland secondary headlined by four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward. The Bengals are coming off a 2024 campaign in which they led the NFL and set a team single-season record with 272.9 net passing yards per game. Steering the ship was quarterback Joe Burrow, who now enters his sixth pro season looking to make it an encore for his individual performance a year ago. Burrow led the league in completions (460), passing yards (4,918) and touchdown passes (43), and his totals against Cleveland included five TD throws with no interceptions in two games.
Burrow is flanked by what he has described as the deepest receiver room in his Cincinnati career. The top threats remain reigning Triple Crown winner Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, whose 10 touchdown grabs in 2024 were a career high and tied for sixth in the NFL. But the Bengals also saw impressive training camps from Andrei Iosivas, Charlie Jones, Jermaine Burton and preseason-standout Mitchell Tinsley, and each player figures to complement the passing attack at some point this year.
Cleveland's passing defense was one of its strong points last season, as the Browns ranked 12th in the NFL with just 212.4 net passing yards allowed per game. They held Burrow to 433 combined passing yards in the two contests, his fewest against any of the three AFC North Division opponents.
The Browns also kept opposing passers to a 61.8 completion percentage in 2024, the third-lowest in the NFL. Alongside Ward, Cleveland boasts cornerback Greg Newsome II, who has 19 passes defensed over the past two seasons, and safety Grant Delpit, a former teammate of Burrow and Chase's at LSU who has crossed the 100-tackle threshold twice in his NFL career.