INDIANAPOLIS — The defining moment of the 2025 Bengals’ season was Colston Loveland’s walk-off touchdown in Cincinnati’s last-minute loss to the Chicago Bears. Three players surrounded Loveland at the 30-yard line, and no one could bring him down as he ran for the game-winning score.
For the last couple of years, the Bengals have consistently been a bad tackling team. For the Bengals to be better in 2026, their tackling will need to be better.
“Until we put the proof on the field, it’s a question you should continue to ask,” Zac Taylor said. “This offseason and training camp is going to be big for us. We’ve got to go out there and prove we can be better tacklers.”
In 2025, Jordan Battle, Demetrius Knight. Jr. and Barrett Carter all ranked in the top-12 in the NFL in missed tackles. Geno Stone, a free agent who isn’t expected back in a starting role in 2026, led the NFL in missed tackles. Shemar Stewart and Josh Newton didn’t get enough playing time to rank high on the list, but tackling has also been an issue for each of them.
To fix the tackling problem, do the Bengals need to boot all of the bad tacklers from the lineup and bring in new guys who can finish? Or can you teach someone how to tackle?
“You can say work on it — we’ve worked on it endlessly,” Taylor said. “Some of those guys were young players that are going to be really good tacklers. It was a common thing too often. We’re attacking it every way we possibly can.”
Since the 2020 collective bargaining agreement was finalized, teams have only been allowed 14 padded practices during the season. Also, contact is prohibited during OTAs and minicamp. Tackling is practiced nowhere near as often as it used to be. The baseball equivalent would be a rule that only allowed hitters to see 98+ mph fastballs in live games and not see them at all in batting practice.
In the modern NFL, how do you coach and practice tackling?
“Tackling is a core fundamental in football,” Ravens head coach Jesse Minter said. “You have to find really creative ways to practice it without necessarily tackling your offensive players all the time. I think the approach to making a tackle is the most important thing. Angles to the ball. Body control. Those are things we really harp on every day whether we’re in pads or not.”
Different teams have different systems coaching styles in this area. Titans head coach Robert Saleh falls from the Pete Carroll tree and implements his team’s tackling philosophy in a specific way.
“There are a lot of things you can do from a drill standpoint,” Saleh said. “We have a style of tackling we’ve developed going back to (working with) Pete Carroll in Seattle. We’re a shoulder leverage tackling team. We took that from rugby. There are things we’ll teach and encourage, and there are things we’ll work on to make it better.”
Coaches and executives around the league say that they still see guys who entered the league as bad tacklers developing into good tacklers during their time in the NFL.
A great example is Texans slot/safety Jalen Pitre, who has become the prototypical tone setter and playmaker at his position. He now makes $13 million on the second-best defense in the NFL.
When the Texans drafted Pitre, he wasn’t a good tackler. As a rookie, he was one of the league leaders in missed tackles. He made an 180 degree turnaround in that area of his game.
“It’s a skill that you can improve,” Texans general manager Nick Caserio said. “It goes back to coaching. Our defensive staff does a great job of focusing on certain fundamentals and techniques. You see that transfer over into our player.”
Led by head coach DeMeco Ryans, the Texans have built an identity as a swarming, attacking and aggressive defense. That identity sets the standard for every player that’s a part of that unit.
“Tackling is really about a mindset,” Caserio said. “You can approach it in a number of ways. You can approach the ball carrier and break down, shoot your shot and go to the near hip, it all depends on what your philosophy is. As long as you have the right mentality, you can improve any skill. Tackling certainly qualifies.”
While Pitre is a great success story and while there are others, the easiest way to get a good tackler is to draft or sign one. Some coaches and executives say that tackling is a more important tool in the evaluation than it used to be. You can work with a guy on his ability to play man coverage, but tackling is more of an instinct.
How do you evaluate if a college prospect is going to be able to tackle or not in the NFL?
“No. 1, how well did they tackle in college?” Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said. “How tough are they? How well did they come to balance? What kind of an athlete are they? How much desire do they have to play physical? A lot of those things come to play.”
The Ravens are another team that really prioritizes a player’s tackling ability as the front office makes scouting reports.
“That’s an important part for any defensive player,” general manager Eric DeCosta said. “As a scout, it’s something I’ve always paid a lot of attention to. Tackling will always to be an important part of looking at a defensive player, especially if you’re going to play for the Baltimore Ravens.”
DeCosta said that it’s very important that the Ravens do actually tackle in practice. He said, “To be a good defense, you have to tackle at different times in practice.”
Every team and every coach has a different philosophy toward that. How do you find the right balance between getting your players ready to hit while keeping them fresh for the long run of the season?
The Bengals operate much differently than the Ravens. Taylor always says that the Bengals work on tackling “endlessly,” but they do it without much full-speed hitting. I can’t remember a time in training camp during Taylor’s tenure where the Bengals have ever gone “live” and played full speed while allowing defenders to bring the ball carrier to the ground.
That approach is a huge part of the reason why the Bengals have a history under Taylor of playing their best football in December.
Also, last year, the Bengals did start the season with back-to-back wins. The tackling issues really popped up in October and November.
“We started the season the right way,” Taylor said. “Our training camp was good. It doesn’t mean we won’t modify some things. You want to keep it fresh for the players. You don’t want it to be the same every year.”
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