Bengals draft
Bengals draft
Despite the moves they’ve already made this offseason, veteran Bengals beat writer Paul Dehner Jr. believes they’re not done. They made one of the splashiest trades of the year, giving up their 10th-overall draft pick for DT Dexter Lawrence. But even with the additions already in the bag, they apparently need more.
“All of those positions could use a veteran insurance policy for depth or competition. I’d currently rank them cornerback, linebacker, swing tackle”, Dehner wrote for The Athletic about the Bengals’ outstanding talent and depth deficiencies. “I do think another move is coming. That could be a trade in the Billy Price-B.J. Hill mold, where one of the odd men out on the defensive line fetches a veteran linebacker or corner”.
Dehner has been hammering the Bengals’ linebacker position all offseason. Currently, they’re helmed by two second-year players, and he believes they need more veteran help. They failed to adequately address the position in free agency and the draft. But as the Ravens showed, there is always time to tweak the roster.
The Bengals, Dehner points out, have made complementary moves in the recent past. Just last year, they added contributors late like Noah Fant and Dalton Risner. Of course, after Joe Burrow’s injury, they made an in-season trade for Joe Flacco. They still didn’t win, but that wasn’t Flacco’s fault. And that’s why they traded for Lawrence—and why Dehner believes they need more help.
While he expects the Bengals to wait until they see what they have in training camp, he still predicts that they will make some moves. Even if their young linebackers look okay, he can still see them adding there, or at cornerback.
“The Bengals’ strategy seems to be to see how things play out in their camp — as well as other teams getting more desperate about their needs — and see if partners emerge”, he concludes. “That, along with an intriguing list of available free agents, makes me think an important contributor or two for 2026 is not yet on the roster”.
Obviously, the Bengals would need more help on defense than on offense. There is a depth issue along the offensive line, but everybody in that locker room knows where the problem has been for years—other than Joe Burrow’s health, of course.
And what would help Burrow’s health is the Bengals having a defense that can keep the score down. Allow the offense to run the ball more and force Burrow into hero ball less often. Sure, they have Dexter Lawrence, Boye Mafe, and others now in the mix to try to help balance the scales.
But Paul Dehner believes there are still one or two more significant moves the Bengals have yet to make before they should feel content in their ability to make another Super Bowl run. It’s been a while since their last one, after all. After making the conference finals two years in a row, they’ve missed the playoffs in the past three seasons.