Dan Pitcher Emphasizes Two Areas Bengals Offense Needs To Improve Ahead Of 2026 Season

CINCINNATI — Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher is focused on plenty of things to keep improving a great Bengals offense, but two stood out when he talked to local media at the NFL Combine.

Pitcher wants to cut Cincinnati's turnovers and create more explosive plays on early downs. The Bengals ranked tied for 29th in the NFL with 24 turnovers this past season, but obviously, that was affected by Joe Burrow's absence.

“Two things. Take care of the football, and we have to become a more explosive football team on first and second down," Pitcher said on Wednesday. "That's the main takeaway. Taking care of the football is always something that there's a delicate balance there because we always want to approach offensive football from an attacking mindset. If the first thing you talk about in offensive football is don't turn the ball over, that's a defensive mindset. What are we going to do to make sure we don't screw this up? That's not how we want to play football. We talk about taking care of the football from decision making, processing, technique, all the positive things that you can actually go do and put into action that make sure that we are not putting the team in a bad place.

"We just weren't good enough at that this year. We were 28th in the league, I believe. To add on top of that, how many of those resulted directly in points for our opponents was a critical error and reason why we probably lost a couple of football games. Something that when we regroup with the guys, we'll make sure we're focusing on all those positive things that we can act on to make sure it doesn't happen again. Traditionally, that's not really an area where we've suffered. Then the explosive play thing, we have explosive football players. We've really crafted this offense, and we play in a way that accomplishes many of the goals that we want to accomplish because we were really good in a lot of areas."

Oct 8, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

On the explosive play side, Pitcher noted the way NFL defenses have clamped down on big plays in recent years has had a big impact against Cincinnati.

“Some league trends have just reduced explosive plays overall in terms of more 2-high defense and the resources the teams devote to preventing the big passing plays," Pitcher continued. "I think those things happen to us probably as much or more than anybody in the league, although it's league-wide now. We've chosen to approach different phases of our offense in a way that maybe emphasizes efficiency over high risk, high reward."

Cincinnati ranked 12th in the NFL at 24.4 points per game last season during a pretty low-scoring campaign around the league in general. They checked in at 15th in yards per play (5.3 YPP) after a 5.8 YPP mark in 2024.

On the turnover front, the Bengals have been over one per game the past two seasons after 0.9 and 1.1 in 2024 and 2023.

Getting Burrow back healthy is massive for both of these factors.

He's consistently one of the best big-throw quarterbacks in the league and just had a 0.7% turnover-worthy play rate, which was Pro Football Focus's best mark in the NFL last season.

Add in more gelling continuity with the veteran QB alongside a mostly-returning starting offensive unit, and these are two things that can get fixed quickly.

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