Bengals Bye Week Self-Scout Reveals What's Working and What Must Change

The Cincinnati Bengals are off to a solid start after five games with a 3-2 record and normally we would dissect the opponent and dive into the data to get a feel for how they're performing this season, but with the bye week already here, it's time for some self-scouting and dissecting where the Bengals stand after five games.

Let's start on offense where they avoided the dreaded slow start and rank 10th in EPA per play and PFF has them as the 5th highest graded offense.

Joe Burrow

Joe Burrow is again PFF’s highest graded passer on plays without play-action. He has been ranked number one in 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025 and now holds that top spot in 2026.

Does it feel like Burrow and this offense hasn't been explosive this year? I'm sure they want to create more big plays, but Burrow leads the league in 20+ yard touchdown passes with five. He's also one of four quarterbacks without a “turnover worthy throw” on deep passes. His 137.9 passer rating on deep balls leads the entire NFL.

But it's really the Intermediate area where Burrow is doing his damage to opposing defenses.

22.8% of his total passes are targeted between 10-19 yards this season and his 95.7 PFF grade leads all quarterbacks.

He's completing 74.4% of his passes in this range and that also tops all QBs. And the Bengals are getting big plays out of it as Burrow averages 12.0 yards per attempt in this area.

It probably helps that he's getting protected up front with the best offensive line of his career. This Cincinnati line ranks 6th in PFF’s Pass Block Efficiency.

Their 4.5% sack rate - 5th Best in NFL and they were 10th last year and 19th in 2024. Looks like steady progress for a QB and offensive line that has been heavily criticized for allowing too much pressure and taking too many sacks.

Look no further than right tackle Amarius Mims and his 98.8% pass block efficiency which is second amongst all offensive tackles.

Dalton Risner at right guard is the 5th highest graded pass blocking guard in True Pass Sets from PFF and he's enjoying a career year as a run blocker as well.

Despite allowing pressure on just 36.3% of all dropbacks this season, which ranks 7th best, the Bengals are allowing pressure on 3rd downs at a higher rate than I'd like. On 51.9% of their 3rd down passes, Burrow is facing pressure and yes, they're converting 50% of third downs this season, that's tied for second-best.

The issue is that they're seeing the 11th most 3rd downs in the NFL. You don't want to put your QB under that much pressure on critical down and the other two top teams in 3rd down conversions, Buffalo and San Francisco, are seeing 3rd downs at the lowest rate in the league.

Chase Brown

The run game has been a big topic the last few weeks as they've struggled to get Chase Brown going despite some decent blocking overall.

Brown is currently outside the top 35 backs in average yards AFTER contact at 2.1 and his Elusive Rating from PFF ranks him 22nd amongst the 32 starters in the league.

Last season, Brown averaged 3.4 yards after contact per carry.

It's not all Brown either, as a whole the Bengals sit at 2.03 Average Rush Yards After Contact - 31st in the NFL

The Bengals running scheme should be helping him here: They've only been “Stuffed” on 13.2% of rushing plays - 8th best in the league – They led the NFL last season at a 10% stuffed rate.

But, they're not converting that into explosives or successful runs.

Their 39.5% Rushing Success Rate ranks 20th after being 11th-best last season at 42.8%

Where are the issues with the blocking? Amarius Mims is the 4th lowest graded offensive tackle in Run Blocking from PFF.

Drew Sample ranks 37th and Erick All 44th of 51 total right ends in PFF run blocking.

With the lack of success running the ball, the offseason plan of getting under center and running the ball and exploiting defenses with play-action has been thrown out. The Bengals have the 2nd lowest rate of play-action in NFL this season.

So it's back to the Bengals offense of old. Even if they figure out the run game, I expect this shotgun offense to lead the way and that's not a bad thing.

The offense usually fires up at this point in the season. Since 2021, the Bengals are the very best offense in the league (EPA per play) in weeks 6 through 12.

That's 5 years of sustained elite offensive success and that includes 10 games started by the combo of Jake Browning and Joe Flacco.

What About the Defense?

Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II (97) runs off between plays in the first quarter of the NFL Week 4 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Jacksonville Jaguars at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026.Dexter | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Is it the same old Bengals on defense?

Cincinnati owns the 12th ranked defense based on EPA per play. We would take that all season long.

They're 5th in passing EPA, but rank 26th on defense for PFF and they're dragged down by the 28th ranked Coverage grade and 26th ranked Tackling grade.

They're currently the 7th best defense in terms of EPA per play when in their base 3-4 defense. That ranking drops to 22nd when they're in Nickel defense.

A run defense that boasts a league-leading 30% Run Stuff Rate, but 21 runs of 10+ yards allowed leads the NFL also.

They're very home run or strikeout in run defense.

The Bengals are doing this all with a Light Box (less defenders near the line). They lead the league in light box rate at 59.6% of their total defensive snaps and that would explain some of the long runs that have gashed this defense.

You can play with less defenders in the box when Dexter Lawrence accounts for two people. He's been everything we could've hoped for as he enjoys a bounce back season on the stat sheet. Lawrence is on pace for 65 pressures and 10 sacks this season and currently owns PFF’s second highest grade for defensive tackles.

As a whole, the Bengals defense is generating pressure on 41.6% of pass plays and that ranks 12th best in the league.

Much of that is thanks to free agent prize Boye Mafe and his 25 pressures through five games. That's a pace of 85 pressures for a full season. Only three players had more last season and 83 is the most Trey Hendrickson ever had with the Bengals (2024).

And they're doing with the frustratingly low Blitz Rate of 17.3% – lowest in the NFL.

So what are they doing on defense? They play the 10th-most single-high safety coverages with the 9th-most Man Coverage calls.

They're also not disguising their coverages. They rotate safety coverage at the snap on 29% of plays and that's 9th least in the NFL.

But coverage has been tight. DJ Turner looks just as good in coverage as he did last season, but quarterbacks are avoiding throwing in his direction.

And why would they throw at him or Dax Hill when the linebackers and safeties offer easier completions?

The trio of Demetrius Knight, Barrett Carter and Jordan Battle have allowed 46 passes to be caught out of 58 targets. That's a completion percentage of 79.3% when you target those guys in coverage.

The coverage hasn't been all bad as 15.9% of all throws have been contested by the Bengals defense - 7th best rate in the NFL.

But when you play as much Man coverage as you do, you leave yourself open up the middle and they've allowed 145 QB scramble yards and that's 3rd most in the NFL. They'll have to figure that out before seeing Lamar Jackson this season.

Finally, they're currently averaging 8 penalties per game which is 19th worst and up from their 5 penalties per game last season. This is an area under Zac Taylor where they've always been exceptional and because it's always been good during his run as head coach, I expect it'll be smoothed out, but it is something to watch as it has affected their games to start the season.

Overall, they've got things to clean up and figure out as every team does. Zac Taylor teams do a good job at figuring those things out as they do and they tend to play their best as the season progresses. Since 2021, Zac Taylor and Joe Burrow together have won 75% of all games after the bye week. With 12 games to go, that's another 9 wins.

I'll take 12-5, even if it feels harder than it should.

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