Cincinnati Bengals Led League in Rare Preseason Metric That Matters

Coaches, players have been talking about the pivot in philosophy since the spring

Aug 13, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) calls a play in the first half against the Detroit Lions at Paycor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Most preseason stats are as relevant as spaghetti without chili or black raspberry ice cream without chocolate chips.

If someone created a preseason hall of fame, even the most diehard NFL fan wouldn’t know 90 percent of the names.

But there is an exception for the Cincinnati Bengals.

It’s not surprising, but rather a confirmation that the commitment to under center play action is not a smokescreen but a real pivot in philosophy for head coach and play caller Zac Taylor.

Rotowire’s Ian Hartitz looked at every team’s percentage of play-action usage in the 2025 season and compared it to what they’ve done in the preseason, and the Bengals far and away made the biggest leap, increasing by 17.7 percent.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, their Week 1 opponent, were second at 12.2 percent, followed by the Los Angeles Chargers (11.5), Baltimore Ravens (9.4), Cleveland Browns (8.4) and New York Giants (7.3).

Every team on the list other than the Bengals has a new offensive coordinator this year, and the Ravens, Browns and Giants also have new head coaches. So a swing in philosophy is expected.

Biggest increases in play-action pass rate in the preseason vs. 2025 regular season:

-Bengals (+17.7%)
-Buccaneers (+12.2%)
-Chargers (+11.5%)
-Ravens (+9.4%)
-Browns (+8.4%)
-Giants (+7.3%)

— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) August 30, 2026

The Bengals dropped back on 688 plays in 2025, with 119 using play-action for 17.3 percent.

Here are the prior years in Burrow’s career (numbers include all plays, even when Burrow was hurt).

2024: 141 of 721 (19.6%)

2023: 145 of 694 (20.9%)

2022: 109 of 680 (16%)

2021: 129 of 628 (20.5%)

2020: 153 of 650 (23.5%)

This preseason, the Bengals used play-action on 38 of 109 dropbacks (34.9%).

Burrow dropped back seven times in the preseason and used play-action four times (57 percent).

Burrow talked about the uptick after the offseason program and minicamp in June.

“We’re trying to find ways to be explosive in the run game and then try to find some things off of that that can get us a couple of easy explosives,” Burrow said. “We’re committed to that. Our coaching staff has done a great job this offseason of putting a plan together to try to execute that. So I’m excited to see how it works out.”

The under-center element has been growing through Burrow’s career, with the 2021 Super Bowl season being the outlier.

2020: 25%

2021: 15%

2022: 28%

2023: 30%

2024: 30%

2025: 30%

Burrow said 2021 started off with the intention of being under center more but made a switch when they saw how teams were playing them.

“We were heavy under center in 2020, 2021, and that worked out well for us,” he said. “But then we were so explosive that we stopped getting the defenses that the under-center runs and the under-center play-actions were built for. And then (we) weren’t explosive in the run game when we faced those light box defenses.

“Then we transitioned to a gun team and our run game because of our RPOs and our quick game, basically. And the run game was kind of the icing on the cake because of that. And that was effective for a couple of years.”

Of Burrow’s 13 snaps in the preseason, seven were under center (53.8 percent).

That’s an incredibly smally sample size, obviously. But the pattern continued after Burrow was out of the game, and the offense is the offense.

Watching how many times the Bengals go under center and use play action will be one of the most interesting things to keep an eye on in Week 1.