Cincinnati Bengals Receive Middling Grade For Total 2026 Offseason Haul

The Bengals have gotten rave reviews from most voices for their 2026 offseason moves, but ESPN's Seth Walder is much more lukewarm on the haul than most.

He broke down letter grades for all 32 teams' offseasons over the past few months and gave the Bengals a "C" grade for their work.

The addition of Dexter Lawrence II from the New York Giants with the 10th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft was the move Walder liked least.

"Cincinnati has been plagued by bad defense after bad defense," Walder wrote. "Edge rusher Trey Hendrickson's long-awaited departure wasn't going to help in that regard, so the team got aggressive in adding a different type of defensive star. The Bengals made a high-profile trade, sending the No. 10 pick to the Giants in exchange for Lawrence. The move was both uncharacteristic and unwise. Yes, Cincinnati needs to invest resources into its defense. But this was not the way to do it. Lawrence is a good player who has been elite in the past. But he is coming off a down season -- just an 8.4% pass rush win rate and 0.5 sacks. There's also a big difference between sending the No. 10 pick and, say, a late first-rounder. And that's why this was too pricey a trade.

"At the time I graded the deal, I thought Lawrence would get a significantly revamped contract, which would have basically meant the Bengals paid a first-round pick for market value. However, the contract revisions were minor, so that part was not as bad as anticipated. The Bengals also added Jonathan Allen to play next to Lawrence on a two-year, $25 million deal. Allen was great in his prime, but it has been several years since he was that player -- he didn't produce much last season in Minnesota or in eight games with the Commanders the year before. So, this is not how I would have spent my money if I were the Bengals."

How should they have spent the money is the real question?

There weren't many other trench avenues to go down in free agency for Cincinnati to bolster what was arguably the worst defensive front in the sport since 2021.

That 2025 front four had a defensive stuff rate (rushes of zero or negative yardage) of 10.2% according to Next Gen Stats' numbers. That's the lowest rate for any defense in the past five years.

Cincinnati had to do something to show Joe Burrow that hope wasn't the plan on that side of the ball, and bringing back Hendrickson would've likely kept them from adding Lawrence.

Alas, Walder did like a different trench move.

"I wasn't down on every Bengals defensive addition, though. They added Mafe in free agency on a $20 million-per-year contract," Walder wrote. "Mafe has always fared well in the win rates and finished in the 80th percentile or better in both pass rush win rate and run stop win rate last season. The question will be whether he can keep up that level of play with a larger workload in Cincinnati. If he can, he'll offer a heck of a value. The team also added safety Bryan Cook from the Chiefs and extended offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr. Brown's play has dropped off over the past couple of seasons, but the money -- $16 million per year -- reflects that. The Bengals need a healthy Burrow and some semblance of a defense to get back to the playoffs in 2026. But they face the easiest schedule in the league this year, per ESPN's Football Power Index.

Cincinnati is fully set up for success with that easy upcoming schedule if their pesky health bug slows down the bites this fall.

Check out the full article from Walder here.

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