Bengals Brass Offers Surprising Glow-Up for Player Associated with Defense's Biggest Failings

INDIANAPOLIS – The Cincinnati Bengals headed into this offseason with an obvious need at safety after that position accounted for 47 of their league-leading 171 missed tackles in 2025.

The only uncertainty was whether they would be looking for one starters or two.

Following two days of interviews with the coaches and front office at the NFL Scouting Combine, that question has been answered definitively

Jordan Battle has emerged as the biggest winner of the week based on the effusive glow-up he’s received from director of player personnel Duke Tobin, head coach Zac Taylor and defensive coordinator Al Golden.

“I feel like Jordan is a guy that's developing a leadership role on our team, which you have to have in the back end there,” Tobin said during his turn at the podium Tuesday afternoon. “I think he can factor in the box, and he can factor in deep zones as well. Those are things that we're very positive about it.”

Added head coach Zac Taylor:

“I’m encouraged about where he’s going and what he’s going to continue to do for us in the future, especially around a bunch of young players. We will see how that position plays out for us. He is a guy we continue to be excited about, and I think he is only going to be better moving forward.”

Those comments are somewhat surprising given the fact that Battle’s 21 missed tackles last year were the third most in the league behind teammate Geno Stone’s 26 and the Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin’s 23.

Stone is almost certainly a former Bengal as he heads into free agency after accepting a pay cut to start 2025 and delivering a second-consecutive disappointing season of tackling attempts.

Bengals Defend Jordan Battle's Massive Missed-Tackle Total

Of Battle's 21 missed tackles, the one everybody remembers is his failure to wrap up on Chicago Bears tight end Colston Loveland, resulting in the game-winning touchdown and erasure of one of the most remarkable comebacks in Bengals history.

But Tobin said many of the missed tackles he saw from Battle were the ripple effect from defensive failures in front of him.

“The more space you create with those guys, the tougher the tackles get,” he said. “There are no safeties in the NFL that don’t miss tackles. You just want to limit those exposures to where they have the big to gap to make up.

“But space causes missed tackles more than anything, so spacing is important,” he added. “That plays into some of the instincts and so forth that we really want to see in that position group. But those really factor in every position on defense. Defense is reacting to what the offense does. They don’t get to dictate all the time. And they’ve gotta see it, react to it and play fast. The more comfortable they are in what they’re doing and the more time on task they have, the faster that they can play, and we saw that in some of our young guys this year. The more comfortable they got with their role, they sped up and they saw it quicker.”

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And that growth in recognition and comfortability is something Golden pointed to as well when talking about Battle.

“I want to know who can riff, and I use the word ‘riff’ because that's what it reminds me of, like who does not have a canned answer that they've been working for a month, and who can just go up there and riff whatever direction the conversation goes?” Golden said. “Do they have the confidence to just sit there and talk about what's on the screen? This is the formation. This is my pre-snap awareness. I'm alerting to this. This was my call. These are the options we also could have done this. This is the coverage that we played. If this guy went in motion, we could have done that.

“That's what I love about Jordan Battle,” Golden continued. “I keep coming back to him, but, man, I walk in the meeting room, and Jordan's got all these questions. He's answering every question. He brings energy. Those are the guys that make me want to get up and go find a Starbucks that's open because of guys like that – Barrett Carter and (Demetrious) Knight, DJ (Turner) – just guys that raise the energy of the room. They're force multipliers, and they're culture makers.”

The communication piece was something the Bengals loved about Battle coming out of Alabama, which is why they drafted him in the third round in 2023.

But communicating as a veteran safety in a stable Nick Saban defense at Alabama was a lot different than trying to crack a lineup in the NFL behind a veteran leader such as Vonn Bell.

Last year was Battle’s first season as a full-time starter.

He’s heading into his fourth season, and Tobin and the Bengals coaches have sounded more like his agent this week, talking him up ahead of a contract year.

“His communication has really grown,” Tobin said. “He was a good communicator at Alabama. You don't play DB for Saban and not be able to communicate and think, and those are things that he's starting to feel in the NFL.

“I think he's scratching the surface of what he can be,” Tobin added. “If we put a good group around him, I think he can help direct it.”