There are 2 Big Reasons to Believe Al Golden and the Cincinnati Bengals Defense Can Make a Huge Leap in 2026

CINCINNATI – Year 1 with Al Golden as the Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator didn’t go the way anyone had hoped or expected.

Not even close.

But that isn’t muffling expectations for Year 2 with Golden calling the defense, even with the needed improvements still existing in theory only as the Bengals plan to add help in free agency and the draft.

Regardless of the new names the team will be adding, the players they are retaining and the position coaches who will be leading them will head into this season knowing Golden and his system better.

And Golden will have more knowledge of the personnel, both the guys wearing pads and those sporting headsets.

"I think just for having coached those guys through your defensive staff, they know exactly what we have in the building, lot of young players coming on, a lot of veterans, how they fit with us,” head coach Zac Taylor said last week at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“And so now, what are our needs? I'm not going to get into what our needs are, but guys that can walk in here and help us. So it's exciting to have that staff back for Year 2, and to be able to attack the draft with these guys. That's a lot of fun for me, and for them.”

Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher hasn’t been a play caller the way Golden has, but he noted there was a significant leap in confidence and comfort last year heading into his second season as an NFL coordinator.

“I definitely felt more comfortable in the role last year than the year before,” he said. “It comes with experience. You refine your process. We’ve had such continuity here on staff. How you work with the guys on staff, who does what, what the week looks like, you get a bit more efficient and dabble in more specific areas.

“I got better year 1 to year 2 and will get better year 3,” Pitcher added. “If you ask Al, I’d imagine he’d tell you something similar.”

He did.

Bengals DC Al Golden Details Reasons for Optimism Heading Into Year 2

“There's clarity, there's efficiency in our work,” Golden said. “We've identified both in free agency and the draft already what our needs are. And specifically what we're looking for, more importantly.

“The staff has a good vision, and I think that's congruent with (director of player personnel Duke Tobin) and his staff, which is awesome.”

Not all coordinator changes are equal.

Just looking at all of the switches the Bengals have made since 2000, defensive coordinators have left to become head coaches (Mike Zimmer), they have left for lateral moves with massive pay raises (Paul Guenther), they’ve been fired (Lou Anarumo, Teryl Austin and Chuck Bresnahan) and one has been ushered out along with a fired head coach (Mark Duffner).

Therefore, some coordinators have taken over defenses in solid shape, and some have taken over trainwrecks (Golden).

But for the most part, each coordinator has made improvement from Year 1 with the team to Year 2.

Let’s take a look at each defensive coordinator since 2000 and some telling metrics and their league rankings.

The metrics are defensive DVOA, points allowed per drive, points allowed per game, yards allowed per play, interception rate, sack percentage, third down percentage, red zone percentage takeaways, success rate, expected points allowed per 100 plays.

Year 1 is listed first, with league ranking in parenthesis.

Mark Duffner (2001-2002).

The outlier on the list who saw every ranking decline in Year 2, Duffer ascended to defensive coordinator after the Bengals removed the interim tag and promoted Dick LeBeau to head coach in 2001.

DVOA: 14 – 30

PPD: 1.47 (15) – 2.16 (31)

PPG: 19.3 (14) – 28.5 (32)

YPP: 4.77 (7) – 5.39 (24)

INT rate: 2.5 (25) – 2.0 (28)

Sack pct: 8.6 (3) – 5.0 (28)

3D: 38.2 (19) – 41.7 (23)

RZ: 49.0 (16) – 55.2 (19)

Takeaways: 28 (t16) – 20 (31)

Success rate: 60.6 (8) – 55.1 (26)

EPA/PLAY: 5.0 (11) – 7.0 (28)

Leslie Frazier (2003-04)

Marvin Lewis hired Frazier as his first defensive coordinator, but the pairing only lasted two years despite Frazier’s defense showing improvement in 10 of the 11 categories.

DVOA: 29 – 11

PPD: 2.04 (30) – 1.61 (15)

PPG: 21.6 (20) – 23.4 (23)

YPP: 5.63 (29) – 5.20 (16)

INT rate: 2.8 (24) – 3.8 (7)

Sack pct: 5.6 (23) – 6.6 (19)

3D: 41.3 (28) – 36.7 (17)

RZ: 54.5 (23) – 48.1 (10)

Takeaways: 24 (23) – 36 (t3)

Success rate: 55.5 (30) – 56.3 (24)

EPA/PLAY: -7.1 (29) – 3.7 (11)

Chuck Bresnahan Was 1 of 3 Bengals DC's Marvin Lewis Fired

Chuck Bresnahan (2005-2007)

Lewis replaced Frazier with Bresnahan, and while the team broke its playoff drought by winning the AFC North in 2005, the defense numbers weren’t great in that first season. Some got worse in year two, and the ones that improved did so only marginally.

DVOA: 20 – 16

PPD: 1.85 (25) – 1.73 (23)

PPG: 21.9 (22) – 20.7 (17)

YPP: 5.63 (29) – 5.49 (26)

INT rate: 6.0 (1) – 3.4 (14)

Sack pct: 5.1 (28) – 5.9 (23)

3D: 42.6 (30) – 41.7 (22)

RZ: 54.2 (23) – 55.8 (24)

Takeaways: 44 (1) – 31 (t8)

Success rate: 54.5 (32) – 56.1 (29)

EPA/PLAY: -.07 (24) – -3.7 (25)

Mike Zimmer (2008-13)

Lewis turned to Zimmer – who got caught up in Bobby Petrino’s disgraceful resignation in Atlanta in 2007 – after firing Bresnahan.

The numbers immediately improved in Year 1 under Zimmer. Some backslid in Year 2, but for the part, improvement continued in Year 2 as Zimmer emerged as one of the top DCs in the game.

DVOA: 16 – 14

PPD: 1.76 (16) – 1.50 (10)

PPG: 22.8 (19) – 18.2 (6)

YPP: 5.14 (12) – 4.92 (4)

INT rate: 5.7 (10) – 2.4 (23)

Sack pct: 3.3 (31) – 5.9 (18)

3D: 36.7 (7) – 39.4 (18)

RZ: 42.7 (24) – 38.6 (16)

Takeaways: 24 (t17) – 25 (t19)

Success rate: 58.0 (15) – 59.3 (9)

EPA/PLAY: 0.8 (13) – 6.3 (8)

Paul Guenther Made Big Improvement from Year 1 to Year 2 with Bengals

Paul Guenther (2014-17)

Lewis promoted Guenther from linebackers coach to DC when Zimmer left to become the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.

Guenther took an already solid defense to another level in many of the categories, leading to the Bengals starting 8-0 in 2015 and being one of the best teams in the league until Andy Dalton broke his thumb.

DVOA: 14 – 9

PPD: 1.72 (13) – 1.43 (3)

PPG: 21.5 (12) – 17.4 (2)

YPP: 5.39 (15) – 5.28 (10)

INT rate: 3.3 (5) – 3.3 (4)

Sack pct: 3.2 (32) – 6.1 (17)

3D: 36.7 (7) – 39.4 (18)

RZ: 49.1 (10) – 47.4 (5)

Takeaways: 26 (t10) – 28 (t6)

Success rate: 57.5 (22) – 58.8 (15)

EPA/PLAY: -0.7(14) – 5.7 (9)

Teryl Austin (2018)

Lewis brought Austin to Cincinnati from Detroit, where he had been the DC for the Lions from 2014-17.

It did not go well, as the Bengals posted historically bad numbers, forcing Lewis to fire Austin midseason and take over the playcalling himself.

Therefore, there are no Year 1 to Year 2 numbers to compare.

Lou Anarumo (2019-2024)

Anarumo became a first-time defensive coordinator at age 52 when Zac Taylor brought him on board as part of his inaugural staff.

DVOA: 31 – 26

PPD: 2.10 (23) – 2.28 (20)

PPDG: 26.3 (25) – 26.5 (22)

YPP: 6.09 (32) – 6.10 (28)

INT rate: 2.2 (19) – 2.0 (18)

Sack pct: 5.8 (24) – 3.0 (31)

3D: 42.6 (25) – 43.3 (20)

RZ: 49.0 (5) – 63.8 (24)

Takeaways: 16 (28) – 17 (t27)

Success rate: 56.8 (18) – 56.2 (14)

EPA/PLAY: -5.6 (26) – -2.4 (20)

Bengals D Showed Massive Improvement from Week 10 on Last Year

Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle T.J. Slaton Jr. (98) celebrates after sacking Arizona Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett (7) in the third quarter of the NFL Week 17 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Arizona Cardinals at Paycor Stadium in Downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. The Bengals won 37-14. | Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Al Golden (2025-present)

After helping lead Notre Dame to the 2024 national championship game, Golden took over a struggling Bengals defense.

Let’s first look at his 2025 numbers.

Then we’ll make a comparison between Weeks 1-9 of last year and Weeks 10-18.

DVOA: 30

PPD: 2.44 (27)

PPG: 28.9 (27)

YPP: 6.18 (32)

INT rate: 2.4 (11)

Sack pct: 6.2 (23)

3D: 43.4 (28)

RZ: 62.9 (24)

Takeaways: 21 (10)

Success rate: 55.0 (27)

EPA/PLAY: -9.5 (29)

Golden mentioned at the Combine how much he felt his defense improved after midseason.

“I saw a big step at the end of last year. That’s why I’m confident,” Golden said. “I saw a big step over the last eight games. I saw our points per game drop significantly over the last eight games. I think the last eight games, 36 percent on third down. Again, these are all the things I’m going through right now, so a lot of it is fresh in my head.

“But our three-and-outs improved. Our takeaways improved. I think we had 22 sacks the last eight games,” he continued. “The last 21 trips in the red zone, we only yielded nine touchdowns. A lot of things settled in and improved, especially when Trey (Hendrickson) wasn’t coming back, when Logan (Wilson) wasn’t available, when Cam Taylor-Britt wasn’t coming back and we had to plot a new course.

“Some guys emerged, and obviously guys settled in at linebacker. Dax (Hill) settled in. Myles Murphy came on strong. All that’s important. And that’s why I’m excited.”

Here are Weeks 1-9 numbers vs. Weeks 10-18.

DVOA: 32 – 13

PPD: 2.93 (32) – 1.83 (11)

PPG: 33.3 (32) – 24.0 (21)

YPP: 6.4 (32) – 5.88 (30)

INT rate: 2.6 (9) – 2.2 (16)

Sack pct: 4.1 (29) – 36.3 (27)

3D: 49.1 (31) – 36.3 (7)

RZ: 69.8 (29) – 47.4 (8)

Takeaways/Game: 1.0 (t19) – 1.5 (t9)

Success rate: 52.0 (31) – 58.9 (17)

EPA/PLAY: -17.3 (32) – 0.9 (17)