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AFC North · Season 2026

Cincinnati Bengals.

Archetype · Weak-Link Weekly

Talent pockets; coaching or coordination gap keeps outcomes volatile.

The shape
255075CINPass ORun OPass DRun D
Pass O
81
Run O
74
Pass D
77
Run D
80
Overall
66.4
range 38.394.5

Resources on the table

2026 cap committed
$319M
#1 committed
2026 Day 1-2 picks
2
7 total
2026 draft capital
7
even on trades

Units

QB
83
OL
70
WR
90
RB / TE
78
D-Line
87
Spine
78
CB
74

Composite

Coverage
74
Pass rush
87
Skill
88

On the sideline

HC
68
Zac Taylor
OC
72
Dan Pitcher
★ New
DC
68
Al Golden

Cadence’s scouting report

Mike Brown traded the tenth overall pick for Dexter Lawrence, the first time in sixty years of common-draft-era football the Cincinnati Bengals have broken glass for a proven veteran. The gesture was received in the locker room the way surprise medical attention is received in a Victorian novel. Joe Burrow told reporters in December that he had lost some joy and that if he was going to keep doing this he needed to find fun again; Orlando Brown Jr. responded, on the record, that "winning cures all," a sentence teammates deliver only when they have already checked Zillow in Minneapolis. Al Golden, whose last NFL coordinator job ended in 2015, takes over the defense.