The Cincinnati Bengals defense went young. Two rookie linebackers and a rookie edge rusher, all starting. A cast of unproven recent NFL Draft picks across the defensive line. Even the secondary, experienced by comparison, still has four starters on rookie deals.
The Bengals are playing the kids. Without better options, they’ve decided to accept the mistakes and growing pains along the way with hopes of a better tomorrow.
Only, too many more games like Sunday’s 39-38 loss to the New York Jets from this defense, and there might not be a tomorrow for this coaching staff. The sheer amount of inexperience they’re living and dying (mostly dying) by was a reality the team had to digest along with the ugly game film.
“That’s where we’re at,” head coach Zac Taylor said, “and so we have to create that experience quickly.”
Beyond being dead last in the NFL in most defensive categories, the Bengals are being suffocated by youth. Trey Hendrickson’s injury and Logan Wilson’s benching only exacerbated the problem. There’s hope of a long game, but the reality is they have only one way to learn whether these players can be part of the solution defensively or just added to the list of busted top-100 draft picks.
Rookie linebackers Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight played nearly every snap Sunday. With Hendrickson reaggravating his hip injury, first-round pick Shemar Stewart and young defensive linemen Kris Jenkins and Myles Murphy were thrust into the spotlight of a team dying for pass-rush help.
Early results are concerning, but defensive coordinator Al Golden wasn’t buying that growing pains should be expected.
“The opponent doesn’t care,” Golden said. “The standard doesn’t change irrespective of their age. We’ve got to eliminate some of those errors and continue to utilize them in the roles they do best. There are no excuses. The only thing that matters is performing and executing at a high level. Obviously, we had too many lapses yesterday.”
The lapses started with explosives in the game. The Bengals allowed four rushes of at least 25 yards. That’s the most such runs allowed by a defense in the last two NFL seasons. Only one team has allowed more (the Detroit Lions with five in Week 16 of 2022) in the last 12 seasons.
Those four rushes totaled 137 yards and served as the biggest gains on drives that accounted for 20 points in the upset.
Each involved a rookie making a critical mistake.
• On a 25-yard jet sweep by Isaiah Williams, Knight was supposed to fill the alley between the edge rusher, with Geno Stone taking on a blocker on the outside. Knight hesitated, shuffled his feet, then failed to lay a hand on Williams.
• On a 35-yard off-tackle run by Breece Hall, Knight got blown up at the point of attack, Carter was too hesitant as the free hitter to make a tackle in the backfield, and Stewart got moved almost 10 yards downfield before being dumped over a pancaked Wilson.
• Then, on a backbreaking 27-yard touchdown by Hall in the fourth quarter, Stewart bit inside, ignoring an obvious task to contain the running back, and left him free to the outside, where he eventually trotted into the end zone.
• On a 50-yard run by Davis, Carter lined him up unblocked in the hole and missed the tackle, sending him free into the secondary.
Breece Hall tight ropes the sideline for his 2nd TD of the game!
NYJvsCIN on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/8Nc5D2X7xx
— NFL (@NFL) October 26, 2025
“For whatever reason, we cannot get rid of the inconsistent (plays) that break your back,” Golden said. “And I gotta break through there and give them a path to success there — that’s on me — and just eliminate those plays. There’s really great things on the other side of that, if we can just eliminate a couple of those plays. They end up being catastrophic for you.”
Inexperienced players make mistakes, definitely catastrophic ones. But many from Sunday — which spanned far beyond those four runs — stem from a player lacking trust in those around them, confidence they know what they are doing, or a combination of both.
It creates a group consistently a step slow and constantly missing tackles.
Statistical website SportRadar logged the Bengals with 81 missed tackles on the season. For perspective, the Washington Commanders entered “Monday Night Football” with the second most in the league at 56.
“It’s being a step hesitant, and so maybe you’re not missing a tackle, but you are missing a tackle because of the little hesitancy there,” Taylor said. “So those are things that I think we’re seeing as a unit, as a team, that we’ve got to clean up and be better at.”
Taylor said the team will look at “creative” ways to practice tackling. Only so much can be done in practice to begin fixing these debilitating problems. Golden is focusing on building trust and clarity for everyone, but specifically the players who are gaining experience on the fly.
“We want the guys playing fast, playing with energy, playing with passion, and if there is hesitancy, we have to get rid of it fast,” he said.
He specifically needs to get rid of it with his young pass rushers. When Hendrickson went out before halftime, Sunday looked to be an even greater opportunity for Stewart, Murphy and Jenkins, specifically, but it turned into an indictment.
The Jets entered as the worst pass-protection line in the NFL; they left as the latest to shut down these young rushers. None managed even a hit on the quarterback.
The lack of pressure from the #Bengals generally, but considering the opponent specifically, was staggering.
For reference, here are the pressure/sack/blitz rates for every Jets opponent this year. pic.twitter.com/Mbe1QpAj7g
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) October 27, 2025
None managed more than a single pressure, via Pro Football Focus. It logged Jenkins with a 0 percent win rate in 17 pass rush snaps. Murphy led the team in win percentage (9.4 percent), but it never amounted to much. Stewart, shifting from inside to outside, was far more a liability than a disruption.
Stewart’s still in the “infant stage” of his acclimation to the program midway through his rookie season, according to Golden. Missing the offseason program in a contract dispute and now a month of the year with an ankle injury have him behind, and it showed.
Yet, he will continue to play because they badly need his development. Same for Carter and Knight. Despite a need for more aggressive and exotic blitzes and play calls to inject life into this drowning defense, he’s opting to focus on simplicity.
“I can’t ask them to do too much,” Golden said.
His focus on eliminating many of the mistakes is to keep all these inexperienced players finding confidence and clarity in their jobs.
“We’re fairly simple and just need the guys to play faster,” Golden said. “We’re probably not at the point for (coaches) Jerry (Montgomery) and Mike (Hodges), the front seven guys, where they’re solving everything in the grass in terms of adjustments and stunts and things of that nature. That’s where we’re at right now. I’d rather do that and have them play a little faster than encumber them with a lot of different calls and adjustments that they’re not quite ready for.”
Schemes, tricks and mistake-free football are solutions for another day for this defense. For now, they are accepting a life of living with inexperience. Taylor begged players to step up, make a play and show leadership after Sunday’s loss. A defensive players-only meeting followed on Monday.
All that sounds great, and there’s an appreciation for accountability, but it won’t make the mistakes and missed tackles disappear.
“We just have to do it,” Taylor said. “Can’t keep sitting up here and saying it.”
The question was asked: How much time do you need to know if a young player just won’t cut it in the league? Golden paused and affirmed it was a great question as he thought it over. How long can you tolerate mistakes and lack of production before you learn that’s just who they are? Patience is limited in the NFL. Yet, the Bengals are forced to ask that question at all three levels of the defense these days. Golden recalled Germaine Pratt playing poorly as a rookie but then ascending to a strong career in Cincinnati that included a slew of memorable playoff moments. The light turned on for cornerback DJ Turner II just this season, his third in the NFL. For many others, it never happened.
“They all learn at different times and different levels,” Golden said.
You just don’t want it to cost games and jobs in the process. Sunday, the process cost one of the ugliest losses in recent team history. It will likely do so again. This is where they are at.
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