CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Bengals safety Vonn Bell wasn’t in the mood to talk much Monday.
He didn’t want to explain why a piece of cardboard that looked like a white cotton ball was wedged above his right ear. He didn’t want to discuss his play this year, the time he spent with sophomore Jordan Battle or his conversations with defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo about his future role.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said with a grin. “I’ll keep that to myself.”
The conversation at his locker then turned to what has become a common theme for this year’s Bengals team. What was a promising year turned into a huge disappointment. At that time, Bell didn’t say anything. But the rhetorical questions he posed were open to interpretation and said a lot.
“What did I come back here for?” Bell told ESPN.
Four years ago, Bell took a big hit and forced a turnover on “Monday Night Football” against the Pittsburgh Steelers, serving as the iconic tone-setter for a playoff berth in 2021 and 2022. Ta. However, many things have changed since then. after that. Cincinnati (4-7) is at a crossroads before its first game of the year against Pittsburgh (1 p.m. ET, CBS). As the Bengals look to keep their slim playoff hopes alive with six games remaining, they need to evaluate what went wrong, especially defensively, and what that means for the makeup of their roster going forward. There is also.
The reason is simple: lack of execution. But the answer to why units are inconsistent is multi-layered.
“There was so much going on,” Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton said. “Guys missing assignments, guys like me missing opportunities to change the game with turnover plays. There was just a lot going on.”
Injuries and inconsistent play have certainly contributed to a defense that ranks 26th in points allowed per drive. When Anarumo repeatedly cited inconsistency, it was in regards to on-field performance. That was the main reason cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, the team’s top cornerback at the start of the season, was benched in the Week 11 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Cornerback DJ Turner regained his starting spot after being sidelined with a broken collarbone.
However, even before the struggles, the team had been rotating in first-team defense against a slew of young players. They started this year with four players who were drafted in the top 100 of the past three seasons, but only one starting spot was available.
In training camp, Taylor-Britt came off the bench at times, dictating the battle between Turner and Dax Hill as the team took a close look at current starter Josh Newton. He won the job and started five games before struggling through the season. Ending ACL injuries. As the season progressed, Bell traded snaps with Battle.
“We’re looking at who’s on the field with us and which side of the field we can trust,” free safety Geno Stone said. “Now I know I can lean in a different direction while playing the post, knowing this guy is winning consistently.”
And given that the difference between winning and losing in the NFL is finite, the success of any given play depends largely on the feel of the players.
Darrin Simmons, the Bengals’ special teams coordinator who has been with the team for 22 seasons, said consistency among a group of players is “the ultimate thing” in football. And the only way to get players to react the same way and think the same way is through repetition.
“If it’s a revolving door, you’ll never develop it,” Simmons said. “They always look at it the same way because you can never develop trust.”
Quarterback Joe Burrow said in a press conference Wednesday that while it’s not impossible to make the playoffs, he knows the long-term outlook isn’t ideal. According to ESPN Research, Cincinnati has just a 12.7% chance of making the playoffs. To put that in perspective, that number was only as low as 30.7% in 2021, when Cincinnati won in Week 17 and ultimately clinched a spot in the Super Bowl.
To give the Bengals the best chance to advance to the postseason, it will be important to rebuild their defense from this weekend’s loss to the Steelers (8-3). But when it comes to contending for a championship, deciding on the right players to surround Burrow going forward will be just as important for a team looking to become a contender again.
