What we're learning about young pieces at the core of the Bengals' defense

In October, when the Bengals’ defense was reeling, Lou Anarumo made a bold move as he tried to find a spark. He benched captain Vonn Bell for Jordan Battle.

The decision failed terribly.

Against the Ravens, as Bell played the worst game of his Bengals career, Anarumo subbed Battle in for a stretch in the fourth quarter. Battle immediately allowed a deep catch and missed two tackles on subsequent plays. Battle didn’t even finish the drive.

Three weeks later, Bell was having another rough game as the Bengals faced the Eagles. Battle went in, allowed a deep ball touchdown to Devonte Smith and got pulled again.

Just two months ago, Battle was unplayable. Now, he has more momentum than any player on the young core of the Bengals’ defense.

Beginning with the Raiders game, Anarumo committed to letting Battle play through his mistakes. Battle started to hit his stride.

The first big play was a third down pass breakup against Raiders star tight end Brock Bowers. Against the Ravens, he stonewalled Derrick Henry twice. Against the Cowboys, Battle’s technique in man coverage set up an interception for Geno Stone.

Now over the last two games, Battle has been playing the best football of his career and showing that he has the potential to be a starting safety.

The splash plays are adding up, the communication has been better and the added confidence is obvious. The Bengals have been playing some terrible quarterbacks, but a lot of what Battle has been doing would translate against any opponent.

Joe Burrow said he wanted the Bengals to find some cornerstones down the stretch this season. Battle still has a lot to prove, but he has done more to establish himself as a starter than anyone over the last two months.

Let’s look at a few Bengals defenders that are turning some heads with splash plays down the stretch this season.

1. Jordan Battle

We think of Battle as an in-the-box run stopping safety. He’s showing some added potential over the last few games.

In the third quarter on Sunday, Dorian Thompson-Robinson tried a routine throw to Jerry Jeudy on a short hitch route. Battle read the play the whole way, clamped down on the Browns’ standout receiver and broke up the pass.

Over the last five games, Battle has been targeted 13 times. He has only allowed three catches.

The next step in Battle’s career will be splash plays from the free safety position, and he’s showing positive signs. On the Browns’ final play of the game on Sunday, he expertly baited Thompson-Robinson into making a throw over the middle. Battle would have had the game-concluding interception had Akeem Davis-Gaither not dove in front of him to tip the pass.

Earlier in Battle’s career, his biggest weakness was the timing of his movements up and down the field. Before the snap, he was a bad disguiser. During the snap, he had inconsistent instincts against play action passes and got himself out of positon.

He’s doing a lot better now, and it’s translating into splash plays. His biggest strength has been the way he breaks downhill against the run, and that translated into two tackles for loss against the Browns. He’s also playing stronger, which he showed as he separated from the left guard for a tackle on Sunday.

The mistakes are also getting fewer and further between. There had been inconsistent communication (see Justin Fields’ run), but Battle has become a more active presence before the snap at getting details ironed out.

I feel a lot more confident about Battle’s path to start for the 2025 Bengals. He has a big offseason ahead of him, but he has put examples of his ceiling on tape and given the Bengals tangible reasons to have confidence in his long-term outlook.

2. Joseph Ossai

He’s playing the best football of his career by showing a combination of hustle, play recognition and the quick twitch athleticism to separate from blocks. Ossai has never looked healthier, and it’s making a big difference.

He started to his his stride in October with standout games against the Giants and Browns, and he continues to improve.

The Bengals’ run defense is still struggling at the point of attack. Ossai is finding the ball, chasing down the ball carrier and finishing plays. He has terrific chase down speed, and he never gives up on a play.

Ossai is a smart rusher who doesn’t put himself out of position. He’s not producing like a starter-level player. But he’s very, very useful. He has also set up several sacks for teammates this season.

Ossai is showing some added versatility. His sack from the defensive tackle position against the Cowboys was one of the best pass rush reps by any Bengal this season.

He’s still not a force in the run game, but he’s a relatively consistent tackler on this Bengals’ defense.

Ossai, in a contract year, has all of the tools to be a rotational piece on a good defensive line. The Bengals will have to rework their plan on the edge this offseason, but there’s a clear role for Ossai somewhere on the depth chart.

3. Cam Taylor-Britt

This more consistent stretch from Taylor-Brit started with him getting back to the foundation of his game.

As a rookie, he made a name for himself by being the most physical guy on the field. Taylor-Britt has gotten back to prioritizing tough, strong jams at the line of scrimmage instead of trying to create big plays for himself. That approach has ironically led to two interceptions by Taylor-Britt, which he created by throwing off a receiver at the line of scrimmage. He also stopped a Cowboys touchdown when Cooper Rush threw a fade with his physicality at the line of scrimmage.

Taylor-Britt is the toughest guy to evaluate on this list because of the quarterbacks the Bengals have been facing. He’s the only every down corner on this list.

Still, Taylor-Britt seems to have settled in. He’ll be able to play with a lot more confidence against the Broncos this week than he had in November.

It’s notable that Marco Wilson is taking some of Taylor-Britt’s snaps against No. 1 receivers. During this stretch, Taylor-Britt hasn’t been following or taking away the opposing team’s star.

Regardless, he has been stickier in coverage. He hasn’t been getting tricked by the eyes of the quarterback, which had been happening (no one did it better than Andy Dalton in Week 4). He’s tackling better, communicating better, picking up motions better and passing off assignments better. That matters no matter how bad of a quarterback you’re facing.

We’ll learn a lot about Taylor-Britt over the next two weeks. He has the ability to lock down a starting spot for 2025, or to open up a position battle for next summer. As a whole, he’s still the Bengals’ corner that you’d pick first in a draft.

4. McKinnley Jackson and Kris Jenkins

The Bengals’ season has been full of bad breaks. Two of them cost Jackson a chance at being part of extremely memorable, game-swinging plays.

Battle’s dropped ball on the goal line against the Titans took the shine off of Jackson’s forced fumble. He knifed through the line of scrimmage, which was another rep where Jackson showed some pretty impressive suddenness with his first step. That got him out of position a few times this year where his aggressiveness cost him, but he knows how to use that first step a lot better now.

Even more impressive was a pressure against Lamar Jackson on the road in Baltimore.

With five minutes left in the fourth quarter of a tie game, Jackson stood up the left guard to contain Lamar Jackson. Then when Lamar broke toward the left sideline, the 330-pound nose tackle ran with him. Jackson nearly had a sack, but somehow Lamar spun out of it in a Joe Burrow style escape.

Lamar was rushed into a throw that should have been a game-changing pick by Taylor-Britt, but the corner dropped it. You know what happened from there.

Still, McKinnley Jackson has more splash plays than you’d expect from a rotational nose tackle. Like Ossai, Jackson has a place on the depth chart of a good defensive line. Jenkins is responsible for nine run stops this year. Five of them are in the last three games. (Most of these plays saw Jackson take on solo blocks. He has more to prove against double teams).

The Bengals will need a lot more pass rush from their defensive tackles in the long run, but Jackson at nose plus Kris Jenkins in a BJ Hill-type rotational role is a solid foundation for your depth.

Jenkins is proving to be pretty solid at shedding one-on-one blocks against the run. The Steelers game included some great tape of Jenkins using standout technique to free himself up, finding the ball and closing in to make a tackle. He shows his short-area athleticism on these plays. He’s also learning how to use that as a pass rusher, including his spin move sack against the Browns. He also chased down the Browns’ quarterback for a second sack, and you don’t see that play often for a defensive tackle.

Jenkins has good lateral range for a defensive tackle, and he’s a consistent tackler. Like Jackson, Jenkins has made the majority of his best plays this season in December.

5. Myles Murphy

Behind Trey Hendrickson, Murphy has the second-best pressure rate on the Bengals. Murphy isn’t finishing plays yet, and he’s not putting himself in positions to showcase the athleticism and straight line speed that made him a first round pick.

But Murphy is a better bull rusher than I expected him to be. He’s using the strength he added during the offseason. He’s also consistently pushing back the pocket and setting up his teammates by collapsing the pocket. Murphy’s pressures have created turnovers in each of the last two games.

On Josh Newton’s pick against the Titans, Murphy pulled off the impressive feat of knocking back massive left tackle JC Latham, which forced a bad throw. Murphy also broke down the pocket on Geno Stone’s pick versus the Browns.

It’ll take a better pass rush plan to turn those pressures into sacks, but Murphy is showing progress. He also has to use his speed better to execute rushes where he dips under the edge.

Murphy is playing less than Ossai, and you’d expect Murphy to be the better player against the run. Murphy has to make some more Sam Hubbard-style plays to become a full-time starter.

The pass rush impact has still given Murphy some more momentum.

6. DJ Ivey

DJ Ivey has been the Bengals’ tight end stopper since his first game of the season. Over those nine games and 47 snaps, he has allowed one total catch (a short gain on third-and-long during the final minute against the Cowboys on a play the Bengals were willing to concede as the clock ran out).

Ivey exclusively plays high-leverage downs — third downs in true passing situations. He has guarded David Njoku, Brock Bowers, Mark Andrews and Pat Freiermuth, among others. And Ivey has blanketed them. He has only even been targeted five times all season, even though he’s typically guarding a good player who’s a big part of the opposing team’s passing game.

He does have two penalties on his ledger (one was a very questionable call). But for the most part, quarterbacks aren’t looking Ivey’s way on third downs.

Against the Cowboys, on Geno Stone’s big third down blitz that helped change the game, Ivey made a huge impact on that play with a blitz of his own. The Cowboys were clearly not expecting him to blitz because of how often he guards tight ends on third downs, and his pressure helped set up Stone’s big play.

Ivey’s tip against the Browns, which resulted in a pick, was a terrific rep. He jammed Njoku and overpowered him at the line of scrimmage, stuck with him stride-for-stride on a scramble drill and showed perfect technique to get his hands between the tight ends and prevent the catch.

Ivey feels like the type of guy that the Chiefs have. A role player they found with a late pick and identified a way to get the most out of. Defensive coordinators need guys like that in their tool box, and Ivey has earned Anarumo’s trust.

7. Marco Wilson
   
   

I’m interested in keeping Wilson around next season. There’s something there with his combination of speed and man coverage ability, and his development has been some of Lou Anarumo’s best work this season.

Wilson changed the Cowboys game with the way he tracked speedster Kavontae Turpin on a deep ball, and he also held his ground to break up a curl route to Brandin Cooks. Every snap that Wilson played in that game was man coverage, and Wilson played with confidence.

That game clearly showed something to Anarumo, who then moved Wilson into the Bengals’ most-used third down package.

Every snap that Wilson played against the Titans was man coverage against No. 1 receiver Calvin Ridley. And every snap he played against the Browns was man coverage against No. 1 receiver Jerry Jeudy.

Wilson quickly got up to speed to help out a secondary that’s missing two of its top corners and was desperate for another player to make an impact in man coverage. Bo Nix will test Wilson a whole lot more than any quarterback he has faced during his short stint with the Bengals. But the film shows that Wilson is playing tight coverage against good receivers and executing his responsibilities consistently.