The Cincinnati Bengals only have two former players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame—Anthony Muñoz and Ken Riley—but there are several others who are, or will be, deserving.
One of those will be former offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth (when he’s eligible). He played 16 seasons in the league, his first 11 of which were with the Bengals, so he knows what he’s talking about when he’s asked about his first NFL franchise.
He was recently asked by The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway about the state of the franchise, and he didn’t hold back.
“I think for them, health has been a factor. Obviously, you can’t change a lot of that,” he said. “There’s also been things where you say, defensively, it’s been a struggle. I think the biggest problem has probably been not being able to bring in the kind of guys that draft well. A franchise like Cincinnati, let’s be real with each other, they’re not going to live in a trade world, (they’re not) going to overpay guys. So guess what? You’re going to have to draft well. And when you don’t, the whole entire team suffers, and it’s been a problem.”
The front office made it clear they would not be moving on from head coach Zac Taylor or de facto GM Duke Tobin, so no meaningful changes are being made to the way the franchise does things. Outside of home run picks like Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and a handful of others, the Bengals have struggled to find and develop draft picks, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
When he was asked to elaborate on his comments, he explained the Brown family isn’t setting the franchise up for success by constantly sitting on their hands.
“You want to make moves that are significant,” he continued. “Everyone in the building is like, it’s go time. That, to me, is what I’m looking for. My point is that now here you are in another window where you’ve got some young talent on the team, don’t let it go by and not shoot your shot. Shooting your shot is not paying guys that have been there, that have proven that they earned money. Shooting your shot is like, this is something that seems a little risky, and we’re putting ourselves out there, but it’s what we think gets us over the hunp.”
The Bengals came into the 2026 offseason needing help at every level of the defense. They added Bryan Cook, Boye Mafe, and Jonathan Allen, but not a single person in their right mind would say they’ve done enough.
Unfortunately, it appears as if the Bengals are going to rely on their Top-10 pick in April’s upcoming draft and whatever free agents they scrape off the bottom of the barrel to attempt to turn the defense from a liability to an asset.
Hopefully, they get it right this time.
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