The Bengals defense has been the talk of the offseason. Did they do enough to improve it? Some of the answers may have been on the roster already a year ago. DJ Turner was playing very well at cornerback in 2025 before injury cut his season short. Now he’s back, and in Week 1, he showed us why he is one of this team’s top corners.
Turner is a technician. He understands how to use his body and the limits of the field in coverage. This is a pretty routine play for Turner. He maintains correct position throughout the route, forcing the wide receiver to release too dramatically outside, running out of bounds.
He may not be the biggest player in the room, but he understands how to use his body to affect the route.
This is a similar play but drawn out over a larger distance.
Once again, Jerry Jeudy tries to release vertically to the outside. Turner leans on the route, not allowing for any horizontal separation. Jeudy reacts by getting wider and wider, which makes the window for Joe Flacco close tighter and tighter.
This is a fantastic play.
In this clip, Turner drops off with the vertical route, but he doesn’t just run himself out of the play.
When the ball is thrown to the crosser, Turner breaks and makes a good tackle.
This is an excellent reaction and demonstrates his speed and tackling ability.
He is best in man coverage, but his skills are not limited to one specific aspect of the game.
How about this for a reaction?
It’s a stop route, and the ball is thrown behind and away from Turner. Flacco put the ball where only his man could catch it. Of course, the problem with that is that he has to catch it.
Turner turns to break, and when the ball pops out of the wide receiver’s hands, Turner is right there to scoop it up before it can hit the turf.
This was a clutch play that all but sealed the game for the Bengals.
The secondary had some struggles a year ago, but Turner is poised to step up and make this defense succeed.
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