The Cincinnati Bengals have one game left before they pack up the pads for the season. Whether they win or lose that last game, the 2025 season has been another failure.
The team will finish with a 7-10 record if they win and, for the third consecutive season, will be watching the playoffs from home. That’s three years wasted in the incredible trio of Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins.
When history looks back on the 2025 season, injuries will take a part of the blame, but absolutely dreadful defense will also be center stage. Despite firing Lou Anarumo and replacing him with Al Golden, the Bengals’ defense was somehow worse than it was in 2024 for a large portion of the season.
A large part of that is the inability to rush the passer and poor play on the back end, particularly from Geno Stone, who was signed as a free agent prior to the 2024 season.
Golden doesn’t see it that way, though, and, according to Mike Pertraglia, he was singing the safety’s praise.
“The success that we’ve had in whatever it is — the final eight (games) — a lot of it can be attributed to Geno,” he said. “I think he’s been a really good leader for us. I think his communication is exceptional. I think he gets us in the right defense when we need to be in the right defense. I think Jordan (Battle), Geno, myself included, would all say ‘Man, we’d like to have one play back here, one play back there,‘ but get in line. And that’s me included in terms of putting the guys in the best position possible. Who wouldn’t want to have a play or a call back. So again, I think he’s improved from last year. And just again, I’m always looking at the positive, and I see a path forward for him to get better, continue to improve, and we’re going to keep coaching him.”
While Golden watches whatever it is he’s watching, the fans are seeing something completely different. So is PFF, which gives Stone an overall defensive grade of 52.8 and a coverage grade of 48.8.
Let’s not forget tackling, which is something all defenders are required to do. His grade there is 34.7, so I guess he was absent from school that week.
Bengals fans thought he was bad in 2024, and he was, but he was actually worse in 2025. His overall defensive grade was 53.1, which included a coverage grade of 53.7 and a tackling score of 49.2. While PFF’s scoring system isn’t perfect and doesn’t always accurately show the whole picture, in this case, I think they hit the nail right on the head.
Luckily for fans, Stone is going to be an unrestricted free agent after Sunday’s game is over. Unluckily for Bengals fans, he’ll be cheap, and the Bengals like them cheap. Until we see something other than this, I think Golden can keep that kind of praise in-house.
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