NFL Analysts Blasts Bengals, Dismisses Their Playoff Chances This Season

CINCINNATI --- Joe Burrow and the Bengals' starting offense played their final preseason snaps Monday night at the Commanders before the team's regular season opener against the Cleveland Browns. While the Bengals' offense looked efficient, the starting defense looked like the same kryptonite that kept Burrow and company out of the playoffs last season.


This has led some in the national media to pick teams currently in a rebuild to make the playoffs over the Bengals, with ESPN's own Louis Riddick being the latest. On ESPN's Wednesday edition of First Take, Riddick made the statement that he would trust the Raiders to make the playoffs before he would trust the Bengals.


"The Raiders have made significant improvement. I'd trust the Raiders right now to sneak into the playoffs before I would trust the Bengals." Riddick said.


Riddick would continue on by using the New England Patriots' coaching staff additions as an example of them doing more to complement their roster than the Bengals currently do.


"Think about the Patriots and what they have done and the people they have brought into the organization and the locker room, the people on the coaching staff, they have an all-star coaching staff that will get that team to play far above and beyond what our expectations are right now."


Riddick followed up this statement by commenting on how the defense is not the Bengals' only problem.

"Since Joe has been there, they've been in the bottom corner of the league in pass-block win rate every single year," Riddick said. "And people go, 'well, he's been able to manage, look at the season he had last year.' You're playing with fire with the way in which this guy has to be perfect every single week when he has turnstiles for an offensive line.


"While everyone else in the AFC is gaining ground, this team is losing ground. He's keeping his, he kept his dudes [receivers Ja'Marr Chase & Tee Higgins], but as far as the supporting cast is concerned, every other football team is getting better they just are, the West has gotten better, the East has gotten better, the AFC North lets just see what happens in Pittsburgh okay? You know defensively they're gonna be better, and if Aaron is on it like Ryan Clark, Jalen Ramsey and people are saying how he's looked in training camp, hey man we know what Baltimore brings." Riddick said on the rest of the AFC, and Riddick would follow this up with the statement below regarding Trey Hendrickson.

"I really think this football team could be in trouble again and look Trey Hendrickson does not make them a Super Bowl Contender, does not make them a playoff contender by himself alone. There are far more foundational issues with this football team."

The overall point Riddick is trying to make here is a valid one. Instead of the Bengals' front office bringing in several new defensive pieces for a defense that was atrocious last season, they opted to only bring in new defensive coordinator Al Golden with the hope that he could develop the current talent in the room, and only signed nose tackle TJ Slaton in free agency as a new starter.


The Bengals need more than just Hendrickson for the defense to improve drastically this upcoming season, and the starting defense's recent outing on Monday Night Football against the Washington Commanders could be evidence of that, as the Commanders' starting offense managed 106 rushing yards in only six plays.


Where Riddick goes off the rails here, though, is suggesting rebuilding teams like the Las Vegas Raiders and New England Patriots, both which are teams that picked in the top 10 of the 2025 NFL draft, could be more of a contender than the Bengals.


The Bengals' defense would have to be even worse than last season for that to occur, and even then, Burrow led Cincinnati to a 9-8 record. The biggest reason for their failure to make the postseason last year was the slow start at the beginning of the season, which saw them go 0-3 to start the year.


The Bengals are a contender every year that No. 9 is under center. Watch Riddick's comments below: