Duke Tobin and the Cincinnati Bengals front office added new players to the team’s pass rush.
The Cincinnati Bengals’ offseason opened with a wound that needed addressing immediately. After a prolonged and public contract dispute that stretched across two years, the Bengals declined to use the franchise tag on four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Trey Hendrickson, allowing him to walk in free agency.
The organization had lost its most disruptive defensive player. To make matters worse for a Bengals’ that ranked 30th overall on defense in 2025, it also watched Joseph Ossai walk out the door, stripping two starters from its edge room in a single offseason.
But general manager Duke Tobin and the front office responded with a reconstruction that was anything but passive.
The Bengals first signed Boye Mafe, the Seattle Seahawks pass rusher who helped win a Super Bowl, in free agency, adding a proven edge presence to join 2025 first-round picks Myles Murphy and Shemar Stewart on the exterior.
Cincinnati then added Jonathan Allen before trading its 10th overall pick to the New York Giants for Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, giving Al Golden an anchor in the middle capable of generating interior pressure at an elite level.
But Mafe and Lawrence combined for just three sacks last season, which made the addition of Cashius Howell in the second round of the draft a necessary complement. The 2025 SEC Defensive Player of the Year out of Texas A&M, Howell gives Golden a different profile on the edge: a 252-pound, bendy speed rusher who provides genuine variety in how the Bengals can construct their fronts on any given down.
Howell adds the flexibility to play 4-2 edge or outside linebacker in five-man fronts and has shown proficiency dropping into coverage.
When Bengals reporter Dan Hoard reminded Tobin that the last time he stood at the podium to address the media he declared pass rush is king, the GM didn’t flinch.
“It’s still king,” he said. “You wanna be able to affect the other team’s quarterback. Stop the run and get to those situations: we think we’ve addressed all of those.”
That group: Lawrence, Mafe, Allen, Murphy, Stewart, and Howell gives Cincinnati more pass rush depth than they have had at any point in recent memory. The interior is anchored by one of the most powerful defensive tackles in football. The edge has a veteran with championship experience and young first-round investments still developing.
Without a doubt, this was a deliberate, aggressive reconstruction of one of the most important position group in football. Tobin knows pass rush wins games and spent the entire offseason bolstering that side of the field.