The following is an excerpt from Warren Sharp's 2026 Football Preview. In addition to Warren's deep, detailed write-up on all 32 NFL teams, each chapter features page after page of full-color charts, stats, and heatmaps, as well as penalty analysis from Joe Gibbs. Click here for a full FREE chapter from the 2026 Football Preview.

Penalties are an under-discussed aspect of NFL success and failure. Average teams can become playoff contenders with good discipline, and good teams can become great simply by winning the penalty battle.

Let's look at how the Cincinnati Bengals performed from a penalty perspective in 2025 and where they can improve in 2026.

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Cincinnati Bengals 2026 Penalty Outlook: Discipline, Flags & Hidden Edges

The Good

  • The Bengals ranked 30th in penalties per game, continuing a run as one of the NFL’s most disciplined teams in the Joe Burrow and Zac Taylor era.
  • The Bengals averaged the third-fewest penalty yards per game, ranking 30th overall.
  • The Bengals averaged the fewest fourth-quarter penalties per game in 2025.
  • The Bengals ranked as a top-10 beneficiary of automatic first downs via penalty, with the bulk of these penalties generated via defensive pass interference and defensive holding.
  • Cincinnati ended the 2025 season recording the second-largest advantage of automatic first downs via penalty versus opponents. Only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers recorded a larger discrepancy advantage versus opponents.
  • The Bengals averaged 2.0 offensive penalties in the first half versus just 0.71 in the second half of games, one of the best half-over-half performers in this category last season.
  • The defense was the No. 1 beneficiary of offensive pass interference penalties. In an otherwise dismal year defensively, Cincinnati did rank highly in at least one metric, and this was the one.

The Bad

  • Cincinnati averaged the second-fewest penalties per game on defense. That statistic is ideal if you possess a quality defensive unit, which the Bengals most definitely did not. Strategic situational penalties to push their average higher should have been implemented to assist a less-than-effective unit at key moments of close games last season.
  • The Bengals generated the fewest special teams penalties per game on opponents in 2025.

Grade: A

The defense was a historically bad unit last season.

Cincinnati has done its best to address that side of the ball in the offseason and is banking on the new additions paying immediate dividends.

The offense has as high a ceiling as anyone in the NFL when they're firing on all cylinders.

When that's the case, the defense needs only to be serviceable for Cincinnati to be a playoff team.

Which brings us back to the signal caller.

Joe Burrow’s health has been the biggest hurdle for this team in recent seasons.

Knowing that makes the equation in Cincinnati simple.

If he remains healthy, Burrow will put up MVP numbers, and the Bengals will be in the thick of the playoff hunt in a loaded AFC field of contenders.

This analysis continues in the 2026 Football Preview

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