CINCINNATI — Logan Wilson and the first-string Bengals defense have been gashed multiple times through two preseason games, but it’s not causing panic for that unit.
Cincinnati is running about “10-15%” of what they would normally run in a regular-season game. They lost in Week 1 of the preseason 31-27 to Philadelphia, but played much better defense across the whole game on Monday night in a 31-14 win over Washington.
“Every one of our practices is more back and forth than what those games have been,” Wilson said to the media on Wednesday. “And so it’s hard. We talk about it like I said, we’re only running, like, I don’t know, 10-15% of what we’re, what we’re truly running. And so it’s like you just want to work on your technique and your fundamentals and try to get tackling and turnovers and stuff like that in the game.
“It is, it is what it is. It’s just kind of how the preseason has gone for us. It’s not what we want to see. But like, they had some plays that were schemed up for what we were in. And if you don’t practice against that stuff, you’re not necessarily always ready for it, you know what I mean. And so it was good that we got those reps, because we can learn from those plays for sure. And so that’s all we’re going to do, is continue to learn. Continue to learn from it.”
Cincinnati has plenty of learning film on tap as they gel further on defense.
All in all, that unit can only gel so much, though, with the talent it’s bringing to the table. Any high-ceiling outcome for this defense involves Trey Hendrickson on the field, and that hasn’t happened yet due to his contract issue.
Wilson should be far from an issue this fall as arguably the team’s second-best defensive player. He is coming off a strong 72.4 Pro Football Focus grade last season, including a 90 overall mark against the run.
Check out his full comments from CLNS Media’s Mike Petraglia below:
Logan Wilson explains why it’s hard to judge defense on preseason games pic.twitter.com/WwVI8TMq78
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) August 20, 2025
