Bengals' defensive line survives the scare; the full roster picture looks better than it has all camp

B.J. Hill is confirmed active. Shemar Stewart remains questionable, but that's a different conversation than where this was three weeks ago, when Stewart was carted off during the first 11-on-11 drill with a hyperextended knee and the entire defensive rebuild felt like it might unravel before a regular-season snap was played. The line held. Mostly.

The offensive core was never really in doubt, but it's worth noting it out loud: Burrow, Chase, Higgins, Chase Brown, and Perine are all active heading into the final stretch of camp. For a team that lost nearly five wins last year to a defense that couldn't hold up its end, the offense being whole is table stakes — the defense is where the margin lives. Hill back in the rotation alongside Jonathan Allen and Dexter Lawrence gives Al Golden something real to work with at defensive tackle.

Stewart's questionable tag is the one thread still loose. He was supposed to anchor the pass rush, and that role remains unsettled until he's cleared. Bryan Cook is also questionable, which is a secondary concern worth watching given how thin that position was in 2025. Two questionable tags on defensive investments the front office made specifically to fix last year's problems — that's not a crisis, but it's not nothing either.

The next ten days are about whether those tags clear. If they do, Cincinnati heads into the season with the defensive line intact and a secondary that at least has more bodies than it did a year ago. If they don't, the margin for error — already thin on a team that went 6-11 while outscoring opponents on paper — gets thinner.