It’s no mystery Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. struggled as a rookie in 2025. His play was so troubling that despite being a second-round pick with a year of starting experience, nobody would have blinked if the Bengals had signed or drafted a starter to relegate him to the bench this season.

But that didn’t happen. Cincinnati turned over stones it had never touched before to get the right personnel for defensive coordinator Al Golden, but the Bengals trusted their evaluations of Knight and his partner in crime, Barrett Carter. They did nothing substantial at the position and bet on two rookie starters growing into better second-year starters.

So far, that bet on Knight looks like a good decision.

Demetrius Knight Jr. is becoming an asset in the Bengals’ run defense

The one area Knight has improved drastically is in run defense. Per Pro Football Focus, he made a run stop on just 4.7% of his run defense snaps and sported a 14.8% missed tackle rate. Since the Bengals’ loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 3, he ranks seventh among starting LBs with 15 tackles in run defense. He has the third-highest run-stop rate at 13%, and has zero missed tackles against the run.

His performance against the Miami Dolphins in Week 5 stood out the most. Knight finished with six tackles, and four of them were stops, meaning the offense failed on the play. He hit the hole hard and made powerful tackles in the trenches. I’d call it the best run-defending game of his young career.

Any conversation about Cincinnati’s up-and-down run defense has to include Knight as someone who is making it better. Yes, improved defensive tackle play in front of him is making his job easier. Dexter Lawrence is arguably the best nose tackle in the NFL. Still, we saw nothing close to this kind of production from last year. His execution is all the Bengals can ask from him.

Where Knight still has to get better

Knight hasn’t been perfect. He and Carter share blame for outside runs turning into explosive plays. Both have undercut blocks, lost gap discipline, and failed to scrape over the top quickly enough to force runs back inside. Opposing offenses are running away from the strength of Cincinnati’s defense, the interior of its line, and the LBs have to answer that.

Knight needs to be more productive when the ball reaches the perimeter. Compared to Carter, though, he’s reaching the sideline faster. His stop-to-start acceleration is showing up more often, and he’s meeting ball carriers at a higher rate than his teammate.

Coverage is another story. Knight hasn’t been what the Bengals need there, and the entire operation over the middle of the field has fallen short. DJ Turner II and Dax Hill are playing great on the outside, but they aren’t being targeted much because of the weak spot in the middle. It’s hard to field a competent pass defense when you can’t trust your linebackers to gain proper depth and carry routes.

What reasonable progress looks like

The case with Knight comes down to proper expectations. He was, quite simply, one of the worst starters at his position last season. Just because he retained his starting status did not mean he was tasked with becoming the polar opposite of who he was just 12 months ago.

Knight is taking notable steps forward, but he’s not all the way there just yet. If he was, he’d be on his way to making a Pro Bowl and Cincinnati’s defense would be much better covering the middle of the field and preventing explosive runs outside the hashes.

Just because he’s not that player, yet, doesn’t mean his progress isn’t worth highlighting. 

The next step is making sure this isn’t a blip. If Knight builds on these last few weeks instead of sliding back to his 2025 form, he can become a stable piece of this defense. If his coverage ability ever catches up, the Bengals will have found something even better.