The Cincinnati Bengals are two-time defending AFC North champions and have twice in a row represented the AFC in the conference finals. They came within a minute of securing the organization’s first Super Bowl trophy at the end of the 2021 season. And they believe they can get there this year.
If they do, it can’t fall squarely on the offense, but with the help of pass rushers like Sam Hubbard, they have every reason to expect they’ll be in the running. And the sixth-year veteran is expecting his best season yet with some bigger goals in mind.
“My main goal and only goal is to win the Super Bowl”, he recently told reporters during OTAs, according to Geoff Hobson of the team’s website. That is to be expected, of course, but he must hold up his own end. “This is the best I’ve felt in my whole career by a landslide physically”, he added.
He wants to contribute double digits this season in terms of sacks for the Bengals, which would be a first in his career. And he believes he can do it, arguing that he was on pace to hit that mark last year until he tore a calf muscle late in the year.
Whether or not he was on pace is a matter of interpretation. He had 6.5 sacks by week 14 and did not record another one. He missed one game entirely, and the game against the Buffalo Bills was suspended. While he did continue playing, including significant snaps during the team’s postseason run, he was playing hurt.
Hubbard also ended the 2021 season battling injuries, a torn labrum and meniscus, and he also missed three games the previous year, so being more proactive about keeping his body in the best shape possible to ward off these injuries has been a focus of his.
A third-round draft pick in 2018 by the Bengals, Hubbard has been a solid and consistent contributor since day one. Even though he was not officially a starter as a rookie, for example, he logged over 500 snaps, with six sacks and a fumble returned for a touchdown.
In all, with 59 starts in 75 games, he has amassed 30.5 sacks to go along with 299 tackles, 45 tackles for loss, five forced fumbles, and 14 passes defensed. And he’s worked well particularly with Trey Hendrickson, whom the Bengals brought in as a free agent in 2021, on the opposite end. Hendrickson has made the Pro Bowl the last two years.
But it doesn’t help that the Bengals lost both of their starting safeties this offseason, Jessie Bates III and Vonn Bell. While they have a young first-round pick gearing up to step into one of those spots in Dax Hill, the back end of the secondary is suddenly looking very unproven.
