The day Justin Tucker confirmed he is the best kicker in the NFL, the Bengals played one of their worst games of the season, losing to a Ravens team that relied on their amazing kicker to come away as winners. That came after another poor outing at home against Bills one week prior.
The latest Bleacher Report NFL 1000 rankings show again that without A.J. Green and, to a lesser extent, Giovani Bernard, the Bengals' offense has no business beating a strong defense like Baltimore’s. Andy Dalton was again one of the worst performers per the B/R's scout team and ranked only above of Brock Osweiler, which is far from pretty.
No Bengal was among the overall top 50 and only tight end Tyler Eifert, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick and center Russell Bodine were among the top 10 at their respective positions. Eifert’s grade - sixth best - was not impressive, though, as he only got 69 points in the ranking and was way behind the two best performers in Week 12, Jordan Reed and Travis Kelce.
Kirkpatrick fared well with 75 points, despite a couple of missed tackles that decreased his tackling grade to five out 10. Bodine managed 70 points, which is surprising if you consider the number of low snaps we saw on Sunday and the costly snap turned fumble he caused, which prevented the Bengals from scoring. He was benched in the process, too.
There were a lot of bad grades for many players, including usual suspects like right tackle Cedric Ogbuehi, kicker Mike Nugent and every defensive lineman not named Carlos Dunlap or Geno Atkins. But at least some of the young guys played well. Josh Shaw, in his first start as safety, was the 15th best strong safety in Week 12, with 72 points and mostly sound grades in every category but slot/LB, in which he only got 14 points out of 20. The rookie Clayton Fejedelem, who shined in limited action, was just a few spots behind at 23rd despite playing just a few snaps.
Darqueze Dennard, in his first opportunity as full-time slot cornerback, had the worst grade at his position with only 45 points, and was bad in every single category.
Here are the ranked Bengals players and you can check the full rankings here:
| Player | Pos | Rank/out of | Week 11 | Score (all out of 100) | Week 11 | High rank/score | Low rank/score |
| Andy Dalton | QB | 31/32 | 24 ↓ | 60 | 65 ↓ | 10 (Week 7) /71 (Weeks 2&7) | 31 (Week 12) /53 (Week 8) |
| Giovani Bernard | RB | N/R | 18 | N/R | 73 | 12 (Week 8) /73 (Weeks 5, 6, 8 and 11) | 51 (Week 1) /69 (Week 1) |
| Jeremy Hill | RB | 26/62 | 22 ↓ | 72 | 72 ↔ | 7 (Week 7) /76 (Week 7) | 53 (Week 2) /66 (Week 5) |
| Rex Burkhead | RB | 46/62 | N/R | 67 | N/R | 46 (Week 12) /67 (Week 12) | 46 (Week 12) /67 (Week 12) |
| A.J. Green | WR | N/R | N/R | N/R | N/R | 1 (Week 1) /86 (Week 1) | 32 (Week 2) /70 (Week 5) |
| Tyler Boyd | WR | 42/129 | 41 ↓ | 68 | 68 ↔ | 31 (Week 8) /68 (Weeks 8, 11 and 12 ) | 104 (Week 1) /60 (Week 1) |
| Brandon LaFell | WR | 73/129 | 62 ↓ | 65 | 64 ↑ | 6 (Week 5) /76 (Weeks 1&5) | 73 (Week 12) /64 (Weeks 10&11) |
| James Wright | WR | 72/129 | 71 ↓ | 65 | 63 ↑ | 71 (Week 11) /65 (Week 12) | 125 (Week 4) /54 (Week 4) |
| Cody Core | WR | 103/129 | N/R | 60 | N/R | 91 (Week 10) /60 (Weeks 10&12) | 115 (Week 1) /52 (Week 1) |
| Alex Erickson | WR | N/R | 87 | N/R | 61 | 87 (Week 11) /61 (Week 11) | 129 (Week 6) / 55 (Week 7) |
| Tyler Eifert | TE | 6/78 | 16 ↑ | 69 | 66 ↑ | 1 (Week 8) /79 (Week 8) | 16 (Weeks 10&11) /65 (Week 7) |
| Tyler Kroft | TE | 56/78 | 60 ↑ | 59 | 58 ↑ | 14 (Week 6) 66 (Week 6) | 62 (Week 1) /51 (Week 1) |
| Ryan Hewitt | TE | 40/78 | 66 ↑ | 61 | 57 ↑ | 30 (Week 8) /63 (Week 3) | 67 (Weeks 2&7) /55 (Week 2) |
| C.J. Uzomah | TE | N/R | N/R | N/R | N/R | 6 (Week 4) /71 (Week 4) | 67 (Weeks 2&7) /55 (Week 2) |
| Andrew Whitworth | LT | 17/33 | 14 ↓ | 74 | 74 ↔ | 6 (Weeks 1&4) /85 (Week 1) | 17 (Week 12) /73 (Week 5) |
| Jake Fisher | LT | N/R | N/R | N/R | N/R | 26 (Week 7) /70 (Week 7) | 26 (Week 7) /70 (Week 7) |
| Eric Winston | RT | 27/36 | 23 ↓ | 68 | 69 ↓ | 7 (Week 8) /74 (Week 8) | 27 (Week 12) /68 (Week 12) |
| Cedric Ogbuehi | RT | 34/36 | 30 ↓ | 65 | 65 ↔ | 20 (Week 6) /72 (Week 2) | 34 (Week 12) /63 (Week 10) |
| Kevin Zeitler | G | 24/67 | 28 ↑ | 70 | 70 ↔ | 1 (Week 7) /80 (Week 3) | 50 (Week 1) /67 (Week 8) |
| Clint Boling | G | 52/67 | 46 ↓ | 66 | 67 ↓ | 10 (Weeks 2&7) /79 (Weeks 1&2) | 52 (Week 12) /66 (Week 12) |
| Russell Bodine | C | 10/34 | 14 ↑ | 70 | 70 ↔ | 10 (Week 12) /70 (Weeks 11&12) | 32 (Weeks 1&2) /57 (Week 1) |
| T.J. Johnson | C | N/R | N/R | N/R | N/R | 30 (Week 6) /65 (Week 6) | 30 (Week 6) /65 (Week 6) |
| Carlos Dunlap | DE | 27/59 | 29 ↑ | 68 | 64 ↑ | 1 (Week 4) /76 (Week 4) | 41 (Week 8) /62(Week 2) |
| Michael Johnson | DE | 33/59 | 28 ↓ | 67 | 66 ↑ | 19 (Week 2) /67 (Week 12) | 53 (Week 4) /55 (Weeks 1&3) |
| Will Clarke | DE | 55/59 | 44 ↓ | 63 | 60 ↑ | 33 (Week 4) /65 (Week 7) | 55 (Weeks 5&12) /53 (Week 5) |
| Wallace Gilberry | DE | 58/59 | 23 ↓ | 59 | 67 ↓ | 23 (Week 11) /67 (Week 11) | 58 (Week 12) /59 (Week 12) |
| Margus Hunt | DE | 59/59 | 45 ↓ | 58 | 59 ↓ | 20 (Week 2) /63 (Week 6) | 60 (Week 4) 53 (Week 4) |
| Geno Atkins | DT | 14/85 | 6 ↓ | 70 | 73 ↓ | 1 (Week 10) /91 (Week 1) | 16 (Week 5) /70 (Week 12) |
| Domata Peko | DT | 70/85 | 59 ↓ | 58 | 60 ↓ | 29 (Week 4) /70 (Week 1) | 70 (Week 12) /58 (Week 12) |
| Pat Sims | DT | 82/85 | 74 ↓ | 53 | 54 ↓ | 45 (Week 4) /64 (Week 4) | 82 (Week 12) /53 (Week 12) |
| Vontaze Burfict | OLB | 34/39 | 38 ↑ (as ILB) |
58 | 64 ↓ | 1 (Week 10) /79 (Week 10) | 38 (Week 11) /58 (Week 12) |
| Vincent Rey | OLB | 16/39 | 10 ↓ | 64 | 70 ↓ | 7 (Week 2) /76 (Week 2) | 31 (Week 10) /57 (Week 6) |
| Karlos Dansby | OLB | 30/39 | 16 ↓ | 60 | 64 ↓ | 8 (Week 4) /73 (Week 2) | 35 (Week 10) /53 (Week 1) |
| Nick Vigil |
OLB |
N/R |
33 |
N/R |
58 |
33 (Week 11) /58 (Week 11) | 33 (Week 11) /58 (Week 11) |
| Rey Maualuga | ILB | 24/53 | N/R | 68 | N/R | 24 (Week 12) /71 (Week 3) |
52 (Week 1) /60 (Week 5) |
| Adam Jones | CB | 11/105 | 7 ↓ | 74 | 76 ↓ | 7 (Week 11) /81 (Week 2) | 74 (Week 3) /57 (Week 10) |
| Dre Kirkpatrick | CB | 7/105 | 17 ↑ | 75 | 71 ↑ | 7 (Week 12) /80 (Week 2) | 104 (Week 1) /49 (Week 1) |
| Darqueze Dennard | CB | 105/105 | 43 ↓ | 45 | 61 ↓ | 43 (Week 11) /61 (Weeks 10&11) | 105 (Week 12) /45 (Week 12) |
| George Iloka | FS | 24/40 | 32 ↑ | 69 | 67 ↑ | 5 (Week 8) /77 (Weeks 3&8) | 40 (Week 6) /62 (Week 6) |
| Derron Smith | FS | N/R | 11 | N/R | 75 | 11 (Week 11) /75 (Week 11) | 27 (Week 6) /72 (Week 6) |
| Shawn Williams | SS | N/R | 30 | N/R | 69 | 1 (Week 8) /82 (Weeks 1&3) | 30 (Week 11) /69 (Week 11) |
| Josh Shaw | SS | 15/44 | 60 ↑ (as CB) | 72 | 58 ↑ | 15 (Week 12) /72 (Weeks 1&12) | 80 (Weeks 3&8) /53 (Week 8) |
| Clayton Fejedelem | SS | 23/44 | N/R | 70 | N/R | 23 (Week 12) /70 (Week 12) | 23 (Week 12) /70 (Week 12) |
| Mike Nugent | K | 29/32 | 28 ↓ | 58 | 45 ↑ | 4 (Week 4) /74 (Week 4) | 29 (Weeks 7&12) /45 (Week 11) |
| Kevin Huber | P | 29/32 | 25 ↓ | 60 | 56 ↑ | 15 (Weeks 4&8) /69 (Week 4) | 32 (Week 2) /53 (Week 5) |