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he Bengals are riding high into their bye week. Picking up a 31-21 win over the Miami Dolphins in Week 5, the team is ready to go on a run and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2022. The Bengals had a productive offseason to get to this point, particularly when it came to upgrading their defense. Last season, their defense was among the worst in the league but now, they look much improved. A big reason for that is the addition of edge rusher Boye Mafe.

Mafe joined the Bengals on a three-year deal after spending the first four seasons of his career with the Seattle Seahawks. Through five games, he has three sacks and is already proving himself to be a cornerstone for Cincinnati’s defense. Now, is going down as the best signing of the offseason.

Mafe Has Been Great for the Bengals

In an offseason where the Bengals acquired Dexter Lawrence, Mafe is still the most talked about player. In Seattle, he never got the chance to start, instead spending his time there as a rotational player on the defensive line. The Bengals are trusting him to be a starter, and it is paying off in a big way.

“Right now, it’s a mindset to go out there and show who I can be as a player,” Mafe told reporters after the Week 5 win. “With the coaches trusting me to be that player, it’s up to me to uphold that in my end of the bargain.”

Mafe is a big reason why the Bengals won in Week 5. In addition to registering a sack, a tackle for loss and two quarterback hits, he had a quarterback pressure that resulted in an interception. It plays like that will help the team achieve the goals they want to achieve this season.

Mafe’s Career So Far

Mafe, a second round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft by the Seahawks, played for the team from 2022-2025. He won a Super Bowl last season, finishing the playoffs with five tackles. Mafe totaled 20 sacks for his Seahawks career, putting together his best season in 2023 when he registered 52 tackles, 9.0 sacks, nine tackles for loss, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble. The following season, he registered 6.0 sacks in 15 games before registering 2.0 sacks in 17 games in his final season as a Seahawk.

Mafe played college football at Minnesota from 2017-2021, bursting onto the scene as a redshirt sophomore in 2019. That season, he finished with 3.0 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss in 13 games and became a cornerstone piece for the defense by the time the 2020 season rolled around. In that COVID-shortened six game season, he registered 4.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss, earning All-Big Ten honorable mention. Mafe’s college final season was in 2021, where he registered 7.0 sacks and 10.0 tackles for loss in 13 games and earned second-team All-Big Ten honors.