Boye Mafe is exactly what Bengals defensive line needed post-Trey Hendrickson

CINCINNATI -- Hold a conversation long enough and Boye Mafe will drop a mantra on you. A saying or phrase he keeps to help stay focused on what's important in any new or challenging situation.

"Stick around and you might learn something," Mafe said.

Lessons have come in handy since he signed a three-year, $60 million contract with the Bengals in March and was asked to fill the role of Trey Hendrickson, one of the franchise's most prolific pass rushers. All while at the center of a defensive investment focused on revitalizing a defense largely responsible for costing three straight years of Joe Burrow's prime outside the playoffs.

The pressure mounted immediately on his 6-foot-3, 265-pound frame.

"You know what pressure is? Pressure is fear," Mafe said. "You know what fear is? Fear is false evidence appearing real."

Put it on a poster of ocean waves crashing on the beach.

Pressure is also the name of the game now for the Bengals defense.

Life after Hendrickson required a new vision. Losing 61 sacks, four Pro Bowls and an AP runner-up for defensive player of the year wouldn't be easy. A reminder of the daunting task will be attacking Joe Burrow's blind side on Sunday in Baltimore.

The defense also needed a philosophy change. More than leaning into a five-down linemen approach, they wanted a collection of players built to create chaos as a whole and not chase numbers for one.

That plan quickly landed on Mafe. The physical traits were clear, his quick wins off the line popped off the tape and the swarming Seahawks style that landed him a ring last season was exactly what the Bengals wanted their reimagined front to resemble.

The personnel department and defensive staff kept coming back to the same place.

"(Defensive coordinator Al Golden), our scouts mentioned him quite a bit early in the process as somebody we really wanted to walk away with in free agency," head coach Zac Taylor said.

Landing Mafe, placing him next to veterans Jonathan Allen and Dexter Lawrence, as well as second-round draft pick Cashius Howell, injected a new personality into the Bengals' pass rush.

"They all help each other," Taylor said. "They're all unselfish. It's not, me go get that sack. It's helping somebody else. I can think of countless times guys have made calls where they do a job to free up somebody else to go make a play -- bull a guy instead of a certain type of rush so the big play doesn't get out. It's a really unselfish group."

Unselfishness amplified the versatility. Hendrickson, for all his strengths, rarely changed sides and made minimal impact against the run. He repeatedly ripped around the left tackle, closing out games as well as anyone in the league. The rest of the pass rush was static -- the lack of winning from other positions amplified it.

In Golden's vision, this group needed to look different. Lawrence drawing attention was expected. Same with Allen. Both impacting the run and pass.

What's developed with Mafe made everyone forget about Hendrickson and turn the entire plan into a tenacious reality.

His first six weeks have been more productive than any six-week start in Hendrickson's career.

Mafe's produced 25 pressures in five games, on pace for 84, which would top any Hendrickson year. He ranks fifth in the NFL in pressure rate (18.5 percent), landing among the NFL's biggest names.

"What we got is what we saw," defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery said. "I don't know why his role diminished (in Seattle), but he affected the quarterback at a high rate. People look at sacks; the ball comes out in this league pretty fast, though. He had more pressures in affecting the quarterback and getting the quarterback off the spot. He was beating Trent Williams, some really good tackles in that division."

He's winning one-on-ones consistently and shifting from the left side to the right side in the process. Against the Texans, the Bengals loved the matchup against their guards and kicked him inside down the stretch.

Mafe ranks 10th among all edges in PFF's true pass set win percentage and fourth in overall win percentage on pass rushes. He's tied for fifth in their pass-rush productivity metric.

He's on pace to set a career high in pressures before the calendar turns to December.

The Bengals have created seven sacks on his 25 pressures, three of which are credited to Mafe. Those pressures also produced a scoop-and-score touchdown by Demetrius Knight Jr. against the Buccaneers, an interception by Jordan Battle on a Mafe batted pass against the Dolphins, a forced fumble recovered by TJ Slaton and four third-down stops.

He's created 11 pressures in the last two games alone, which led to five Bengals sacks.

The Bengals haven't allowed a touchdown on an opponent drive with a sack this season, according to OffScheduleFootball.com. They are allowing an average of just 1.2 points on those drives.

"If you want to go fast, go alone," Mafe said. "If you want to go far, go together."

For box score stats, Mafe only has three sacks this season. This comes off a year in Seattle where he got dinged for only having two sacks despite a pile of pressures.

Hendrickson was known in Cincinnati for challenging decisions and at times campaigning to get credit for a sack. Mafe takes the opposite approach.

"I just want to win at the end of the day," he said. "To show who I am as a player, as dominant as I can be, but it's not necessary how I do it. There are a lot of plays, (that) as the public, you don't notice, but inside this building and inside my room, as long as I have the appreciation of my teammates for what I'm doing out there, that's what is important to me."

In Brandon Thorn's quality pressure rating metric, Mafe's 14 high-quality pressures tied with the Bills' Gregory Rousseau for most in the NFL. Nobody else managed more than 10.

Pick the stat. Pick the film. Pick the game. The takeaway is clear: Cincinnati did it again. The Bengals hit big on 27-year-old Mafe, just as they did landing a 26-year-old Hendrickson in free agency from the Saints in 2021.

"He's done a really good job of buying into the defensive scheme and actually becoming part of it," Golden said. "So we're starting to utilize him in ways that allow him to play fast, but he's been playing fast, playing violent. He's been an effective pass rusher. And again, it's a balance, right? You're trying to figure out what's the balance for us between four-man rush, five-man rush, what do we need moving forward? And I think Boye has won his one-on-ones a lot and has impacted the game."

The collection of pass rushers allowed Golden to call games conservatively and not expose his back seven. The Bengals rank eighth in the NFL in pressure percentage and third in sack percentage. That's all while ranking dead last in blitz percentage.

Five Bengals are on pace for 40-plus pressures and seven have at least 1.5 sacks.

"No one right now cares where the credit goes," Montgomery said. "I'm sure deep down inside they are like, 'Ah, I wish I had seven sacks instead of 30 pressures. But the reality of it is pressures are just as important as sacks because it speeds the quarterback up. If we can speed the quarterback up, we can get him to throw into some bad windows."

Golden needs to figure out how he fully takes advantage of this group, but his line is getting home with four. Edge Myles Murphy calls it the most complete defensive line group in his four seasons. The number of times players sacrifice their own pass rush to free up a teammate stands out to him as a perfect example of the root of chaos creation.

"This year that happens a lot, honestly," Murphy said. "We've had guys Jon and Dex, we've had guys that have been on teams where guys individually worry only about their numbers instead of just getting the job done for their team and the defense. We have a lot of unselfish players that are open for, 'Hey, let's run a game, I might be the penetrator or looper, I might be doubled, but it will free you up.'"

Storylines and attention will be paid to Hendrickson's revenge in one of the biggest games of the Bengals' season Sunday. Mafe deflects the idea he's in any way connected to the legacy No. 91 left behind. Undeniably, he's already building his own in Cincinnati, leading an emphasis on unselfishness driving the new wave.

"He's his own person," Mafe said. "I'm my own person. I never compare myself to another person; I compare myself to myself.

"As long as I'm better today than I was yesterday, that's the only thing that matters to me."

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.