Pro Football focus named a bounce-back candidate for all 32 teams ahead of the 2025 NFL season. Dalton Wasserman deemed Bengals safety Geno Stone as Cincinnati's best option after a lackluster 2024 performance.
The veteran was one of the lowest-graded high-snap safeties in the PFF grading database.
"Stone was brought to Cincinnati to stabilize the safety unit, but he never found his footing in Lou Anarumo’s defense, finishing with a career-low 53.7 coverage grade," Wasserman wrote."However, his performance improves when isolated as a single-high free safety—a role that could better suit him under new defensive coordinator Al Golden. Golden’s Notre Dame defense ran more single-high looks than any other college team last season, making the fit a promising one for Stone in 2025."
Those numbers left Stone 59th out of 66 qualified safeties overall PFF grade across the 2024 campaign. It prompted Cincinnati to make him take a pay cut.
Stone should get plenty of starting opportunities to turn things around in a pretty thin safety room that includes him and three other players with NFL experience.
