Andrei Iosivas is going into this season with a new mindset after he faced vitriol on social media last season, which included people direct messaging him to “kill yourself.”
The Bengals wide receiver said the situation last season “makes me angry” as he recalled the messages he got from fans during a campaign in which he had a team-high five drops.
All the anger and disparaging messages he got because of some of his on-field struggles made it hard for Iosivas to keep his head in the game last season, he explained to reporters on Tuesday.
“I feel like last year I was in my head a little bit,” Iosivas said, according to ESPN. “I had those drops in those games and people were telling me to kill myself and all that kind of stuff. I never had that kind of stuff happen to me before.
“So it got in my head a little bit when people — you know, when your DMs [direct messages] are flooded with people telling you to kill yourself.”
Iosivas, 26, saw his production drop during the 2025 season, one in which quarterback Joe Burrow was injured for most of the campaign.
The receiver had 33 catches for 335 yards and two touchdowns, a dip from the previous two seasons, which saw him pull in a combined 10 touchdown catches on 51 receptions.
Going into this season, Iosivas said he intends not to let things get to him the same way they had last year.
“Just not letting outside noise get to me and letting circumstances get to me,” he said. “I know I’m a great player so [I’m] not letting people’s opinions or things in the building kind of just irritate me.”
Among the wide receiver group in Cincinnati, Iosivas is behind stars Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
