Greg Auman
NFC South Reporter
Is there an NFL team better poised for a bounce-back year than the Cincinnati Bengals?
The health of quarterback Joe Burrow will always have a huge bearing on the Bengals’ success. In 2023, he was limited by a calf injury and then sidelined by a season-ending wrist injury 10 weeks into the year. Cincinnati still finished 9-8 and just a game out of the final wild card, but the Bengals were last in a super-tough AFC North.
Burrow is back healthy again — he reported to camp on Tuesday with a new hairdo and his old swagger — and understandably, there’s optimism around the Bengals. Their odds to win the Super Bowl are 14:1 in Las Vegas, tied for fifth-best in the league.
Go back a year, and that shouldn’t be that surprising. Consider how close the Bengals were to even more greatness. In 2021, they made the Super Bowl and had the lead for most of the fourth quarter before giving up a late touchdown to the Rams. In 2022, they held their own against the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, with two drives in the fourth quarter of a tie game before losing to Kansas City on a last-second field goal.
Last year was an unusual 9-8 season for the Bengals. They beat seven different teams that finished with winning records: the 49ers, Bills, Browns, Rams, Seahawks, Jaguars and Colts. They swept the entire NFC West. At the same time, they went just 1-5 against an extremely strong AFC North, getting swept by the Ravens and Steelers, with three of the five losses by 14 points or more.
Patrick Mahomes shares why Josh Allen, Joe Burrow are his favorite QBs
The perks of being the best last-place team in the NFL? You get a last-place schedule, which means three games against other last-place teams. These are legitimately bad teams as well: the Panthers (2-15 last year), the Patriots (4-13) and the Titans (6-11). To put it another way: Seven NFL teams won six games or fewer last season, and the…
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Publish date : 2024-07-24 13:27:33
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