The NFL’s margins are razor thin, and the Bengals spent plenty of last season living on that edge. A 6-11 record doesn’t tell the whole story for Cincinnati, which had several games tilt the wrong way despite being right there late.
Joe Flacco’s spot starts were a big part of that story. He was forced into action on just a few days’ notice at Lambeau Field against the Packers, and Cincinnati still got within 24-18 in the fourth quarter before Jordan Love found Matthew Golden for a 31-yard gain on 3rd-and-long, setting up a Packers field goal drive that pushed the game to two possessions.
That wasn’t the only near miss. An injured Flacco came within six points of toppling the eventual AFC champion Patriots in his final start.
He also guided the offense to 38 points against the Bears and 42 against the Jets, and the Bengals still lost both games. By the time Week 18 rolled around, a 20-18 loss to the Browns at home barely needed any further explanation.
All of that is why the idea that Cincinnati won’t reach double-digit wins this season feels off. At least one fresh set of NFL power rankings sees the Bengals the right way.
Jason La Canfora put Cincinnati seventh in his pre-training camp rankings, a placement that lines up more closely with the way the Bengals are being viewed by some around the league than with the market numbers. DraftKings Sportsbook has them around 20-to-1 to win the Super Bowl, tied for the 13th-best odds in the NFL.
La Canfora, now with FanSided, has been high on the Bengals throughout the offseason. In a May piece titled, "Why rival NFL execs are all-in on Joe Burrow and the Bengals," he included this anonymous GM quote:
"Someone please explain to me how DraftKings has the Ravens' Super Bowl odds as half (10-to-1) of the Bengals, and why Baltimore is a sub-even-money favorite (-115) to win the AFC North?"
La Canfora’s latest rankings also place the Ravens at No. 9, behind Cincinnati and the No. 8 Los Angeles Chargers. For a Baltimore native, that’s hardly the kind of ranking that flatters the hometown crowd - but it does reflect a clear view of where the Bengals belong.
In Other News...
Bengals Fans Are Furious Over The Latest Joe Burrow Take
A clip from a Netflix series set off a familiar Bengals debate this week, after Joe Flacco was shown praising JaMarr Chase and social media quickly spun it into a broader argument about how much support Joe Burrow gets from his receivers. It is the kind of conversation that follows Cincinnati everywhere now, especially when Chases play gets singled out and Burrows own season is measured against what he has had to work with around him.
Burrows 2024 numbers were strong despite the injury-shortened year, but the discussion around him has not stayed on the field. He has already dealt with the aftermath of a December 2024 burglary at his Ohio home, an incident he said left him feeling his privacy had been violated, and he has mostly kept that matter private since then. For a quarterback who has become the center of every Bengals conversation, even a TV clip can reopen old arguments about how much of the burden in Cincinnati still lands on him. [Read more 🡒]
Myles Murphy Is Running Out Of Time To Win Bengals Fans Over
Myles Murphy arrived in Cincinnati as a first-round pick in 2023 with the kind of expectations that come with that draft slot, but his early NFL path has been uneven. A rough rookie season left plenty of questions, even if the end of the 2025 campaign offered a more encouraging glimpse of what the Bengals hoped they were getting when they invested so heavily in him.
Now the edge rusher is at a pivotal point, with the Bengals adding more help up front and Murphy set to fight for a bigger role in 2026. Zac Taylor has sounded confident about Murphys growth, and the next step is proving that progress can carry over into a full-time starting job, because that is the kind of leap that could still change the conversation around his future in Cincinnati. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Defense Facing A Frustrating Reality After All Those Changes
The Bengals spent the offseason trying to remake the defensive front, bringing in Dexter Lawrence, Boye Mafe and Jonathan Allen with the hope that more size and more disruption would finally change the tone up front. But Warren Sharps latest evaluation leaves Cincinnati in a familiar place, slotting the front seven 26th in the league, the same spot it occupied a year ago despite all the turnover.
For a defense that has spent too much time getting pushed around and too little time finishing plays, that is a discouraging read. Sharps breakdown points to the same stubborn issues that have lingered for months, from the pass rush to run defense, and the numbers suggest the Bengals still have a long way to go before those offseason moves translate into something more reliable on Sundays. [Read more 🡒]