The Bengals have a real chance to take back the AFC North in 2026, and the path there may be wider than anyone expected.
Cincinnati hasn’t finished atop the division since the 2022 season, but this feels like the kind of year that can reset the whole conversation. Joe Burrow is healthy as training camp opens.
The roster, at least on paper, finally has a defense. And after all the hype Burrow has poured onto this group, the excuses are basically gone if it still doesn’t come together.
That’s what makes a fresh round of NFL predictions so interesting. One of them doesn’t just point to a Bengals jump - it suggests the Ravens could stumble hard enough to leave the entire division tilted in Cincinnati’s direction for a while.
SB Nation’s Jarrett Bailey put together 61 predictions for the upcoming season, and among the more eye-catching ones is Baltimore missing the playoffs. If that happened, it would mean back-to-back postseason misses for the Ravens.
Bailey’s reasoning centers on an offense he calls “quietly just...mediocre,” even while acknowledging that Lamar Jackson is still “obviously fantastic.” He also wrote, “The Ravens’ offense is quietly just...mediocre?
Lamar Jackson is obviously fantastic, but it would be wishful thinking at best to assume he’ll play close to the level we saw in 2024. Their pass-catchers are a bottom half of the league unit.
[...] After the Ravens come just shy of making the postseason in Year One of the Minter era, and for the second consecutive year, many wonder what the future holds for Lamar Jackson.
The two-time MVP will enter the final year of his current deal in 2027. Does Baltimore look elsewhere at quarterback options and ship Jackson away?”
That kind of speculation doesn’t come out of nowhere. Jackson handles his own contract negotiations.
He was nearly traded before landing his last massive payday. And since then, he has come up short in the playoffs more than once.
There’s also the question of how long this version of Jackson can stay at the same level. He’s a much better pure passer than the dual-threat quarterbacks who came before him, but his game isn’t built to age like a classic pocket passer such as Joe Burrow.
If Baltimore were to miss the postseason again and Jackson were still playing at a high level without quite looking like the same overwhelming force, the idea of a trade would suddenly feel a lot less far-fetched. The market for Lamar Jackson would be wild.
And if that kind of quarterback chaos spills into next offseason, the ripple effects could be huge. Baker Mayfield, C.J.
Stroud and Bryce Young all have uncertain futures. Aaron Rodgers is set to retire after one last run with the Steelers.
And nobody seems to know what to make of the Browns’ quarterback situation with Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson.
For Cincinnati, that’s all a very good backdrop. There was a real fear last season could end with a Joe Burrow trade demand, and the front office had to deliver an unprecedented offseason to avoid that outcome. It did.
Now the Bengals have the division’s only intact coaching staff, a healthy Burrow, and a potential Ravens collapse hanging in the background. With Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Dexter Lawrence and DJ Turner in the mix, Cincinnati looks ready to push for control of the North.
In Other News...
McKinnley Jackson Is Suddenly Forcing A Bengals Camp Decision
McKinnley Jackson arrived in Cincinnati as a third-round pick with a clear path to carving out a role, but the Bengals recent additions have made the interior defensive line one of the more interesting camp battles on the roster. T.J. Slaton and Dexter Lawrence changed the math up front, and suddenly Jackson is no longer just a developmental name in the background. He is right in the middle of a decision the Bengals have to make about how they want to build the back end of that rotation.
Jackson still has a case to stick because the Bengals need bodies who can handle the dirty work at nose tackle, and his profile gives him a chance to compete for meaningful snaps rather than just survive cut-down day. The question now is whether the team sees enough in him to keep him in that backup mix over a veteran option, especially with roster construction and salary considerations both part of the equation. For a player who was easy to leave off early projections, that is a pretty sudden turn. [Read more 🡒]
Tee Higgins May Have Earned His Own Bengals Touchdown Call
JaMarr Chase already has the kind of touchdown call players dream about, with Tony Romos Chase is on the case becoming part of the Bengals weekly soundtrack. Now Tee Higgins may be next in line for his own signature moment, with the conversation sparked by the upcoming Coyote vs. Acme movie and a trailer bit that could lend itself to a fitting line for the receiver whenever he finds the end zone.
Higgins has done enough on the field to make the idea feel less like a gimmick and more like a natural next step. He has 21 touchdown catches over the last two seasons and tied for second in the league with 11 last year, which is the kind of production that tends to earn a player his own call. The only question is whether announcers will actually run with the new phrase when Higgins scores again. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Fans Have New Proof Who Dey Belongs Among The NFL's Best
For Bengals fans, there is at least a little extra validation to hang onto after Sports Illustrated placed the teams Who Dey chant sixth on its Top 10 NFL stadium chants list. The ranking put Cincinnati ahead of several better-known fan bases, including those in Miami, Green Bay, Chicago and Buffalo, and it adds another bit of national recognition to a phrase that has been part of the teams identity for decades.
Who Dey has been around since 1981, with roots in local commercials and the old Riverfront Stadium scene, where beer vendor calls helped shape the sound that eventually stuck. The chant has also long been part of a back-and-forth with Saints fans over how similar it is to Who Dat and which one came first, which only makes any fresh ranking feel a little more like another round in a debate that never really goes away. [Read more 🡒]