Cincy Jungle
The Cincinnati Bengals had a rough 2024. A season removed from losing quarterback Joe Burrow mid-season, hopes were still high that they could make a deep run in the playoffs like in 2021 and 2022.
That didn’t happen. You could blame 2024 on a lot of different things. They didn’t get the benefit of the whistle, the ball didn’t bounce their way as often, Evan McPherson had an off year, or the defense couldn’t stop just about anyone.
All that being said, they still went 9-8, narrowly missing the playoffs. So when you hear FanDuel Sportsbook is favoring the Bengals to win over 10 games at -110, it feels surprising at first. However, they weren’t really that far off from it last season.
That is the question. On paper, you won’t find too many changes to Cincinnati’s roster. Some off-field issues aren’t as prevalent, though.
Last season, Ja’Marr Chase “held-in” for a new contract. He missed a vast majority of training camp, returning to the field a few days before the start of the season. This will be Burrow and Chase’s first healthy offseason together in the league. You can also throw Tee Higgins in that, as he now doesn’t have a contract issue looming either. That trio being able to practice this whole time and hit the regular season running will hopefully help stop any slow starts.
McPherson is sort of an underrated area that could really push the Bengals over that 10-win mark. There were a handful of games where missed kicks directly led to losses instead of wins. We know now that he was dealing with some soreness that eventually led to him tearing his abductor muscle in December. If he can return to form, that would be huge.
General bad luck is something every team deals with. It seems Cincinnati was caught in several situations where the refs would throw flags when you’d never see them thrown, and then in those same situations, not receive the flag to benefit in the same situations. This extends beyond just ref calls. Passes bouncing off hands or fumbles just bounce perfectly to the other team. Things you can’t really control. Those who watched last season will tell you that it was absurd the number of times the ball just didn’t bounce the Bengals’ way.
What do you think? Can the Bengals get over that 10-win mark?
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