State of the Franchise - Cincinnati Bengals

2017 Record: 7-9

Last Playoff Appearance: 2015

Coach: Marvin Lewis (record 125-112-3)

GM: Mike Brown

2017 Performance

The Bengals had a poor season last year, they were pretty damn awful to watch for most of the season, everyone knew that the offensive line would be an issue after losing perennial pro-bowler Andrew Whitworth to the Rams, and one of the better guards in the league Kevin Zeitler to the Browns. They failed to address it and the season played out as expected really. They couldn’t protect or create holes and, in a physical division like the AFC North, that was never going to be a good thing.

After getting destroyed by their divisional rivals the Baltimore Ravens in the first game of the season, (20 points TO ZERO) and a game in which Andy Dalton turned the ball over 5 times, 4 INTs and a lost fumbl, the season never really got going. It led to Dalton seeing ghosts in the pocket all year and he never really looked comfortable. He takes a lot of flak from the media and fans a-like and I can see why, he is what he is, he can’t win a game by himself, but give him players to throw to and protection and he can do what is needed. In fairness, he still threw 25 TDs over the season and got his revenge on the Ravens in the final game of the season with a late TD throw to Tyler Boyd which knocked them out of the play-off race and started the love affair between the Buffalo Bills (fans) and him.

The Bengals once again introduced a … shall we say “troubled” player to the league, running back Joe Mixon was drafted in the second round after being found guilty of punching a woman in a coffee shop argument. Fortunately, they did their research and he had no off-field worries in the first year. Mixon had a decent enough rookie season given how poor the offensive line was and, frankly, the play calling didn’t help him either. He scored 4 TDs and rushed for 626 yards at an average of 3.5, not great. He did improve as the season went on and, with an improved offensive line in front of him, he should kick on this season. He missed a few games toward the end of the season and Gio Bernard stepped in admirably.

The first round draft pick of John Ross, the quickest player to ever complete a 40 yard dash at the combine (4.22), proved to be wasted in the first year. He had a total of 3 touches for the whole season, 2 attempts, 1 catch for 12 yards, and a rushing attempt which ended in a lost fumble. 4th round WR Josh Malone even made more of an impact scoring a TD with one of his 6 catches. AJ Green, once again, proved how good is he with roughly a third of Dalton’s passing yards going to him despite him being pretty much the only target for the team and facing constant double-coverage. He notched up 1,000 yards for what should have been the 7th consecutive year (he would have easily made it in 2016 if he’d played a few more snaps) Veteran wideout Brandon LaFell wasn’t too bad and, after a rough start of the year, Tyler Boyd came on towards the end and should be the WR3 going forward.

They once again lost star tight end Tyler Eifert for the entire year. Fellow Tyler, Mr. Kroft, stepped in and did a decent enough job finishing second in the team with 7 TDs from just 42 receptions. The Bengals love tight ends in red zone.

Their defence didn’t do an awful job in general. After missing his rookie year through injury, second year cornerback William Jackson III proved himself to be one of the best in the league at his position (despite allowing LeVeon Bell walk past him untouched). PFF has him as a top 5 guy. Dre Kirkpatrick and Darqueze Dennard aren’t too bad either and the Bengals take a CB each and every year. Vontaze Burfict once again failed to complete a season for the team, when he plays he’s one of the best but, unfortunately, he is a dirty player and is marked by the league. He got expelled from one game because one of the officials pushed him. It is what it is, he’s got a reputation and it won’t leave him. Much to the delight of every other fan in the league, he was concussed against the Steelers and missed the remainder of the season. To make things worse, he tested positive for PEDs during his recovery and now misses the first 4 games of this coming season. Nick Vigil and Jordan Evans came in at LB and provided adequate support.

On defense, they have an above average pass rush in perennial pro-bowler Geno Atkins and one of the better rookies last season, Carl Lawson (You won’t hear about him because he doesn’t have the surname “Watt” - seriously check the numbers on their rookie seasons) Add them two alongside Carlos Dunlap and Andrew Billings and they have a decent spine going into this season.

2018 Roster Moves

As always the Bengals had, on paper, a pretty good draft. Last season, left tackle and center were the main positions of weakness, they signed LT Cordy Glenn from Buffalo in free agency and picked up Billy Price in the draft (he was most likely their second choice after Frank Ragnow went a pick earlier but they’ll be happy with him providing he recovers from a pectoral tear well enough) They needed a safety and took one in the second round by the name of Jessie Bates, he has a high football IQ and should help provide support to Iloka and Shawn Williams. Sam Hubbard is quite highly rated (4th ranked DE by the boys.) he seems to be versatile and will hopefully be a good player for a while in the NFL. Malik Jefferson was taken a pick after Hubbard, he’ll probably make the roster and start the season due to Burflict’s suspension, he’ll also be a decent addition to their special teams.

In the 4th round, they took their first play-maker, running back Mark Walton, he’ll add depth behind Mixon and Bernard in the backfield. As always, they got another CB late on in Davontae Harris who will provide backup to the 3 starters. The twits had Andrew Brown as a 3rd round pick, so he was probably good value in the 5th and apparently has good explosiveness which should fit with the scheme the Bengals play. Apparently, he’s a great inside gap penetrator. Another corner followed in the 5th, you can never have too many cornerbacks. They even took a QB, Logan Woodside, to fill in as third choice behind Dalton and freshly acquired Matt Barkley (which unfortunately could mean the end for Jeff Driskel who I actually quite liked!) One that intrigues me is the final pick they made of Auden Tate. He doesn’t exactly have the athleticism but he’s a big lad and could add another red zone threat for Dalton. I think he may well make the roster despite his lowly pick. The twits had him ranked 4th round in fact!

Free agency saw the addition of Cordy Glenn (as above) Preston Brown at LB to replace Kevin Minter who left, Matt Barkley came in as backup QB to replace AJ McCarron who joined the Bills. RB Jeremy Hill left as did Russell Bodine which was no big loss.

2018 Starters

QB: Andy Dalton RB: Joe Mixon WR: A.J. Green WR: Tyler Boyd WR: John Ross TE: Tyler Eifert LT: Cordy Glenn LG: Clint Boling C: Billy Price RG: Christian Westerman RT: Jake Fisher

DE: Carlos Dunlap DT: Geno Atkins DT: Andrew Billings DE: Jordan Willis OLB: Vincent Rey MLB: Preston Brown (Vontaze Burfict in week 5) OLB: Carl Lawson CB: Dre Kirkpatrick CB: William Jackson III S: George Iloka S: Shawn Williams

2018 Outlook

The Bengals could be anything this year. I think the line of 7 wins is probably a little low but the AFC North have a horrible schedule facing the best division in each of the conferences (AFC West and the NFC South) so I can see why they’d be quite down on their chances. They are somehow bigger odds for the Superbowl than the Browns, a team who have won 1 games in two seasons.

The division, as a whole, looks a lot stronger than last year as well. The Browns and the Ravens have had very good off-seasons and while the Steelers haven’t had the best off-season by all accounts they are definitely still the team to beat in the division.

But IF the team stays healthy, IF the offensive line is as big an improvement as I expect it to be with the new signings, and IF Ross’ electric pace means teams will have to sit deep and allow room for Eifert, Green, Boyd, LaFell underneath then this team could make the play-offs after a short hiatus. Unfortunately, that probably means a first round exit like all the other attempts of the last 20 years but they could at least get there and hopefully not completely screw it up as they usually do. The Bengals don’t usually like playing rookies in their debut seasons but, last year, they had to and they all did pretty well so I would hope more of them would get some action this year.

I would have preferred to see them move on from Marvin Lewis, he’s basically the Arsene Wenger of the NFL. We appreciate what he’s done for the team, he’s made them at least competitive, which is a huge improvement from where they were when he took over, but maybe it was time to move on this off-season and get a breath of fresh air in there. On the plus side, they replaced their offensive co-ordinator last season and their offensive line co-ordinator over the winter, now rolling with the former Cowboys coach who provided such a dominant line in Dallas.

A quirk of the season schedule means that they play the Colts in the last pre-season game and the first game of the regular season, if Luck is still out it could be the perfect start. Whatever happens, it has to be better than the blowout of last season. The Bengals then host the Ravens in the first TNF of the season, hopefully with Flacco still at QB rather than Lamar Jackson!, and they finish the season with the Browns and the Steelers in weeks 16 and 17. Potential title deciders?!, probably not, but a fan can dream.

Written by Adam Walford, NFL Analyst, Cincinnati Bengals