Cincinnati Bengals: Early 2018 game-by-game season predictions
By Kenn Korb
An early look at how the Cincinnati Bengals will fare record-wise in the 2018 NFL season.
We’re at the slow time of the year, ladies and gents. The draft concluded weeks ago. Free agency, barring some new cuts, has essentially seen every signing of substance occur long ago. Beyond injuries, any news you hear will either be foregone conclusions (like rookie signings) or inessential jargon to fill the time (i.e.: any report about a player being “in the best shape of their career”, or sitting out voluntary workouts).
The only thing left for the vast majority of us to do for the next few months is make predictions for the upcoming year. Lucky for you, I’ve got plenty of those, and there is probably no area of predictions which is more exciting than determining what record a team could end up with.
When it comes to the Cincinnati Bengals, things appear to line up about as well as they could hope for. Their 2018 opponents had a .473 win percentage last season — tied with Oakland for the third-lowest percentage in the league. The team will face six opponents who were in the playoffs last year, but there’s a decent chance a few of them take a step back this year. Numerous teams on their schedule have a good chance to be starting rookies or new faces under center this year — possibly leaving them primed for growing pains and attractive targets to take down.
None of that means this team is ready for a return to the postseason, however. They’ve got weaknesses abound at key areas on both sides of the ball, a quarterback whose development has probably stalled out to leave him as an average starter at best, and a coaching staff which has seen some changes but is still led by a head coach whose been around longer than anyone but Bill Belichick despite an arguably stale message and inarguable 0-7 playoff record.
Can Cincinnati take advantage of a seemingly fortuitous schedule to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2015, or will the franchise’s inherent problems bring them down once again? We’ll be taking a look at those chances now, one game at a time. Seeing as there is much to be determined in regards to player progression and roster construction, these will be relatively simple insights as to how I believe each contest will turn out.
We begin with the first matchup of their season…