Peter King decided to drop his pre-preseason power rankings yesterday. He securely had the Bengals ranked 27th which tracks with a lot of national media. If you don’t feel like going to the page here was his assessment:
27. Cincinnati (2-14)
“When the Bengals released Andy Dalton in late April, it was one of the great shows of confidence in a draft choice in recent years. Think of it. The pandemic could force teams into scramble mode before the season; will training camp exist in any sort of normal way, and regardless, will Burrow be able to throw to any of his receivers before August? I’m probably too smitten with Burrow—coming off his 60-touchdown season last fall (which by the way was not an Arena League season) at LSU—but a confident and strong-willed quarterback can do a lot for a franchise. Burrow needs to form early bonds with A.J. Green, the underrated Tyler Boyd and rookie Tee Higgins (6-4, 6-1 and 6-4), and the burner John Ross, for whom 2020 is Last Chance Saloon; the former ninth pick in the draft will be a free agent after the season. But at least Burrow should get Ross’ best. That is potentially a heck of a receiver group if Green, who has missed 6, 0, 7, and 16 games the last four seasons, can stay on the field for any length of time.
The Bengals needed to get much better on defense and did okay in free agency, adding a rock in the middle of the line, tackle D.J. Reader, play-making safety Von Bell and Vikings corners Trae Waynes and Mackenzie Alexander—though, per PFF, Waynes and Alexander surrendered 71 percent completions combined last year. So many ifs in Cincinnati, and a single player can’t fix it all. But Burrow’s will should push the Cincinnati culture north.”
I like how he is smitten with Joe Burrow because aren’t we all? The national media was in love with Burrow and even tried to orchestrate him (in my mind) out of Cincinnati so that he could land on a team with better ratings. King’s concern about wide receiver reps is valid though and you hear players talk about chemistry all of the time. It was nice to hear players reaching out to Burrow a few weeks ago about getting together somewhere and training together. I suspect that this is happening because Burrow is nowhere to be found.
King’s assessment of Waynes and Alexander is also a point well taken. Remember these are the replacements for Kirkpatrick and Dennard and while the upgrade over Kirkpatrick can easily be explained let’s remember that Dennard was a heck of a slot cornerback. This also might come down to chemistry. 3 out of 5 starting backfield players will be new to the team and Jessie Bates is still young. It is hard to believe that WJ3 is the Bengals veteran at that position.
Behind the Bengals are the Jets, Panthers, Giants, Redskins and Jaguars. I think we got a fair shake on this one. I do think we are better than Detroit though and they were ranked one ahead at 26th; Stafford is hurt too often and that defense really needed some help. One stud rookie CB isn’t going to fix their 2019 woes.