Last Year:

Record: 6-9-1

Offense: 20.3 (24th)

Defense: 19.7 (8th)

Offseason: 

Key Acquisitions: LB. Kevin Minter

Key Losses: LT. Andrew Withworth, DT. Domata Peko, LB. Rey Mauluga

 Breakdown

Offense:

The Bengals did not make a lot of offseason moves this year instead opting to add talent strictly via the draft. One of their biggest moves was adding John Ross who was one of the fastest players in the draft. Last offseason the Bengals lost their second and third best receivers in free agency and their passing game clearly lacked the punch that it had the year before. The number one guy will be AJ Green again. He has proven without a doubt he is an elite receiver in this league and last season he was right there with Julio Jones and Antonio Brown before going down for the year with injury. Brandon Lafell was the number two option a year ago but will have a lot of competition for the spot this year. Not only will Ross be competing for a starting spot but so will the team’s second round pick in last year’s draft Tyler Boyd who had an effective season in 2016 as the third option and may be looking to do even more this year. More firepower at receiver is great but this team’s true number two option is TE Tyler Eifert who just cannot stay healthy. In order for the Bengals offense to be as good as it can be they need Eifert on the field. When healthy he is a TD machine and has some of the best hands in the league at his position. The receiving corps is not the only skill position the Bengals have a lot of talent at. The running back position is pretty loaded now with the addition of RB Joe Mixon who fell to the Bengals in the second round thanks to domestic violence issues in his past. On top of Mixon the Bengals already had a pretty decent duo in Jeremy Hill, a big bruising back, and Giovanni Bernard, an all-around run/pass option, to form one of the better rushing duos in the league. Andy Dalton is back as the signal caller and he will need to be more than a 20 to 20 guy. Meaning he needs to do more than accumulate passing yards and move the offense in between the 20s without scoring TDs. True enough he threw for over 4,000 yards, completed nearly 65% of his passes and only threw 8 ints but he also only threw 18 TDs. The Bengals need Dalton to be more of a play maker and not just a game manager. The only real change for the Bengals offense will come on the offensive line. They lost one of the best tackles in the game in Withworth who left in free agency. However, the Bengals prepared to lose starting offensive tackles back in 2015 when they took Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher in the first two rounds in the 2015 NFL Draft. Last season it was Ogbuehi, the 2015 first rounder, who replaced Andre Smith who left in free agency. Unfortunately he was not very good in his first year as the starter and got beaten on multiple occasions. The Bengals are hoping that it was merely growing pains and that he can improve in his third season. This year it’s Fisher’s turn who will be taking over the RT spot as Ogbuehi moves over to LT. Hopefully he performs better than Ogbuehi in his first full season as a starter or things could get rough on Dalton. The interior, though not great, is a lot more stable than the tackle positions at the moment. They lost their best guard in Kevin Zietler and replaced him with former Bengal Andre Smith who returns after a failed stint with the Vikings. The Bengals are hoping a move inside to guard will help resurrect his career. The other guard will be Clint Boling who is the best remaining offensive lineman on the team from last season. He really struggled run blocking but was very reliable in the passing game and should help the interior of the pocket stay clean for Dalton. Starting center Russell Bodine was the complete opposite last year as he was a lot better run blocking than in pass pro. The fact of the matter is this entire O-line will have to be much better in pass pro in 2017 or Dalton is going to find himself being sacked over 40 times again. Overall the Bengals have some interesting talent at the skill positions but the offensive line just does not seem good enough and the QB may be too conservative to take advantage of all the weapons they have. I could be wrong but I am not expecting a big year from this offense.

Defense:

The Bengals were pretty good defensively as they usually are under Marvin Lewis. They finished top 10 in points allowed for the second straight season and with all the major pieces from last season back in 2017 they will have a chance to do it for a third. The defensive line as a whole needs to play better in 2017. Last season it was mostly Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap doing the majority of the work. Michael Johnson had a down year compared to his 2015 season and Peko was a shell of himself which is why he is no longer with the team. Sims outplayed Peko a year ago and will now get a chance to be the starter full time and play alongside one of the elite DTs in the game in Atkins. Dunlap should be in for another good season but the question is how much help will he get at the other end spot from Johnson. The linebacking corps figures to be the best unit of the defense in 2017. Vincent Ray had a breakout year last year and will take over MLB duties full time this season. At the weakside spot will be Vontaze Burfict who had another fine season in 2016. He is one of the best linebackers in the game and he and ray form a very good duo. In the Bengals 3 LB packages their lone significant free agent signing Kevin Minter figures to get the nod at strong side backer. He started all 16 games last season for the Cardinals and will be a good asset in coverage, not so much vs the run.  There are a lot of question marks about the Bengals secondary and they all pretty much stem from the cornerback position. The starters on the outside figure to be Adam Jones and Kirkpatrick again who were both solid but not great in 2016. Kirkpatrick who has had a shaky career up to this point may have had the best year of his career meanwhile Jones age may be catching up to him as his play dipped a bit from 2015. Right now Darquese Dennard is the projected starter at the nickel spot but he can easily end up on the bench if he does not start to play a lot better. He was touted out of college as one of the best press cover corners in his class and has failed miserably to live up to that billing since he got into the league. It will be a do or die year for him as there are two other younger corners behind him that will be pushing for a starting spot as well. One of those guys will be William Jackson III, the team’s first round pick last season, who missed all of last year with an ankle injury and never got the chance to show what he can do. If he is fully recovered and ready to go he could beat out Dennard for a starting spot. Josh Shaw is another guy to look out for. He actually started 12 games last year and played a lot better than Dennard did. If Jackson III is not ready and Dennard does not show improvement I would expect him to be the third corner. There is a lot less confusion at the safety positions as George Iloka and Shawn Williams are locked in to start again. Williams was slightly the better of the two a year ago and earned a four year new contract worth $20 million this offseason. He was solid in coverage and in run support and earned the highest grade of any Bengals defensive back by pro football focus last season. Iloka played better in each of  his previous seasons as a starter than he did in 2016 but he was still effective just not as consistent. As far as coverage goes he was the better of the two safeties but his run defense fell off as did the Bengals as a whole which is why they finished outside the top 20 in run defense. Overall the Bengals have enough talent to be a quality defense. They are not elite but still pretty good and if the Bengals are not successful in 2017 the defense most likely will not be the primary culprit.