4 way-too-early bold predictions for Bengals in 2023 regular season
With being amid free agency and the draft still a month out, it is definitely too early to make any solid bold predictions about any team in the NFL, let alone the Cincinnati Bengals. Anything can change between now and Week 1 of the 2023-24 regular season, not to mention during the regular season itself.
Regardless, I'll still throw my hat out there and make four way-too-early bold predictions that will probably age very terribly. Feel free to hit me with an 'I told you so' six months from now when none of these come true.
All stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference.
From 0 to 3 All-Pro selections
Many people-- not just Bengals fans-- were surprised when, after the regular season was over and done with and Cincinnati finished with a stellar 12-4 record after starting 0-2, not a single Bengal was named to either All-Pro team. Some received votes, including Burrow, Chase, Pratt, and very strangely Jonah Williams among others, but none of them actually made it on to either the first or second team.
Allegations of snubbing were thrown around, but once the playoffs got underway it was quickly forgotten. However this isn't about the past, it's about the future, and Apollo must have just hit me with the gift of prophecy because I see three Bengals being selected to All-Pro teams once the 2023-24 season concludes.
Two are obvious, I probably don't even have to say them but I will anyway -- Burrow and Chase. So long as they stay healthy- which fortunately Burrow has done since the injury he suffered in his rookie year-- it's almost a guarantee that they make it.
However, the third option is where this gets rather bold, especially since the media and voters like to undersell these particular players, but I think it'll be someone on the defense, specifically D.J. Reader, Logan Wilson, Germaine Pratt, or Trey Hendrickson.
D.J. Reader has been grossly overlooked pretty much his whole career, but especially during his time in Cincinnati. He didn't even receive a single vote in the All-Pro selection.
Well, I believe (and hope) this is the year that they finally see him for the prolific run stuffer that he is. And if not, guys like Pratt, Wilson, and Hendrickson have already turned heads outside of the Cincy faithful, and I can see any three of them stepping up their game even more so than they already have and getting selected to either the first or second team.