As the offseason continues, Cincinnati Bengals fans are eagerly awaiting the start of the 2023 regular season. Will the Bengals be a Super Bowl contender yet again?
PFF has this cool feature where you can simulate the 2023 regular season for any team. It goes through each game and predicts the result and then gives the final record when it gets through every game.
So, how did PFF see the Bengals' 2023 regular-season panning out? Let's take a look.
PFF simulates Bengals 2023 regular season
- Week 1 @ Browns: 27-31 Loss
- Week 2 vs. Ravens: 16-26 Loss
- Week 3 vs. Rams: 22-15 Win
- Week 4 @ Titans: 24-18 Win
- Week 5 @ Cardinals: 24-21 Win
- Week 6 vs. Seahawks: 34-13 Win
- Week 8 @ 49ers: 15-37 Loss
- Week 9 vs. Bills: 30-20 Win
- Week 10 vs. Texans: 15-5 Win
- Week 11 @ Ravens: 29-26 Win
- Week 12 vs. Steelers: 30-27 Win
- Week 13 @ Jaguars: 26-12 Win
- Week 14 vs. Colts: 34-14 Win
- Week 15 vs. Vikings: 12-22 Loss
- Week 16 @ Steelers: 30-3 Win
- Week 17 @ Chiefs: 31-38 Loss
- Week 18 vs. Browns: 27-10 Win
PFF predicts the Bengals to go 12-5 with losses to the Browns and Ravens right out of the gate, putting them in the exact same situation they found themselves in last year. They go on to win their next four games to sit at 4-2 before losing big to the 49ers out of the BYE week and then ripping off six straight wins in what's thought to be their toughest stretch of the season.
The Bengals are projected to close out the season with losses to the Vikings and Chiefs in two of their final four games. They finish strong with a commanding win over the Browns in Week 18 to boast a 12-5 record at the end of the season.
Joe Burrow throws for an eye-popping 5,209 yards, 39 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. The yardage total is astounding but the double-digit interceptions could potentially take him out of the MVP running.
The most surprising thing about this projection is that none of the three receivers finish with 1,000 yards to their name. They all have over 900 yards receiving with Tee Higgins leading the way with 995, Ja'Marr Chase coming in second with 988, and Tyler Boyd bringing up the rear with 949 yards.
Joe Mixon has an incredible bounce-back season, totaling 1,930 yards from scrimmage with 1,324 of those coming on the ground. He finishes with five rushing touchdowns. Chase Brown has 422 total yards and two rushing scores during his rookie campaign.
Shockingly, when I had PFF simulate the three other AFC North opponents' seasons, they had the Ravens finishing with a 7-10 record, the Browns finishing just two games back of the Bengals with a 10-7 record, and the Steelers actually finishing with the same record as Cincinnati. This would mean that the Bengals would still win the division due to sweeping Pittsburgh but who would have predicted that?
It is worth noting that these projections change with every simulation so this was just one round of these. I'll be curious to see how much things change for the Bengals and within the division the next time I run the simulation.