The Cincinnati Bengals are 2-0 to start the year. That's the good news. The bad news is that they'll have to play the next three months without star quarterback Joe Burrow, who suffered a toe injury in Week 2.
For most teams, not having their starting quarterback for three months would probably have fans panicking and assuming the season is over. While Burrow is undoubtably one of the best quarterbacks in the league, Jake Browning has proven himself to be a reliable backup. He has great wide receivers at his disposal and the defense has played better than expected early on. In other words, the season is anything but over for the Bengals.
Let's run through the next five games on the Bengals' schedule and predict how they might pan out for the stripes.
Week 3 at Minnesota
First up for the Bengals without Burrow is a trip to Minneapolis to take on the 1-1 Vikings, who are in the same boat as Cincinnati. The Vikings will also be starting their QB2 in this one, with Carson Wentz set to make his first start of the season and first with Minnesota.
It's really hard to predict how this one will go because we don't know how Wentz is going to look in the Vikings' system. The last time we saw him start a game wasn't all that long ago and it was a game that Bengals fans had a lot of interest it. Wentz suited up as the Chiefs starting quarterback in Week 18 earlier this year with Cincy needing Kansas City to win to make it into the playoffs. We all know how that turned out.
That being said, it's hard to put the Chiefs' goose egg in that game on Wentz since he only had backups and third-stringers at his disposal. This time around, he'll have starters to throw to, including Justin Jefferson, and should be able to execute Kevin O'Connell's offense better than first-year starter J.J. McCarthy, who is out with a high ankle sprain.
Browning helped the Bengals beat the Vikings two years ago but Minnesota's defense is a little scarier now than it was then. Their passing defense has been excellent so far, allowing an average of 153.0 yards per game but their run defense has been a bit suspect early on. Considering the Bengals' lack of rushing attack so far, that might be tough for them to exploit.
This game would be easier to predict if we knew what Wentz was going to look like in O'Connell's system but we'll find that out on Sunday. Can the Bengals defense make him uncomfortable? If so, they should be able to secure a big victory on the road.
Prediction: Bengals win 24-21 to move to 3-0
Week 4 at Denver (MNF)
The Bengals will hit the road for a second straight week and will head to the Mile High City for Monday Night Football. We saw the Bengals and Broncos go back-and-forth in Week 17 last year with Cincinnati ultimately winning the game in overtime.
The Broncos are 1-1 but some might argue they should be 2-0 after the questionable call against them in Indianapolis last week that gifted the Colts another shot at the game-winning field goal. Denver's defense was supposed to be elite this year but it allowed Daniel Jones to look elite himself and surrendered 29 points in Week 2.
As for Denver's offense, Bo Nix and the Broncos have scored at least 20 points in each of their first two games. Can Trey Hendrickson and the Bengals pass rush get some pressure on Nix, who has only been sacked twice in the Broncos' first two games?
If this game were in Cincinnati, I might lean toward taking the Bengals but with it being on the road against a playoff contender, this is going to be a tough one to win.
Prediction: Bengals lose their first game of the year 27-17 and drop to 3-1
Week 5 vs. Detroit
If I had put these predictions together after Week 1, I might have questioned if the Lions were as good as they have been in years past. Well, after they gave the Bears a complete shellacking in Week 2, it's safe to say that Detroit is going to be fine this year.
This doesn't bode well for the Bengals even with this game taking place at Paycor Stadium. If Joe Burrow was suiting up, it'd be easy to picture him slicing and dicing that Lions defense the same way the Packers did in Week 1. While Browning is serviceable, he's not Burrow and therefore isn't going to carve up defenses the same way Joey B does.
This will be the Bengals' toughest test defensively, as they'll be tasked with slowing down Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and the rest of the Lions' ferocious offensive attack. If they can't, it's going to be difficult to imagine Browning fully keeping up offensively.
Prediction: Bengals lose 38-24 and drop to 3-2
Week 6 at Green Bay
The Bengals hit the road again in Week 6, this time heading north to the state of Wisconsin to face the Packers. It's still early, of course, but through the first two weeks of the 2025 NFL season, no team has looked more daunting than the Green Bay Packers.
The highlight for the Packers has been the addition of pass-rushing phenom Micah Parsons, who has one sack and 10 QB pressures in his first two games in the green and gold. The Packers held the explosive Lions offense to 13 points in the season opener and the equally explosive Commanders to 18 points in last week's Thursday Night Football match-up.
In other words, this Packers defense looks to be for real. This is concerning for a Bengals team that has had trouble protecting Burrow and it's only going to be more difficult when a backup quarterback is taking the snaps.
The Packers haven't been slouches offensively either, scoring 27 points in each of their first two games. There are still a few weeks to go until this match-up and Bengals fans will be hoping that the Packers lose some momentum a bit. Otherwise, this could be an ugly one.
Prediction: Bengals lose 32-21 and drop to 3-3
Week 7 vs. Pittsburgh (TNF)
After a hot start, the Bengals are back at .500 when their Week 7 rendezvous with the hated Pittsburgh Steelers comes around. The good news is that the NFL finally awarded the Bengals a home game on Thursday night (though they do still play the Ravens on the road later in the season on a Thursday night because some things never change) so at least they have that going for them.
It's so tough picking Bengals/Steelers games because the Steelers are always a difficult team to figure out. The Bengals might have won the last meeting between these two but Pittsburgh had won the previous three. You really can say "When these two teams meet, throw the records out the window" when it applies to any AFC North match-up because it's true!
The Steelers are 1-1 with a shootout win over the Jets in Week 1 and then a hilarious loss to the Seahawks in Week 2. Aaron Rodgers has looked pretty good for them and he's 2-2 against Cincinnati overall. Here's to hoping the Bengals pass rush can make him uncomfortable.
Prediction: Bengals win 17-14 and move to 4-3
If the schedule ended up playing out this way, the Bengals would be 4-3 and still very much in the thick of things when it came to the playoff race. If they can stay afloat until Burrow is healthy enough to return, perhaps this team could do some major damage come postseason time.