Those who doubt Bengals' strengths will carry over in 2026 are missing the point

The Cincinnati Bengals should have an inside track to the AFC North crown if only because they're the only team with their coaching staff still intact. Zac Taylor was the only head honcho in the division to keep his job, as big names like Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh, and two-time Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski were on the way out.

OK that's not the only reason. A big offseason of roster retooling, particularly on defense, has Joe Burrow and the locker room bullish on what's possible this season.

So why are there so many doubters who hold the Bengals in such low esteem? This 2026 team doesn't strike me as, "Sneaking in as a Wild Card." It's giving more, "Super Bowl contender."

It's foolish to dismiss Bengals' improvement in key areas for myriad reasons

Robert Mays of The Athletic Football Show spoke with ESPN+ analyst/advanced stats guru Aaron Schatz about the Bengals' outlook for this year. Although they acknowledged that a return to the playoffs is in the cards thanks to an easier schedule, it was something of a backhanded compliment.

Neither Mays nor Schatz are buyers re: how much better Cincinnati played down the stretch of the 2025 campaign in seemingly any area.

"Mays: The improvement in the back half of the year isn't necessarily an indication of what's going to happen in Cincinnati.

Schatz: Yeah, and the Bengals improved significantly in the back half of the year, but that's not part of our projection...Common sense says it should roll over. It doesn't."

Mays then proceeded to cite the Bengals' improvement on defense down the stretch of the 2024 season as proof for this "won't carry over" generalization. The team rattled off five straight victories in that stretch, only to miss the playoffs by one game.

Probably useful to have a fraction of context about that whole situation.

First off, here were the opposing QBs the Bengals face in that span: 80.7 career passer rating Cooper Rush, turnover machine Will Levis, out-of-league-now Dorian Thompson-Robinson, rookie-year Bo Nix, and Russell Wilson in his fourth-to-last career start.

Not exactly a murderer's row of Joe Burrow counterparts.

Then, it might be worth noting that the Bengals did not do anything veteran-wise to upgrade that defense outside of signing mediocre nose tackle T.J. Slaton. They were also adjusting to a new scheme under new defensive coordinator Al Golden, who admitted to making the playbook too complicated early on.

Cincinnati tossed rookie linebackers Demetrius Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter into starting roles well before they were ready. They should be at least a little improved by all the veteran additions the Bengals made this offseason in Dexter Lawrence, Jonathan Allen, Boye Mafe, and Bryan Cook.

That's not exactly the offseason of yesteryear to say the least. Oh, by the way, speaking of continuity, Burrow's o-line welcomes back all five starters from 2025.

All they did was overcome a historically bad start to the season in run blocking, saw Amarius Mims rapidly improve, and were a legit top-flight unit despite being in so many defense-driven obvious passing situations.

Most of that improvement in pass protection came once Joe Flacco took the reins of the offense. Burrow came back early from his turf toe injury, and despite playing well, he didn't get to reap all the benefits of that progress.

This o-line is easily the best Burrow will have ever played behind in the NFL. Tailback Chase Brown isn't viewed as an elite running back, yet he sure produced like one in 11 games.

See, it wasn't just the ambiguous "second half" of the 2025 season that these improvements came. It was for a solid 65% of the schedule. Now, the heavily fortified defense just has to hold up their end of the bargain, with a second year in Golden's system.

You might say, "Well there's no guarantee the new pieces will jell quickly enough!" Umm...Dexter Lawrence is arguably the most dominant defensive tackle in the sport. Boye Mafe just played for the ultimate defensive guru in Seattle in Mike Macdonald. Bryan Cook had to hold it down as a safety on the back end of Steve Spagnuolo's uber-complex Kansas City defense. Jonathan Allen endured years of dysfunction in Washington to ball out at a high clip every year.

Golden doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. He can afford to be less exotic, yet he has actual veteran talent at his disposal to execute more of those concepts if he so desires. Wasn't the case last year.

See how weak all these anti-Bengals talking points are when you really break them down?

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