{"id":893032,"date":"2026-05-16T18:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/893032\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T18:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:51:16","slug":"bengals-featured-in-a-pretty-stunning-nfl-predictions-overreaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/893032\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals featured in a pretty stunning NFL predictions overreaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not often the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> are one of the most positive talking points around the NFL.<\/p>\n

Yet, here we are. After the schedule release, NFL record predictions love the Bengals<\/a>. So do oddsmakers, who have the Bengals on pace for a franchise-best<\/a> number of games where they\u2019re the favorite.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

And now here comes the national overreactions, too.<\/p>\n

Writing some top overreactions after the offseason, ESPN\u2019s Dan Graziano<\/a> said the Bengals<\/a> getting back to the AFC title game isn\u2019t a reach at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a major opportunity here for the Bengals, as they’ve fielded a championship-caliber offense every year Burrow has stayed healthy,\u201d Graziano wrote. \u201cThey just need the other side of the ball to start chipping in again.\u201d<\/p>\n

As always, the big talking points are the additions to the defense. The Bengals spent big in free agency on names like Bryan Cook<\/a> at safety and Boye Mafe<\/a> and Jonathan Allen<\/a> for the defensive line.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Then, of course, the Dexter Lawrence<\/a> trade.<\/p>\n

The unit needs to gel and compensate, if not surpass the loss of Trey Hendrickson<\/a>, but it\u2019s a transition that looks like it should succeed.<\/p>\n

Overall, it\u2019s hard not to be impressed by what the Bengals did this offseason to get serious around Joe Burrow<\/a>. And in a refreshing twist, the national side can’t really deny it, either.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals featured in a pretty stunning NFL predictions overreaction<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not often the Cincinnati Bengals are one of the most positive talking points around the NFL. Yet,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,14163,35570,227,256,2296,4153,1489,7,1577,9085,6,120242,1503],"class_list":["post-893032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-bengals","tag-boye-mafe","tag-bryan-cook","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-dan-graziano","tag-dexter-lawrence","tag-football","tag-joe-burrow","tag-jonathan-allen","tag-nfl","tag-talking-points","tag-trey-hendrickson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116585764179900830","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}