The Cincinnati Bengals have one of many extra gifted rosters within the league, however don’t at all times play prefer it. Despite an offense that might declare to be the perfect within the NFL, the truth is, they’ve been too sluggish out of the gates by a lot of Joe Burrow’s profession.
Take into account this: the Bengals have began 1-3 or 2-3 (or 1-3-1) in all however one season since they drafted Burrow. Gradual begins have more and more turn out to be a difficulty, coming to a head, notably final season. They misplaced their first three video games and three out of 4. With that type of gap, they couldn’t make up for a mid-season slide, the place even a five-game win streak to finish the 12 months barely dragged them above .500, exterior of the playoffs.
The Bengals are absolutely conscious of this and know that it has to alter, based on Paul Dehner Jr. He writes
for The Athletic that “Adjustments can be coming to how the Bengals put together for the season. Fixing the sluggish begins was on the thoughts of each Cincinnati coach and workers member roaming the halls”.
For instance, he cites new DC Al Golden, who needs to make fuller use of OTAs than HC Zac Taylor has beforehand, particularly vital as he installs a brand new protection. Nonetheless, the larger image is the construction and depth of coaching camp, which underneath Taylor has been lighter.
The Bengals, Dehner writes, “don’t need to take away the vitality and late-season success of current groups, however an admission the strategy hasn’t labored as a complete as a consequence of sluggish begins was unanimous”. To that finish, they intend to extend the quantity of tackling they do in coaching camp, and play their starters extra within the preseason.
One concern in a number of the Bengals’ sluggish begins has been right down to unhealthy luck, after all. Particularly, Joe Burrow has had some well being misfortunes which have contributed to subpar play. He was overcoming season-ending accidents to begin his second and most up-to-date seasons. In between, he had an appendix concern and a calf harm.
So far as the 2024 season goes, the Bengals started the season 1-4. Whereas that included a loss to the New England Patriots, their different losses got here to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, and Washington Commanders. In fact, a staff with championship aspirations ought to be successful a few these video games irrespective of the month.
Zac Taylor comes from the Sean McVay teaching tree, and he has tried to emulate a few of what he realized underneath him since taking up the Bengals. A variety of that has needed to do with how the offseason is structured, notably coaching camp. However the Rams have began the previous three seasons 2-3 or worse, so maybe it’s time to adapt. And adapt in different methods, as properly.
