Jason La Canfora picks Bengals for an ugly season.

[Benton]

That's probly to be expected.

When media are making these kinds of lists, the most predictive way to do it is to ask two questions:
1- What was the reason a team did good/bad last year?
2- Did the team maintain/fix that?

Using the Chiefs:
1- Balance; good output from skills positions/Depth at OL; penalties
2- Yes; maybe improved/Yes; probly not

So barring aberrations, if you're trying to safely predict if the Chiefs will have a good year in 2021, they most likely will as they maintained their strengths and improved at least one major area of need.

When you are trying to do that for 32 team working off general knowledge, that's the safest and most consistent way of doing it.

If you apply that to the Bengals:
1- Passing game/Lack of OL; lack of depth at multiple positions
2- Yes/No; no

So if they didn't improve the negatives, even though they maintained or improved the positives, then your best bet if you're predicting the 2021 season is: 'bout the same as 2020.