ESPN Says We Have The Best Playmakers In The League!

[BFritz21]

ESPN ranks us as having the best playmakers in the league, and it's kind of hard to disagree with that assesment!

Quote:1. Cincinnati Bengals

2021 rank: 13 | 2020 rank: 23

"I'm always a little skeptical about the impact of rookies when I make these rankings," I said to start last year's Bengals blurb, "but it's not hard to be more optimistic about Ja'Marr Chase than the vast majority of other first-year wideouts." Well, I undersold things. Chase was sensational during an instant classic of a rookie campaign, as a fling with the drops in training camp gave way to a 1,455-yard catch, 13-touchdown season. He averaged 11.5 yards per target, second in the league behind Samuel. Yes, he dropped eight passes. When you do what he does with his other 119 targets, you can drop a pass every other week.

I think Chase could have a record-setting year now that Burrow will have time to throw and he'll have a year under his belt getting everything down because, you can say the transition is easier than it used to be, but there's still a slight curve.

Keep in mind that he was also coming off taking a year off, which he was working out and things, but there's still no substitute for actual football games, so he should be even better, along with the natural improvements of young NFL players.

Quote:There's no more devastating one-two punch than Chase and Tee Higgins, with the latter receiver continuing to build on an impressive rookie 2020 campaign. Higgins finished eighth among starting wideouts in yards per route run and seventh in yards per target before 96-, 103- and 100-yard games in the postseason. It's tempting to chalk up his success to the presence of Chase and Joe Burrow, but he's tremendous. Higgins' catch rate was 9.8 percentage points better than expectation, the second-best mark in the league for players with 50 catches or more.

Tee seems to be playing his best ball of his life with Burrow throwing him the ball and, like Chase, he will only continue to improve as he develops as a pro. The only difference is that now he will have an even stronger connection with Burrow, whereas Chase's is already pretty damn strong.

Quote:Chase and Higgins alone would be enough to propel the Bengals toward the top of the list, but Cincinnati has more. Tyler Boyd's raw numbers have come down with Chase and Higgins eating up so much market share, but the veteran catches just about everything thrown his way and tied Chase for the team lead in third-down conversions. The Bengals also added former Falcons tight end Hayden Hurst to replace C.J. Uzomah this offseason, giving them a tight end who was productive in 2020 before being usurped in the offense by Kyle Pitts a year ago.

I've said that I think Hurst is an underrated addition and was only let go from the Falcons because of Pitts. I think Hurst could be big for us.

Boyd is a perfect compliment to this offense because good luck trying to stop the other guys but, even if you do, Boyd is there to be open and move the chains.

Quote:The Bengals finish things off with Joe Mixon, and while he probably isn't "the best back in the league" even if Bill Belichick says so, he's well rounded enough to do anything Cincinnati needs from a running back. Rushing touchdowns were the only thing missing from Mixon's résumé, and after missing most of 2020 with injuries, he stayed healthy in 2021 and racked up 16 scores, 13 of which came on the ground.

I honestly think Mixon could be the top back in the league this year, or #2 behind Taylor, because he can run the ball and catch, which he finished the league #3 in rushing last season with a shitty offensive line!

Defenses will go crazy trying to stop all the weapons listed above, and that leaves room for Mixon to run wild because alls he needs is a little space.

Quote:In the end, I felt like the Bengals were comfortably No. 1 in these rankings. It's a massive leap for an organization that ranked 23rd two years ago. Of course, in successive drafts, they added a pair of star wide receivers in Higgins and Chase. Plenty of teams will emulate their plan to try to surround their young quarterback with skill-position talent, but it's not quite so simple, as the Eagles and Giants can tell you. The Bengals swung for the fences and landed two superstars in two seasons. The league's best set of offensive playmakers helped take them all the way from 2-14 to the Super Bowl.

We're COMFORTABLY #1 in this rankings, and it's hard to argue against the logic!

Other teams in the NFL have also improved, but, if we can stay healthy and our defense can even be AVERAGE, I believe we have a good shot at the Super Bowl!