Zero Coaches under contract in just a few weeks - How ending impacts Mike Brown Poll

[Benton]

I don't see us making the playoffs unless there's a catastrophic injury on the Ravens or Chiefs.

Both those teams have a reasonably easy schedule. For the Ravens, I think us and the Steelers are really all they've got left that might beat them. Browns, Colts and Lions should all be wins for them and they're likely to win one of those two remaining divisional games. The Chiefshave a pretty similar road of mediocre opponents. I guess the Jets might heat up and beat them, but the rest of the teams they play are all pretty crappy. The Jags and Titans both have pretty easy roads, too, and are likely to stay above 10 wins.

Plus the Bills have a manageable road, if they split with the Pats and Dolphins each and win against Indy, they're 9-7. Which is reasonable even though the Pats are the Pats.

The Bengals have Vikings (it'll be fun to watch Zimmer give Marvin a rusty trombone, but that'll be the only part of that game that's enjoyable), the Steelers (who knows), Ravens (unlikely), Lions (who knows) and the Bears (who...knows).


So, I wouldn't put too much faith in the Bengals hitting a hot streak here at the end. We gave up too many early for the opponents we have left.

With that in mind, I think we finish around with 7 or 8 wins depending on how the Lions, Bears and Steelers games fall. And I think Mike extends another 1-year contract to Marvin, Marvin accepts and we go down the same damn road one more time.

But — this isn't all gloom and doom — I think this is the last go round. I think the draft this year will focus on rebuilding players (linemen, maybe even a QB for a couple years down the road) and I think Mike Brown retires at the end of 2018 and takes Marvin's .500ish butt along with him.