Last season, the Bengals had their eye on the prize and nothing was going to stop them. Experts were projecting a battle between Miami and Washington for the #1 pick in the upcoming draft, but the Bengals had other plans. AJ Green started the year injured, which ended up costing him the whole season. Joe Mixon and Andy Dalton both had a terrible first half of the season... well Andy's season didn't get much better in the second half. Tyler Boyd, who stepped in as the WR1 with Green out, was the lone bright spot for the Bengals, in terms of fantasy players, last year. This offseason, Cincinnati added a lot of key players to their defense during, but not much on the offensive side of the ball yet. With Mixon, Green, Boyd, and Ross there is plenty of playmakers on offense, but last season the offensive line let up 48 sacks, which ranked bottom 10 in the league. If/When the Bengals draft Joe Burrow, he's going to have a hard time adjusting to the league if his o-line doesn't give him enough time to sit in the pocket and make a good throw. Cincinnati has to be looking at the turnaround San Francisco had last season and saying to themselves why can't we do that? Normally for these outlooks, I like to focus on the current roster, but with the draft on Thursday, it looks like a foregone conclusion that Burrow is going to Cincinnati. Usually, a rookie quarterback is a risky pick in fantasy football, but with what he did at LSU last year, there are bound to be some Burrow-believers who take a chance on him. Although he's very elusive and does a great job of escaping when the pocket collapses, Burrow isn't going to be getting many fantasy points with his legs in the NFL. With the Bengals, he shouldn't need to worry about that as he will be surrounded by talented playmakers and he just needs to make the right plays. With reoccurring injury concerns for Green and Ross, a questionable offensive line, and a rookie quarterback this season is bound to be an offensive roller coaster ride for Cincinnati. With all of these questions surrounding the Bengals before Burrow is even drafted, I'm personally going to shy away from him in drafts because there are bound to be some growing pangs this year and that's not something I want to deal with. With so many great quarterbacks in the league right now he should be nothing more than a late-round flier in most standard leagues. At the other end of the draft, Joe Mixon looked like a top 5-10 back heading into last season and, although he ended up finishing as RB13 on the year, it felt like a disappointment after all the preseason hype. His second-half fantasy resurgence, despite the team finishing 2-14, should give fantasy owners faith in him moving forward. Mixon didn't have a rushing touchdown until week 11 last year and only scored more than one touchdown in week 17 when most fantasy leagues were already finished. One factor in his slow start to the season was the gameplan. Mixon only saw more than his season average of 19.5 touches once in the first seven weeks (20 touches in week 5). After week seven, Mixon averaged nearly 24 touches per game in the final nine weeks of the season, which resulted in 18 fantasy points per game (Only McCaffrey, Cook, Jones, Henry, Elliott, Ekeler, and Barkley averaged more over the course of the season). Mixon is being projected as a mid to late second-round pick, which is great value for a back who has a clear hold on the starting job, can catch passes out of the backfield, and is coming off back-to-back seasons as a top 15 RB in fantasy. The Bengals receiving core might be the best of the worst in the NFL. AJ Green will be 32 years old when the season starts, but he's a seven-time pro-bowler who has over 1,000 yards receiving and at least five touchdowns in every season he's played over 10 games in (6). He sat out all of last season either because of injury or because the Bengals realized they were in the running for Burrow, either way, reports are stating he's healthy now and ready for the season. For a receiver 32 is usually nearing retirement age, but Larry Fitzgerald will be 37 at the start of the season and has shown that some great receivers can still dominate in their 30's. The second receiver on the Bengals depth chart is Tyler Boyd, who led Cincinnati last year with 90 receptions for 1,046 yards and 5 receiving touchdowns. Boyd is one of nine receivers with at least 1,000 yards receiving and five touchdowns in each of the last two seasons, finishing as a top 20 fantasy WR each year. The other two receivers on the Bengals' current roster worth nothing are John Ross and current TE CJ Uzomah. John Ross made a name for himself by breaking CJ2K's 40-yard dash combine record but hasn't been productive or healthy during his three years in the league. CJ Uzomah has never caught more than 50 passes in a season and has never eclipsed 500 yards. Last season, as the starting tight, he only caught 27 passes for 242 yards. Ross and Uzomah are best to be left alone in fantasy drafts because even if injuries happen, they haven't taken advantage of the previous opportunities they had. AJ Green and Tyler Boyd are both being projected around each other because of the uncertainty of who will be targeted as the number one option. The preseason projections have them both as fringe WR2 candidates in fantasy and being taken somewhere around rounds six to eight. If you get three or four running backs to start the draft and are looking for some starting-caliber wide receivers, these are great guys to take a chance on in those rounds in hopes of getting a WR2 out of them. Despite poor QB play and AJ's injury, the Bengals still threw the ball 616 times last year, which was sixth in the league, so there are plenty of targets to go around. With AJ being hurt the last two seasons and Boyd being a top 20 WR, I would lean towards Boyd before taking a risk on Green if choosing between the two, although Green has a higher ceiling.
- Alex Zani