All of these single turds have merged and congealed into the massive sewer clog that is the 2023 Cincinnati Bengals season. They sit at 5-6 heading into a Week 13 Monday Night Football matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are favored by more than a touchdown.
The Bengals being the underdog will likely be a common theme for the rest of the season, based on ESPN’s Football Power Index. Without Burrow and with a defense that can struggle to get off the field at times, ESPN has the Bengals sitting 22nd in the NFL, which is behind every team they play to close out the season.
Obviously, there are upsides to being the underdog. As a fan, winning is a little more fun when your team is the underdog. Also, if the Bengals do lose every game, they’ll have a top-10 pick, and the last time you gave Joe Burrow a top-10 pick, it ended up being Ja’Marr Chase, and the Bengals went to the Super Bowl.
Here’s what’s going to happen. The Bengals are going to lose more than they win, but in a game in which they’re expected to lose, they will rock out, and we’re going to have a lot of fun watching them spoil the end of the season for someone else.With the 46th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Cincinnati Bengals selected Jackson Carman out of Clemson. It was a bit of a surprising pick at the time since the Bengals made it clear they were going to move Carman inside to one of the guard spots rather than keep him at his preferred position of left tackle.
Well, Carman is in the third year of his career and he has not added much to the Bengals offensive line. He made six starts in 2021 but finished with an overall PFF grade of 44.9. The next year he only suited up for three games and was a healthy scratch for the majority of the season. He did play decently in the AFC Divisional Round against the Bills but that’s about the only true positive when it comes to Carman.
This year, Carman has appeared in just one game and has been inactive for over half of the games. Simply put: Carman has not been worthy of a second-round pick. Who could the Bengals have drafted instead? Let’s take a look.
