Kevin and I were back after a short Thanksgiving break to discuss where the Cincinnati Bengals find themselves, now without their franchise quarterback for the rest of the year as the 2023 NFL season enters the home stretch.
We discussed what kind of expectations fans should have for the Bengals moving forward and what we’d like to see from the team. We both agree that we’d like to see some of the young guys developmore, which requires more playing time for guys like Chase Brown, DJ Turner, and Charlie Jones.
We also talked about the rare situation the Bengals find themselves in. While it does indeed suck that they will likely be underdogs in every game, which will also likely lead to them missing the playoffs, they have the opportunity to play young guys who wouldn’t typically be playing while the team makes a push to the postseason.
When it’s all said and done, they’ll have a leg up on some of their 2024 opponents because some of their rookies will have more game experience than they would have had otherwise on ook a bit longer than expected, but Lawrence is finally firing on all cylinders. Now that his knee is fully healthy and Calvin Ridley is looking like his former self, don’t be surprised to hear Lawrence’s name in the MVP race. I’m eager to see how he and the Jaguars perform in the red zone on Monday; they’ve had some turnover issues in that area, while Lou Anarumo’s defense has generated a league-high six takeaways in the red zone.
