More likely: Bengals make playoffs or Commanders miss out?

Yahoo

19 hours ago

Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton react to Monday night's preseason battle between Cincinnati and Washington and whether both teams can find success this season.
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Video Transcript
Based on last night's game, what's more likely in your mind?
That the Cincinnati Bengals reversed their fortunes and made the playoffs, or that the Washington Commanders reverse their fortunes and miss the playoffs this season?
Like, that's a great question, and I have felt this way for a long time.
Yeah, kudos to you, Snap, but maybe this isn't as strong of a take today after what we saw the Bengals' defense look like last night.
But I think that it is more, more likely that the Bengals make the playoffs because I think it was a statistical anomaly last year that the Bengals missed the playoffs.
I mean, I expect Joe Burrow, you know, let's say he doesn't have an MVP caliber season.
I still think as long as you have Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase and T. Higgins in that offense and the continuity that they have had from last year to this year, that they will always be good enough to be in the conversation.
And I cannot imagine.
As long as everybody stays healthy, of course, we couch every single argument with as long as they stay healthy, I cannot imagine a world where the Bengals with this offensive firepower miss the playoffs yet again.
Their defense is stinky.
It's absolutely stinky, and all of the offseason distraction and conversation will Trey Hendrickson be a Bengal?
Will Trey Hendrickson not be a Bengal, of course, that will, you know, hurt morale and be a distraction, and any distractions in August aren't gonna help a team, but I think this Bengals team is just too loaded offensively, at least, to miss the playoffs two years in a row.
This is a tough question for me, but I got to go the opposite way.
As much as I hear you on the Bengals making the playoffs, if I'm gonna have to pick what's more likely, I keep thinking about the staggering analytics behind the Commanders' success last year.
Now, let me be clear, I think Jayden Daniels is the future.
I think Jayden Daniels is absolutely spectacular, and I think it's also okay to admit that last year the Commanders played a little ahead of their skis.
In fact, if you listen to Inside Coverage last year, Charles Robinson talked a couple of times about how people even within the organization accepted that Jayden had played so well that they were playing past the level of talent that they actually had on the field.
They understood that internally.
Now, the big offseason tried to upgrade some of that, but go back to Warren Sharpe's analytics.
They had a historic fourth down conversion rate.
We talk about the Tush push all the time.
Hold my beer.
Washington was the best team on fourth down last season.
So you start talking about a historic fourth down conversion rate.
We talk about the little moments, like I don't know, somebody walking off the field during, um Hail Mary, not paying attention.
The little things that happened last year that went Washington's way gave them a real leg up at the beginning of this sort of run that I think they're, they're poised for.
But if we're playing this, what's the future look like?
A year ago, right now, the entire football community was obsessed with the concept that CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans were about to become the same.
The same type of competitor in the AFC that the Bills are, that the Ravens are, that the Chiefs are.
Did they do that?
No.
Were they still a playoff team?
Yes, but it was a very difficult battle for them to get there.
A lot of reasons why.
But it's a reminder that we can turn ourselves into a hype machine that just presumes a team is going to pick up where they left off.
Frank Schwab again, Inside Coverage has long talked about this for the last couple of months.
He was high on Washington last year.
This year, he's big on Washington taking a small step back.
Now, what does that step back look like?
To me, Washington's probably about a 10-win football team.
Should that still make the playoffs in the NFC?
Yeah, it absolutely should.
But when we talk about the risers and the fallers and what it's all gonna look like, I think there's at least a little bit of concern if you're a Washington fan thinking, hey, we just cracked the code and we are about to be this team for the next 15 years because of Jayden Daniels.
Remember, it wasn't that long ago that the Cincinnati.
Bengals went to a Super Bowl and thought, yeah, we cracked that code.
This is who we're going to be every single year.
I've seen one great year from Jayden Daniels in a year that the football gods simply kissed the Washington Commanders in ways that we haven't seen in a long time.
And it's better to be lucky than good.
But if I got a bank on something that's gonna turn itself around.
Luck doesn't always favor the same team twice in a row.
I think Washington could take a step back because of it.
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