What Are the Bengals Options In A Meaningless December?
Credit: Sam Greene via Imagn Images
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
There’s nothing left to look forward to in the 2024 Cincinnati Bengals season is, save for a potentially fun collaboration between the NFL and “The Simpsons” this upcoming Monday night. It’s over. Joe Burrow, seemingly the most realistic person on the Bengals’ organization, acknowledged as much when he said he was not thinking about the playoffs following the team’s heartbreaking 44-38 Week 13 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
(Side note: Of course it was the Steelers who delivered the death blow.)
Now, with five games left to go and mathematical elimination creeping toward them, the Bengals find themselves in an unenviable position of how to approach a hopeless situation. Do they go for wins or stealthily tank? Prioritize the future, or give fans something to watch in their last two home games? Even the decisions for these next five “meaningless” games carry risks and rewards, and what happens will say a lot about the organization.
So with that said, here’s a look at the remaining options they have for the 2024 season and the pros and cons of each move.
Start Them Or Sit Them?
With so much focus on Burrow and his longtime running mate Ja’Marr Chase’s historic-level production is being wasted in The Queen City, the pros of shutting both down somewhat obvious. Why top off a wasted year with an ACL tear or other devastating injury while playing in garbage time games?
Yes, professional athletes like to play. With the possible exceptions of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid in the NBA, that’s a given, and we can expect some pushback from those stars if they were asked to end their years early. At the very least, the Bengals probably need to wait until they are officially eliminated. Sitting Burrow and/or Chase, even during an unrealistic “playoff chase,” would be a nuclear-level “We’ve given up on the season” move that would cause a myriad of problems.
But even after mathematical elimination, how would Zac Taylor be able to ask the rest of the roster to go out in cold-to-sub-freezing temperatures and give it all they’ve got? Their team leader and No. 1 offensive skill player wouldn’t be. For a pending free agent like Tee Higgins, what incentive would there be for him to risk injury while catching passes from Jake Browning?
Camaraderie and respect are paramount in their importance in NFL locker rooms, and benching Burrow and Chase would be designating them as separate from the team. As for everyone else, this would be the equivalent of taking away someone’s gun, knife, arrows, and any blunt objects, then being directed to fight a grizzly bear.
And for a team that already struggles with attracting free agents, (Yes, this is me saying stop with the “They should have gone after Derrick Henry or Saquon Barkley” social media chatter), this move would not make them any more of a destination come 2025.
Besides, Taylor needs a life raft now (we’ll get to his status later), and that’s not going to arrive if there’s a mutiny inside the bowels of Paycor Stadium. Any potential fracturing of that locker room will doom Taylor’s tenure.
Benching Burrow and/or Chase is not only waving the white flag for the team to see, but it’d also send a message to the fans that it’s cool to check out for 2024. The team probably doesn’t want more Bengals tickets heading to the secondary market, or possibly going unused. Unused tickets mean fewer butts in seats, which means less revenue – and less revenue for a professional sports franchise causes problems… Just ask the Bengals’ downtown neighbors.
On the flip side of the equation, Burrow already has a significant injury history. Trotting him out for games that, at best, are being played for pride, is giving him five more chances to get injured. Browning is a known commodity, so there’s no utility to starting him for talent evaluation purposes, but he can at least help Cincinnati save some face on the field while Burrow gets preserved for 2025.
Maybe Burrow gets to play out the string, but every remaining game he logs carries nothing but downside. If Burrow goes down in a heap at any point between now and the end of the season, the Bengals will be accused of needlessly endangering the best talent they’ve had at the most important position since Boomer Esiason was wearing Reebok Pumps on the Astroturf at Riverfront Stadium.
The Young Receiver Conundrum
Chase, as already mentioned, is the Bengals’ premiere offensive weapon. Behind him is a crew of wideouts that have done nothing to assert themselves as longstanding viable options — and yes, due to his constant injuries and dropped passes, that now includes Higgins.
Higgins can make a magnificent catch one minute and then drop the easiest ball the next — and that’s when he’s on the field. Higgins has missed five of the Bengals’ games this season (all losses), the same number he missed in all of 2023. With Higgins almost certainly out the door, the Bengals need another young wide receiver to step up.
The problem is, the other would-be options simply haven’t proven their worth. Andrei Iosivas is experiencing all the same consistency problems as Higgins, with only a fraction of the talent. Charlie Jones, whose picture is in the dictionary next to the word “slight,” is primarily a kick returner, and his career stat line (eight catches for 69 yards in 19 games) just ain’t it.
Then there’s Jermaine “Casino Royal” Burton, who seems headed to becoming the Bengals’ version of Chase Claypool in speedy fashion. The team might benefit from starting someone else in Higgins’ role as the No. 2 wideout in the coming weeks for a final test before turning their focus to the 2025 Draft, but with how underwhelming their options have been, it’s more likely that tight ends Mike Gesicki and Tanner Hudson will continue to see their roles increase.
Zac Attack Or Attack Zac?
Last but certainly not least, Taylor has to know that Who Dey Nation is steadily getting a Janet Jackson attitude towards him and the rest of the coaching staff. The team’s Super Bowl and subsequent AFC Championship Game are turning into distant memories.
Will this disastrous season fall on Taylor? Remember, the Bengals offense has put up incredible numbers, which might be enough to save the head coach’s job. Their problems have been almost entirely the defense, which is the domain of defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, and that seat sure feels hot right now.
Once a hot head coaching candidate, Anarumo’s fall from grace has been led by a lack of talent at all of the defense: the line, the linebacking corps, and the secondary. Salary cap parity is a wonderful thing that keeps NFL seasons interesting and prevents the big-market teams from dominating the landscape. Unfortunately, a smaller market team like Cincinnati isn’t immune from being kept in check by it, either.
But you can only blame the system that all 31 other teams are working under so much. The Bengals have shown a systemic failure to draft, acquire, coach, and develop defensive talent, and those flaws are on full display in 2024.
Will Cincinnati go against their longstanding tradition of keeping coaches for way longer than anyone else would? Will they partially clean house with Anarumo, or will the axe fall on Taylor, too? Only time will tell.
But there’s only one thing to say for a team that’s almost out of options for 2024: “Winter is coming.” And much like “Game of Thrones,” there’s plenty of intrigue being set up for the Bengals’ offseason.
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