Cincinnati Bengals Outside NFL's Top 15 2026 Teams in Latest Power Rankings

CINCINNATI — FOX Sports dropped its post-Super Bowl NFL power rankings this week, and Cincinnati is right in the middle of the pack after another disappointing season in the Queen City.

The Bengals ranked 16th in the exercise.

"A healthy Joe Burrow would make them instantly dangerous, but they still have so much work to do on defense. That’s especially true if they lose Trey Hendrickson, which they likely will," Ralph Vacchiano wrote for FOX Sports.

Cincinnati has missed the playoffs in eight of the past 10 seasons, but did go to the AFC Championship in those two postseason runs. They have all of the offensive pieces to make a run up these rankings, but how they attack the defensive build this offseason will play a big factor in their success.

Most people understand that one elite quarterback like Joe Burrow can't do it all. You have to have a complete team, top to bottom, that executes together and can support all three phases of the game equally.

Seattle is the reigning Super Bowl champion for that exact complementary reason. They didn't have to pay their quarterback as much as Cincinnati ($33.5 million this past season for Sam Darnold, $55 million for Burrow), but the Bengals could still do a much better job setting up their whole team for success this coming season, not just the offense and some aspects of special teams.

Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin is ready for this key team-building moment.

"Well, it's the Bengals, and when we don't win a championship, that's the only thing that I'm after, a championship," Tobin said about his mentality last month. "It's not any individual in this building's championship. It's the Cincinnati Bengals championship. And that's really the only definition of success that I have. I don't have a definition of success of making the playoffs or doing X, Y, or Z. It's the team that has a positive feeling at the end of the season. That's the only thing that I'm chasing.

"That's what we want. We want it for all of our players. We want it for all of our staff. You know, we have set our team up for Joe in a way that we feel is pretty darn good, and there are resources on the team that we've expended on that. So when you spend 60% or 65%, or whatever it is, on offense of your cap, it's going to affect the other parts of your team. We know that we have to find solutions that fit into that, and then produce on the other side of the ball. And we will. We're positive about that."

Check out the full power ranking here.

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