The Bengals, Giants, & Browns Will Rebound in 2026

So let's start with the Patriots, Albert.

And if you look at kind of the, the NFL standings from a year ago, I'm talking about teams that finished comfortably.

Below 500 that are gonna come back and have a major uh impact on this year's season.

Now, there's two really easy answers here that I'll accept, but I'll be unhappy about, and then I think that there's some interesting answers that we can actually kind of dig in on.

So, I don't know, why don't you kick us off?

I'm gonna do the Giants.

Are they one of the easy ones?

No, OK, OK, go ahead.

Um, I think there are very real parallels between the Giants and the Patriots and the Commanders.

You have an experienced head coach coming in.

You've got a young quarterback.

And if you look at like what the Commanders did and the way they were able to get themselves off the mat as quickly as they did, it was by bringing in a lot of guys who had background with the coaching staff, right?

So that was Dante Fowler, it was Bobby Wagner, it was Dorence Armstrong, it was even like an Austin Eckler who played for Anthony Lynn.

You had all of these guys where, were they game-changing free agent acquisitions?

No, but the commanders knew exactly what they were getting, they knew exactly how those guys would fit.

And those guys helped sort of get you up to level ground, and then the young quarterback took you over the top.

Same thing with the Patriots last year, you look at all the free agent additions, minus Milton Williams, which obviously, that was the biggest one, but, you know, Harold Landry and Robert Spillane had played for Mike Vrabel, Carlton Davis had played for Terrell Williams, um, you know, they brought in all these guys, even like Stefon Diggs and, and Morgan Moses, you know, had background with guys in that staff.

Um, and so, like you had all of these guys who, you know, were You know, like, we're, like, again, some of them really big-time free agent acquisitions, others were like more mid-level, but like the idea was, like, let's patch all the holes on our roster.

So, look at like the Giants free agent additions, right?

Isaiah likely.

Uh, you know, Patrick Ricard.

So you, you, you, you, you, I mean, stout, you know, coming in, like, I, I, I, you know, you look at like some of the guys they bring in and a lot of them had experience and background with guys in the coaching staff.

Um, and I think that part of it is, is huge.

You've got the young quarterback involved in, in Jackson Dart, who has a chance to, to, to take a big step.

And I've felt this way, I felt this way last year, right?

Like, I, I think in each of those cases, What preceded it is another key, right?

Which, like, by the end of those years that were preceding the, the, the, the, the new regime coming in, it was like a dead man walking situation.

Ron Rivera in Washington, Gerard Mayo had turned into such a mess at the end.

And then in this situation, like, they fired Brian Daball in mid-season, you know.

So, I think it was a locker room that was really, I think when, when, when, when a group of players go through that, like, they can be rejuvenated really quickly because of what they just went through and getting a new voice can be really impactful for them, right?

So, I mean, I might be taking crazy pills, but I felt like that roster is not bad for a while.

And I mean, I, like just the defensive front alone, not, not losing Dexter Lawrence hurts, don't get me wrong, but, you know, you've got Abdul Carter, you've got, you know, you've got Brian Burns, you've got Kavon Thibodeaux, we'll see what they get out of him.

You're now gonna have Edmonds and Reese at linebacker.

Um, you know, I think your, your, your, your corner situation, you brought in, um, You know, Paul Adibo, the year before, you brought in, you know, a holiday at safety.

Like, I just look at I just look at all of the like across the board, you know, it just doesn't feel like there's a ton of holes there and now they've got their offensive line taken care of to a degree and bringing in Francis Mauinoah.

I just, I don't think it's a bad roster.

I think it's a team and a group of players who've been through a lot the last couple of years.

And so I think the same way.

Those Commanders players, some of those Commanders players are ready for a new voice in Dan Quinn.

The Patriots players are ready for a new voice in Mike Vrabel.

Uh, you know, I think that the, the Giants players are ready to be out from under the last couple of years, and that doesn't, that's not a shot at Brian Dayball.

Some of that was out of his control, but a lot of it was out of his control, yeah, you know, but I, but I do think, like, I do think like there, it's a group that's ready for a new voice.

So, here's, if you look at the schedule from last year, it's, it's fascinating how few candidates there really are, uh, if, if you kind of pare it down, like, so the Arizona Cardinals, uh, were 3 and 14 last year, and there's just nothing.

There that suggests that this team is gonna win 10 games, like, oh, it's like the worst, I think, I think we didn't we talk about like this, how , like, that's like one of the, like, most brutal blast play schedules you'll ever see.

Oh my God, like, their schedule is, and I can pull it up here, I got my handy schedule tool here.

So, the 1st 7 weeks of the season.

Chargers, Seahawks, Forty-Niners, Giants, Lions, Rams, Broncos.

And then Cowboys, Seahawks, Rams, Chiefs, Commanders, Eagles.

I'm, I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that if, if they're 0 and 13, I don't think any of us should be like, oh my God, what happened?

That schedule is a ripper, you know.

Um, and that's nothing against Mike LaFleur or, you know, anything that they got going on there, but this was not a draft where they were able to replenish.

And , uh, you know, you get a running back with the 3rd overall pick, very talented running back, but that wasn't really a position of need, and they had 2 other, Uh, good backs already on the roster.

So if you look at it, it's like, who really are the candidates here?

And this is why I say that there's an easy answer, and it's a layup that I'm gonna take, but, like, you have the Cardinals, give the Saints.

I just don't think anybody's breaking out of that NFC South, though the Saints might be better, um, the Giants, who you took, the Commanders who would just be effectively, the Commanders would be the next commanders, um, Raiders, which is tough because it's a rookie quarterback, really hard division.

Uh, the Chiefs would be the easiest answer, right?

Because that was like, that would be cheap though, don't you?

It would be cheap.

The Titans are a candidate, um, but again, I mean, this is, you know, I, I think 6 or 7 wins there, um, constitutes a pretty major turnaround.

So I, I, I, I'm down to 2 options, OK.

And uh I'm curious what you think about this.

I mean, how cheap is the Bengals when you take into account that they've missed the playoffs 3 years in a row.

They've missed the playoffs 3 years in a row.

In 2 of the last 3 years, they had a negative point differential.

Zach Taylor was not on the hot seat effectively, but I can promise you that.

The thought of him no longer being the coach of the Bengals crossed the minds of many people in the NFL whose jobs it is to prepare for NFL coaching jobs to open, right?

And so, I, I mean, in that way.

The Bengals are kind of your, I mean, to go from 6 wins to maybe 13 wins is, is gonna register as something of a surprise.

And the reason why I say that, again, I hate to be so schedule-specific, but this is sort of where we've landed in terms of this point in time in the NFL calendar.

But if you take a look at, um, there's a strength of schedule, um, that one site up here has that they take.

The projected Vegas win totals, and then they, uh, they isolate the teams that are then projected to be playoff teams based off that, OK?

And so, the Bengals in that metric have 4 playoff teams on their schedule this year, which is crazy, yeah, and again, like, Cleveland could be much better, and I debated putting the Browns on this list, Albert, because honestly, we've talked a lot about this.

You wrote about it yesterday.

Um, at SI.

com.

I mean, a healthy Deshaun Watson in an offense that is actually amenable to him with that roster is maybe a 9-win team, and I'm not being, I don't think I'm being out of bounds by saying that, you know, um, I, I think he's a very real comeback player of the Year candidate with Todd Monken, you know, and I think that there's a reason why Cleveland targeted him in their, in their head coaching search, but I, I think just if you, and again, it's a cheap answer, but I think if you go by that alone, like the Bengals, there's a, there's a world where they win 13 games after 6, like that is a massive turnaround.

I think, I think Joe Burrow knows too.

I don't think Joe Burrows saying what he said yesterday, if he doesn't know what he's got.

And I think one of the things that Joe is really good at is understanding the pulse of his locker room and what his team needs.

And I, I'll take this back to conversations I had with him, um, during the 21 season, where he kept saying to me, and he got sick of me saying like that the, like, well, like, you know, how are you changing things that he's like, he kept telling me, he's like the, the old Bengals are dead, they're gone, you know what I mean?

Like, and he was saying that I think is a kind of a way of of like messaging to his team, like, we don't, we don't need to be chained to this, to the franchise's past.

Like this is our team now, you know, and they wound up riding that all the way to the Super Bowl.

And I think saying what he said yesterday about going and winning a Super Bowl, right?

Like, and that we should be shooting for that is an acknowledgement of where the team is.

And I think kind of a nod to the fact that, hey, you know, this was great.

We're riding high, you know, my 1st 3 years, like, or at least coming off the ACL my rookie year, we go to the Super Bowl, the next year, we're back in the AFC Championship game.

And now we've all learned that it's really hard to get back there every year.

And we need to take advantage of every opportunity.

And so, you know, it sort of relates back to like when he said, You know, our Super Bowl window is my whole career.

You know, I don't think he's saying those things to, I don't think he's saying those things to pound his own chest.

I think he's saying those things to sort of message to his team like this is how we should be thinking, you know, and I still think like, honestly, I mean, if we're ranking the 3 or 4 best quarterbacks in football.

When he's healthy, I think he's, he's comfortably on that list.

You know what I mean?

Like, I think he's there with Allen and Mahomes based on where his ceiling is, you know.

So, I don't know.

I mean, like I, I, I It's a team I bought in a lot on, I bought, bought in a lot on over the last 5 years.

I am buying in on them again with the caveat that they need to stay healthy, which seems to always be the story with them, you know.

But I think the defense is gonna be better.

I think Dexter Lawrence is a, I think Dexter Lawrence is legitimately a game changer for them.

I think it be easier for everyone around him.

Um, I think it changes the way that Al Golden can coach those guys and You know, to me, then, you know, when you go to the next level of this, it's like, OK, like, so what do they need past that?

I think once you get past that, right, it's about like getting some of the, getting some of the young guys to hit on their potential.

So, that's obviously like the Jamar Stewart, right?

Like, and what does he become in year two, to Cassius Howell, you know, who they draft out of Texas A&M, what's he gonna be?

You know, Demetrius Knight is somebody they were really high on in camp last year, he's a rookie last year, a linebacker.

Um, so it's hitting on those guys, it's those guys turning corners and And then, you know, a couple of the free agents coming up big, the way that if you remember like Joe Burrow's early years, there were some guys that have been free agents that came in from the outside, guys like Jadoby Ouzier who wound up being really, you know, big hits for them.

And so, you know, it's, it's like Brian Cook and Boy Mafe, um, becoming important players for them as well, but I, I think a lot of the things are in place, you know, it's just gonna be a matter of staying healthy for them now.

Uh, so, I mean, I don't know.

I guess it's kind of a chicken out, but at the same time, I think I'm, I'm giving the Browns, uh, it's sort of my second team where I think that they could go from a 5-win team to a 9-win team, and that wouldn't surprise me.

And I think we're gonna see the AFC North a little more tied up in knots, uh, than we normally do.

All right.

Let's go to this year's Chiefs.

So again, that's a big dog that's gonna come.

So you got the Bengals.

I got the Giants then in that one, right?

Like I thought there was a second team that you said that you were gonna throw in there.

It's like a, well, so I mean that was Cleveland, and then Cleveland was second, and I, and I also thought about the Commanders, but, and I'm with you on DeSean, by the way, like I, I, if I'm Andrew Barry.

I want, like, and I'm not gonna, if I'm Andrew Barry, I'm not gonna interfere in the quarterback competition, but I, I wanna, like, I think we've been over this, right?

We can I'll make this quick.

I don't see why you wouldn't want to take a look at Deshaun Watson.

You've already invested $230 million.

03 first round picks into the guy.

What's worse than just striking out like you already have would be not getting a look at him this year and then seeing him go kill it somewhere else.

So I, I like, to me, it is 100% worth it to give him some runway and see where he goes.

And then if it doesn't work, you can always turn to the young guys.

And guess what, if the Browns didn't, uh, give Deshaun Watson the runway and the look this year.

I guarantee you that 15 NFL teams would go after him as a veteran minimum free agent in the offseason.

Somebody, somebody would believe that they could turn him into Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold, 100%.

There's no doubt, and I think a long list, you know, and again, that's like anyone can go back and listen or read my history of commentary on this guy.

This is not me waving pom-poms for him or hoping that it all works out, but, you know, this is just the reality of the situation.

Like I, I, I, I think it's fair.

And, you know , I'll just make this point quick.

I, I think it's fair to have some degree of skepticism in terms of just how good of a fit, um, him and Kevin Stefanski were, right?

I mean, you know, I, I think at the end of the day, it's just, you know, it's natural to wonder if those guys were the perfect fit and, and we'll see how good Kevin is.

I mean, now that he's kind of out on his own, um, and, uh, striking out and going to the Falcons.