Bengals Fail to Accomplish Season-Long Goal in Latest 2025 Projection

 The NFL season-long predictions are trickling out in the final weeks before the 2025 campaign. 

Sports Illustrated's Connor Orr dropped his win/loss prediction for every game of the season on Thursday, with the Bengals going 10-7 en route to a second-place finish in the AFC North.

"This is now the most consistently heartbreaking team in the exercise," Orr wrote. "The defense is incredibly worrisome, and the Bengals are realistically one wide receiver injury away from competing with the Browns for last place in the division. However, I think I make up for that by having this team follow a familiar arc: losing four of its first five games before coming together for a frantic post-bye scramble. I am painfully in the bag for this team. I have picked Joe Burrow—much to the chagrin of our magazine editors—to be the MVP in each of the past three preseasons. The Bengals’ Super Bowl run left a mark on me, but not enough to proceed without extreme caution. Finishing the season with the Cardinals and Browns at home is a massive help."

It's right about in line with where most people have Cincinnati finishing this coming fall. The Ravens finished 12-5 as AFC North champions in the exercise, and Cincinnati went 1-1 against them in these projections.

The most shocking loss comes right away against the Browns, where Cincinnati is currently a 5.5-point betting favorite over Cleveland on the road. He actually had the Bengals starting just as bad as last year, going 1-4 in the opening five games before finishing 9-3.

It would fit the 1-11 record Cincinnati has in the opening two weeks under Zac Taylor. The Bengals started the playoffs as the sixth seed in Orr's AFC playoff field. Cincinnati has started 0-2 in each of the past three seasons.

Check out Orr's season-long predictions for all 32 NFL teams here.