The longer the Cincinnati Bengals stay in the hole they created for themselves, the harder it will be to climb out of it.
Things looked bleak after starting 0-3. The skies darkened even more after falling to 1-4. The vibes are about as low as they've been now at 3-5.
With the second half of the season upon us, making the playoffs look more and more like a fairytale. That means the opposite is true for picking high in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Bengals' playoff odds fall as NFL Draft hopes rise
Sunday's loss to the Philadelphia Eagles dropped the Bengals' playoff odds down to 27.6%. Per ESPN's Ben Baby, the Bengals' odds of snagging a top-10 draft pick is nearly 13% higher at 40.1%.
ESPN's projections have the Bengals' final record at 7.5-9.4, which means 7-10 or 8-9 are the likely outcomes for this season. Eight wins typically keeps a team outside of the top 10, but seven could net them one of the last spots in that range. The Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears and New York Jets held the eight, ninth, and 10th spots, respectively, in the original order of the 2024 draft with 7-10 records from 2023.
Seven wins is a realistic outcome for this year's Bengals, but Joe Burrow is thinking about winning seven of the last nine games.
"I think 10 wins usually gets you in [the playoffs]," Burrow said after Sunday's loss. "So we gotta win seven out of nine. That's doable, so we'll go from there."
Burrow has never been one to look ahead of the next week, so when he's doing math in his head calculating how the next two months need to go, you know things aren't great.
This is the where the Bengals are at right now. Instead of worrying about playoff seeding and building off strengths, there's about a 75% chance they'll be on vacation in January for the second consecutive season. That's never where you want to be when Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase are in the picture.
Speaking of those two, the Bengals had top-five picks following the first two seasons of Zac Taylor's tenure. Those picks turned into Burrow and Chase.
If there's anything to be hopeful about in what looks to be a lost season for Cincinnati, it's that.
