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The Cincinnati Bengals have changed plenty of minds this season en route to an AFC North title.
Case in point, the latest batch of NFL power rankings going into Week 18.
Over at NFL.com with Dan Hanzus, Joe Burrow’s Bengals have finally cracked the top five, up from the ninth spot a week ago:
“The Bengals are the most fun team in the NFL right now and second place isn’t even in the rearview. Led by Joe Burrow (971 yards passing over the past two weeks) and Ja’Marr Chase (a rookie-record 266 receiving yards in Week 17), Cincinnati has gone from AFC North afterthought to division champion and legit Super Bowl contender. ‘I said it in the preseason,’ Burrow said after beating the Chiefs. ‘We were talking about playoffs, and I said that if we were going to go to the playoffs, the easiest way to do that was to win the division. Everyone kind of laughed at us a little bit, but we knew what kind of team we had.’ This team believes.”
The Bengals aren’t a top-five team everywhere, but it’s hard to find a set of rankings where they’re far off from the slotting.
USA Today’s Nate Davis has them ninth, while B/R has them sixth.
The fast rise for the Bengals has Zac Taylor the favorite in Coach of the Year conversations and Burrow getting praised as the next Tom Brady.
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