The Cincinnati Bengals playoff chances are not quite gone for the 2024 season. But a look at the standings and at history do not paint a rosy picture for a team that has a 2-7 record this season in one-score games.
Cincinnati has a two-game winning streak after defeating the Tennessee Titans, 37-27, on Sunday to improve to 6-8. But the Bengals are still two games behind the Los Angeles Chargers for the last playoff spot in the AFC with three regular-season games left.
For the past few weeks, BetOhio – where you can find the best Ohio betting promotions – has looked at where the Bengals and the Cleveland Browns, their in-state AFC North rivals, might end up picking in the NFL Draft. We used The Football Database to see what draft pick position teams get in the year following a 6-8 start (such as this season’s Bengals) or a 3-11 start (the current mark for the Browns). This data is since the 2019 NFL season. We only calculated the first selection positions for each team, finding the average and median first pick positions for the draft.
Outcome | Draft Position |
Average | 20 |
Median | 15 |
This analysis is exclusive to BetOhio.com, where we cover Ohio sports betting developments year round.
CBS Sports gives the Bengals just a 4.4% chance of making the playoffs. That’s lower than the other two 6-8 teams in the AFC, the Indianapolis Colts (6.5%) and Miami Dolphins (4.9%). According to the NFL Operations website, the first tiebreaker for wild-card candidates who are not in the same division is best winning percentage in conference games. A glance at this stat indicates why Cincinnati has such remote playoff chances – the Bengals are 3-6 in games against AFC foes, compared to 5-4 for the Chargers. Indianapolis and Miami are both 5-5 in conference games.
History does not lend much hope either. The ChampsorChumps.us data on teams since 2019 reveals that 17 teams have started 6-8 in that span. Only four (24%) made the playoffs, including last season’s Green Bay Packers. None of those teams went farther than the Division Round in the playoffs.
The Bengals and Brown meet in an all-Ohio rivalry game on Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium. The oddsmakers at bet365 Ohio Sportsbook have Cincinnati as a 7-point favorite.
Speaking of the Browns, what about their draft prospects? Let’s take a look:
Outcome | Draft Position |
Average | 4 |
Median | 4 |
These stats are what you would expect for a team that’s headed for as poor of a finish as the Browns are.
However, it’s just Cleveland’s luck that there are seven teams with either two or three wins thus far (the 2-11 Las Vegas Raiders face the Atlanta Falcons tonight on Monday Night Football).
Their chances for a top-five pick could improve in the coming weeks – Sunday’s 21-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was quite predictable and that game saw starting quarterback Jameis Winston benched late in favor of Dorian Thompson-Robinson. With uncertainty at QB and little else going right, the Browns now face two of those teams trying desperately to stay alive (the Bengals and Dolphins) in consecutive weeks, followed by the season finale against the Ravens in Baltimore.
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USA Today photo by Scott Galvin
Author
Steve is an accomplished, award-winning reporter with more than 20 years of experience covering gaming, sports, politics and business. He has written for the Associated Press, Reuters, The Louisville Courier Journal, The Center Square and numerous other publications. Based in Louisville, Ky., Steve has covered the expansion of sports betting in the U.S. and other gaming matters.
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