Are Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals really back?
Needing overtime to get past the Tennessee Titans isn’t the biggest endorsement, but Cincinnati is 5-2, and Burrow is off to the best start of his career, and an easy remaining schedule could set them up for a big return to the NFL playoffs after a three-year drought.
Burrow threw three interceptions Sunday, but was able to make up for it by throwing for 462 yards and five touchdowns, giving him 13 touchdown passes in the last three weeks. His league-high 20 passing yards are three more than he’s ever had through seven games, and he also has the most passing yards (2,115), highest passer rating (111.6) and best completion percentage (an NFL-best 73.0) he’s ever had at this stage of the season.
Burrow leading a prolific offense is nothing new, with arguably the best 1-2 receiver combination in the league in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Mike Gesicki is having a career year at age 31, with hits in six of Cincinnati’s seven games, which already matches a career high in hits.
Perhaps the most encouraging thing about the Bengals, however, is the progress they’ve made on defense, which had really limited their success in recent years. A year ago, Cincinnati gave up 30.7 points per game at this point, but the 2026 Bengals are the best, allowing 22.7 points per game, jumping from 30th to 14th in the league. Their red zone defense is vastly better: After giving up touchdowns on 63% of opposing drives inside the 20 last year, they’re down to 42% this season, jumping from 24th in the NFL to fifth.
Even more dramatic is the way they are getting to opposing quarterbacks. Last year’s Bengals ranked 23rd in the league in sacks, with Myles Murphy leading the team with 5.5 sacks. Free agent signing Boye Mafe has already matched that total with 5.5 of his own.
Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, acquired by the Giants for the No. 1 pick. 10 overall in this year’s draft, there are also five. His latest sack helped the Bengals send Sunday’s game against the Titans into overtime, coming in clutch moments. They are third in the NFL with 23 sacks and have already had their own good week, putting them on pace for a franchise record 56 sacks.
Then, there’s the schedule. Only four of the Bengals’ remaining 10 opponents have winning records, and two of those are the Cleveland Browns. The Bengals lost their first meeting with Pittsburgh, so a win at home against the Steelers next weekend is a must, but they still have three games against NFC South teams and another against the Indianapolis Colts.
Burrow has never finished higher than fourth in MVP voting, but if he stays healthy, he’s in good shape to do better than that. As it stands, he has the third-best chance to win MVP honors, behind only Buffalo’s Josh Allen and San Francisco’s Brock Purdy.
The Bengals’ next win would match their total from last year (6-11), and it’s possible they could challenge the franchise record of 12 wins. Cincinnati hasn’t hosted a playoff game beyond wild-card weekend since 1988, but if the Bengals simply take care of lesser opponents like they have, they could have a chance to do so in January.
There were so many strange stats from Sunday’s Falcons-Buccaneers game, which Tampa Bay won 16-0 without completing a pass, the first NFL team to do so in 52 years. One you might not have noticed: Falcons receiver Drake London had more tackles than receptions.
London, well defended by the Buccaneers, had just one catch on six targets for 8 yards, but he also had two touchdowns on interceptions thrown by quarterback Michael Penix Jr. The NFL calls hits by offensive players after turnovers “miscellaneous interceptions,” and the Falcons have had enough turnovers that London already has six of any other NFL player this season.
It’s a strange ability to have. Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase led the NFL in tackles in 2024 and 2025, and has a forced fumble this year as well. If the Falcons continue to turn the ball over, London has a chance to become just the second player in 25 years to have double-digit tackles in a season, following Eagles receiver Jeremy Maclin, who had 11 in 2014. London is only in his fifth NFL season, but he already has 17 tackles as an offensive lineman. They won’t even come on special teams.
Dylan Laube of the Las Vegas Raiders had his first kickoff return of the season Sunday, so it took the league eight weeks to find the end zone for the first time in the third year of the new “dynamic” kickoff pattern. That puts the NFL on pace for a significant drop in kickoff returns. There were seven in the first year with the new format in 2024 and six last year.
It appears that the league’s coverage units are outperforming their returners, with more and more kickoffs targeting short, trusting the coverage units to be able to hold the less than 35-yard line return given on a return. In 2024, 30 of the 32 NFL teams had at least 30% returns, with 19 over 60%. Last year, the Rams led the league with a 56% punt return percentage as one of three teams over 30%, and this year, the Dolphins lead the NFL with 44% as the only team over 30%.
That means more starters are returning, but far fewer are making it through the initial wave of hitters. This year there have been 1,218 starts, but only 42 of them went to midfield or beyond, just 3.44%.
And it’s no surprise that Laube would get the first shot. He leads the NFL with a 34.1-yard average and has five more 40-yard punt returns, two more than any other player. Buffalo’s Ray Davis led the league with six punt returns of 40 yards last season, and had one of six touchdowns as well.