A productive and hype-filled offseason is officially coming to an end for the 2026 Cincinnati Bengals. With Week 1 now under a week away, Cincinnati must put words into actions on the field.

External expectations may not match what they were a few years ago when the Bengals went to back-to-back AFC title games. Internally, there is a palpable feeling of Super Bowl or bust.

I’m not here to say that the Bengals are going to win Super Bowl LXI or do anything unprecedented between now and then. I do think there is still a sense of the NFL world wanting to see Cincinnati return to contender status before it believes it themselves. That’s why predicting any sense of success for this year’s team may be considered a bold prediction.

So before the season officially begins this weekend, here are three bold predictions for the 2026 Bengals.

Joe Burrow is sacked fewer than 35 times

Joe Burrow has played three full seasons in his six years as Cincinnati’s starting quarterback. He has been sacked at least 41 times in each of those three years. He led the league in sacks taken in 2021. Part of his reputation now that he takes more sacks than the average quarterback.

Last year indicated that was becoming a thing of the past. Burrow was sacked 17 times in eight games last season. One of those sacks led to his turf toe injury that knocked him out for half of the year, but Burrow played a distinctly different style when he returned, adjusting with his lack of mobility after recovering from turf toe. Within those games, he realized he can operate in a different and more efficient way when needed. As a result, he got the ball out quicker and took fewer sacks.

“It’s where there’s a free runner in the pocket and I just dirt it, or a keeper and I get pressure, and I just throw it away, where normally my physical ability would have let me make that guy miss and go make a play; last year I couldn’t,” Burrow told SI’s Albert Breer in a recent interview. “I had to get rid of the ball and live to see another down a little bit. Not being able to move around, I had to tailor my game to that. And so, as I said, I can play quarterback a lot of different ways. When it’s needed in the fourth quarter, I can go and do that. I can mitigate risk early in the game until it’s needed.”

The offensive line also played a huge role, obviously. The group was significantly better when Burrow returned than when he got hurt. That same offensive line is the unit he’ll play behind this year. The line is better, and Burrow himself has grown more as a pocket passer. I think he will experience a career low in sacks in a full season.

Erick All Jr. leads Cincinnati’s tight ends in touchdowns

By the middle of the year, this will not be considered a bold prediction. Erick All Jr. is about to be unleashed in this offense, and there is no one on the Bengals’ depth chart at tight end who is going to stop him.

What makes this bold is the fact that All has never scored an NFL touchdown. He has two veterans in Mike Gesicki and Drew Sample currently in front of him in terms of playing time and role significance. But I think once All gets back out onto the field, he is going to be undeniable in terms of his receiving ability and his usage as a true three-down player at the position.

Consider also that Sample has never had more than two touchdowns in a single season, and even more surprising, Gesicki has only had two touchdowns in each of his two years as the Bengals’ lead receiving TE. All may not need a great many touchdowns to lead this group, but he’s about to play in his first regular season game in nearly two years and has never scored one in his career.

If All stays healthy for the first time in a long time, we need to adjust how productive we expect him to be.

Bengals defense racks up 45+ sacks without anyone over 10

Cincinnati’s defense has been spoiled over the last five years with Trey Hendrickson leading the charge. He was the unit’s go-to pass rusher and in some years dominated the team’s market share in the stat.

This year’s defensive line is much more balanced despite the fact that a new superstar has entered the equation in nose tackle Dexter Lawrence II. Lawrence could regain his dominant form he foreshadowed during training camp, but even with the Giants, he never eclipsed nine sacks in a single season. No one on this defensive line has ever recorded a 10+ sack season before. Even when the Bengals’ defense was respectable earlier this decade, it didn’t get to 45 sacks in a single season.

I expect this defensive line to be a force from all angles attacking the quarterback, and everyone who is going to get significant opportunities has the chance to eat. Whether it’s Lawrence, edge rushers Myles Murphy, Boye Mafe, and Cashius Howell, and 3-techniques Jonathan Allen and B.J. Hill, all of them will have their shares of taking down the quarterback.

No one will run away with the lead, and the total number of sacks the line produces will be higher than anything we’ve seen in recent years.