A couple days ago I made the Cincinnati Bengals my Super Bowl Champs pick for 2013. And I’m not the only one embracing the Stripey Wotsits as your next NFL champs. Other league pundits are talking about this idea, if not agreeing with it.
Maybe the Cincinnati Bengals are the sexy 2013 NFL champs prediction. Like Sarah Jones level sexy.
NBC Sunday Night Football Analyst Cris Collinsworth about Super Bowl predictions and the Cincinnati Bengals. It’s been 25 years since his Super Bowl 23 Bengals team.
Cris Collinsworth: “Well, as you know, I watch them. I just got finished watching the tape against the Dallas Cowboys and preparing for our opening Sunday night game and they’ve got a lot of pieces.
I thought that Jermaine Gresham looked like a better football player now that they drafted Tyler Eifert. I’m a little concerned that Whitworth’s knee hasn’t kind of rounded into form yet.
I think Giovanni Bernard has given them an element on offense and of course A.J. is a spectacular player. Defensively, we know what they are. I think defensively they’ll compete with anybody — Geno Atkins almost single-handedly beat the Cowboys the other night. He’s an unbelievable talent and Michael Johnson- you know this is a legitimate football team.
I think it’s going to come down to a little bit like the Minnesota Vikings, can they scare you (deep)? Can they hit the big plays down the field? I think it was AJ Green in the playoff game against (Judison) last year. It’s close, the hard part for me is I got to see Baltimore, everybody keeps telling me, you know, Baltimore lost everybody.
I think I know what the Bengals are going to be, I’m not sure what Baltimore is going to be.”
Maybe you think Cris Collinsworth is biased towards the Cincinnati Bengals, how ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Jon Gruden? Here’s what Chucky said about the Cincinnati Bengals
“I think the Cincinnati Bengals are a legitimate dark horse. James Harrison obviously has to prove that he can play a different position, and they have to prove that he can function in a different role in their nickel package. He’s been a right defensive end rushing the passer and doing it extremely well, but Michael Johnson played right defensive end, and he’s a franchise player, so how they utilize Harrison will be interesting, who the safeties are going to be, who plays opposite Reggie Nelson. That will be, I think, an interesting subject.
And also I think they have a chance to be better. They’re just very young. It’s easy to say Tyler Eifert and Giovani Bernard are going to come in and make a lot of plays, but they haven’t done it yet in an NFL game. They have to prove they can do that for 16 weeks, and is (Andrew) Whitworth healthy? I haven’t seen Whitworth play in the preseason. And is Andre Smith healthy? He was inactive at the start of training camp. I saw him get hurt the other night in the Dallas Cowboys game, so what kind of tackle player are they going to have? What are the health of their two tackles? You’ve got to have those men to win big in the NFL.
Mike Tirico on the Cincinnati Bengals:
I also like the buzz around the franchise and how this franchise has really turned around. It’s not just the off?field and the incidents. You look at the decisions made in the front office and the drastic talent that has been brought in, and Jon’s brother Jay has done such a good job with the offensive talent here over the last couple years, getting to the playoffs these first two seasons. The entirety of what Cincinnati is doing has a good vibe to it.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan, he also writes on Chicago sports media for Chicago Now. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)