The Bengals’ Cam Sample (left) and Sam Hubbard take part in a drill during Tuesday practice in Cincinnati,. (AP photo)
CINCINNATI — The Bengals’ offense is, on paper, the best it’s been over the course of Joe Burrow’s tenure in Cincinnati. But, statistically, what’s the ceiling for the the explosive unit they’ve put together?
The Bengals averaged 360.5 yards-per-game, 265 yards passing, 95.5 yards rushing and 26.1 points per game. Those numbers ranked them eighth, fifth, 29th and seventh overall in the league. For as good of an offense as they had, that makes sense.
Per Footballdb, the Bengals ran 1,053 across 16 games. On average, that is 65.81 plays per game, and had they played a full 17 games, they would have comfortably placed them in the top 10 in plays run. That figure is important, because the NFL’s leader in plays run (Tampa Bay) ran 1,159 plays.
So, for the sake of argument, let’s say the Bengals run 1,100 plays on the back of a strong defense that continually gives them the football back. That would be about 50 more plays than they ran in 2022, and about what they were on pace to run in 2022.
That doesn’t leave them much room to, statistically, look much better in the statistical categories.
Instead, the thing fans should be focused on is the efficiency of the offense. Burrow threw for 7.4 yards-per-attempt in 2022, a drop from his 8.9 figure in 2021. Joe Mixon rushed for 3.9 yards-per-carry, and they’ll have to replace Samaje Perine, who averaged 4.1 yards-per-carry.
If the Bengals can up those numbers, even slightly, it might not look like the Bengals improved their offense much in the aggregate. But there’s a shot they could be much, much better than in 2022.
