One stat that PROVES the Bengals offense can improve in 2025!

AtoZ Sports

John Sheeran discusses one key stat where the Cincinnati Bengals can improve their offense drastically!

Transcript

00:00The Bengals offense can be even better in 2025 based off of something completely outside of

00:04their control. And in this video, I'll explain the volatile trend that looks like it's going

00:07to be back in Cincinnati's favor. Hi again, Bengals fans, John Sheeran of A to Z Sports

00:14Cincinnati here. And how can this Bengals offense get better in 2025? Now, there are probably a lot

00:21of ways to answer this question. I think the obvious lens is to individual player performances

00:26being better than they were last year. And you can probably go through a handful of player

00:30examples who need to take that next step, particularly on the younger side. And you can expect development

00:35to naturally happen for those guys. Probably the biggest conversation revolves around play

00:39calling because that's just a common thing for every fan base to be mad about. But particularly

00:43for Bengals fans, this has always been a hot topic with Zach Taylor and his responsibility

00:48here, even though it's a little bit more complex than just him. But I think what we on the outside

00:52can afford to look at is what can we expect to happen differently this year, regardless

00:57of any other external forces. The beauty of projecting this Bengals team is everyone knows

01:02what they have at quarterback, right? Having Joe Burrow gives you a stable year-over-year

01:06projection of quality quarterback play that will always keep them in contention, that will

01:11always keep them in the conversation. But not everything that happens on a year-to-year basis

01:15is stable and is expected to be repeated. But even in quarterback play, there are some statistics

01:19and metrics that aren't necessarily stable year-to-year, and turnovers is definitely

01:23one of them. But team-wide turnovers, specifically fumbles lost, is something that is completely

01:28volatile on a year-to-year basis. And I didn't even think about this until ESPN's Mina Kimes

01:33brought it up with Ben Solak when previewing the top 10 offenses, or at least their top 10

01:37offenses, for this upcoming season, when they had the Bengals ranked about fourth. And part

01:40of the reason why Kimes had optimism for the Bengals this year is because they should be expected

01:44to have fewer lost fumbles this season compared to last. And she mentioned that fumbles loss

01:49is not necessarily a sticky stat, meaning that if a team was really good at it one year,

01:53you can't always expect them to be good at it the next. And when looking at the numbers,

01:56this is absolutely true, specifically looking at it from a Bengals lens. Because the 2024 Bengals

02:01were tied for 29th in fumbles lost last year, with 13. Only one other club had more fumbles lost than

02:07them. And the year before, in 2023, they had only lost two fumbles, which was first in the NFL.

02:12That is 11 more turnovers one season compared to the next. It's basically over a half a game.

02:17And something that was even more interesting were the seasons prior to 2023. And it really gave you

02:21a perspective of how much the Bengals were due for a season like 2024. Because in 2022,

02:26the Bengals were fourth in the NFL in fumbles lost with six, and they were tied for ninth in 2021

02:30with seven. And then in the previous two years, again, they were on the other side of the spectrum.

02:34In 2020, they lost 13 fumbles, which was 29th in the NFL. And in 2019, they lost 14 fumbles,

02:39which was 28th in the NFL. And those were the first two years that Zach Taylor was head coach.

02:43When you look at a six-year sample size, and the team was top 10 in three of those years,

02:47and then bottom four in the other three years, it pretty much seals the deal about volatility.

02:51Oh, and just for good measure, in 2018, which was the year prior to Zach Taylor getting hired,

02:55they only lost four fumbles, which was first in the NFL. And I think what makes this case even more

02:59is that there is no skill involved in terms of recovering fumbles. It's very much a random

03:03occurrence in games, and it's very much just being at the right place at the right time. But if the luck

03:07is not in your favor, that can completely turn a game on its head. And it's honestly crazy that in two

03:12years, the Bengals can lose two fumbles one season and win nine games, and then lose 13 fumbles the

03:16next season and still manage to win the same number of games. And maybe that in and of itself

03:20tells you that it's not that meaningful of a stat. But if the pendulum does swing back into the

03:25Bengals' favor this year, and say they only lose a handful of fumbles, like four or five, as opposed

03:29to a baker's dozen, probably one of these upcoming games where the defense may not have it that week,

03:33right? Maybe it's a bad matchup, and they have to win a shootout. If they play a clean game

03:37offensively that week and not have the misfortune of losing a fumble, maybe they score enough points to

03:41squeak out a win instead of last year, where a lot of those ended up being losses. This is, of course,

03:44just one way of looking at it, but it didn't seem like luck was particularly on the Bengals' side

03:48last year. And no one can plan for luck, it's just something that either happens or it doesn't. The

03:52only thing that we can do is identify when it does happen, and when it doesn't, and when we can expect

03:57it to happen again. And if we are to play that game, we can expect the Bengals' offense to be

04:01a little bit better this year because of it. And that may just give them the edge this year that they

04:05were looking for all of last season.

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