Comparing position groups, the teams look fairly similar outside of one or two players.

QB - Burrow (coming off ACL) vs Fields
RB - Mixon/Perine vs Monty/Herbert
TE - Uzomah vs Kmet
WR - Chase/Higgins/Boyd vs Mooney/Pringle/Harry/Jones
OL - Williams/Spain/Carman/Hopkins/Reiff vs Reiff/Whitehair/Patrick/Schofield/Jenkins

WR Group is where the Bengals have a huge advantage ceiling, however, they didn't really have a WR4. For O-Lines, the Bears have a better O-Line than the Bengals did last year. You can call the other 3 groups washes, so Cincy has a slight advantage on offense due to the skill level of their top 3 WRs. Mooney would be the only one of ours in that group.

For defense:

DL - Hubbard/Reader/Ogunjobi/Hendrickson vs Quinn/Blackson/Jones/Gipson
LB - Wilson/Pratt vs Smith/Morrow
DB - Apple/Awuzie/Hilton/Bell/Bates vs Johnson/Gordon/Graham/Jackson/Brisker

We have the top Edge guys, way better LBs and a better core DB group. As a whole the Bears have a better defense.

For special teams:

McPherson vs Santos
Huber vs Gill

The Bengals had no depth at RB and TE on offense. Their deepest group was their DL rotation.

 

 

That seems like a wash.

Am I crazy, or are these teams fairly close outside of the WR group?

yes

Yes you’re crazy

No, no and no.  Joe Burrow is special for one and their top 3 receivers are better than Mooney.  As bad as their OL was, ours is worse.  Lastly, unless the defense is special, it's a wash.  Please don't buy the Kool-Aid on this team.  Not this year.

Hear me out on this one. 

I am comparing where the teams were at, at the time. Burrow coming off ACL was a huge question mark, Chase was a rookie WR, terrible OLine, no big names on defense, no depth after starting RB and TE. Again outside of WRs, where are the Bengals better than this year's Bears? 

Also note, the 2021 bad news Bears beat that Bengals team. 

I also think we buy into the media a little bit as well. All we hear is this team is going to be crap but we essentially only lost 3 big name players who didn't contribute full time last year anyway (Mack, Hicks, Robinson); those are the only key losses. Nagy is gone too and he was the biggest problem. Fields is in his 2nd year and first one with an actual off season. 

4 hours ago, adam said:

I am comparing where the teams were at, at the time.

I originally thought you were comparing this years’ version of each team…there is no comparison.

If Bengals last year vs Bears this year then maybe some parallels. I’m with Mongo that the WRs are not really close.  IF Harry proves his 1st degree pedigree and IF another player steps up for nearly 1,000 yard then maybe.  But as you see those are pretty big ifs.  I think the X factor is the relationship between Burrow and Chase. Both are also very talented.  I think Fields can be as good (maybe better) as Burrow.  We’ll know more this year.  
 

Oline is too much a wild card as are the defense.  You have one or two strong players and the rest are unprovens or just utility players.  Maybe under Flus’ scheme they’ll be a knock out group.  But until the season starts we won’t really know. 

1 hour ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

I originally thought you were comparing this years’ version of each team…there is no comparison.

If Bengals last year vs Bears this year then maybe some parallels. I’m with Mongo that the WRs are not really close.  IF Harry proves his 1st degree pedigree and IF another player steps up for nearly 1,000 yard then maybe.  But as you see those are pretty big ifs.  I think the X factor is the relationship between Burrow and Chase. Both are also very talented.  I think Fields can be as good (maybe better) as Burrow.  We’ll know more this year.  
 

Oline is too much a wild card as are the defense.  You have one or two strong players and the rest are unprovens or just utility players.  Maybe under Flus’ scheme they’ll be a knock out group.  But until the season starts we won’t really know. 

Yes, the 2020 Bengals going into the season with Burrow in his second year after an abbreviated first year, a rookie WR starting, a bad O-Line, and no big names on defense.

The Bears this year have Fields after an abbreviated rookie year, a rookie WR starting, a questionable O-Line, and no big names on defense.

I totally get the WR corps, I am not denying that. However, where else do they have the edge, which position group?  They had 2 of the worst OLmen in the league last year (luckily Reiff was one of their best). We upgraded from Mustipher to Patrick, and went from Peters to Reiff and Daniels to Schofield. At worst, that is an upgrade because Mustipher was below average. 

Cincy won 10 games (lost to Bears lol), so I don't think it is that far of a stretch to see the Bears win 8 or 9. 

 

All I'm going to say is we beat that team last year and they didn't look that great during that game.  They also lost to the Jets and Browns (2x).   They got it together at the end of the season beating the Ravens and Chiefs helping them get into the playoffs.   How many people had them in the Superbowl after the Wk 8 loss to the Jets, followed by a Wk 9 loss to Cleveland?  If the expectation is that we are up/down like that I'd say yes but getting hot like that at the end of the season to compete deep into the playoffs...nah.   

IMO the Bengals staff and a lot of their players were familiar with their scheme since it wasn't the first year of them being together on offense and defense. I really see no comparison between the two teams besides both Qbs getting pummeled.

The only comparison will be if we end up having a winning season and Fields takes a step forward. Then it will be looked backed on ( 2022 version of the 2021 Bengals.) Just a team taking an unexpected step forward.

10 hours ago, adam said:

so I don't think it is that far of a stretch to see the Bears win 8 or 9.

Totally agree.  Would even dare say more than 9. Like 10 or even 11…?

I’d agree that overall they aren’t that much better in each of the other position groupings.  Maybe everything just fell right for them last year?  “Any given Sunday” I reckon.  

9 hours ago, AZ54 said:

 

All I'm going to say is we beat that team last year and they didn't look that great during that game

 

Didn’t Burrow get intercepted three consecutive times in that game?  

2 minutes ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Didn’t Burrow get intercepted three consecutive times in that game?  

Maybe, he had 3 INTs.  

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BurrJo01/gamelog/2021/