How ESPN FPI views the Bengals entering 2020 season

Over at ESPN, their Football Power Index (FPI) is projecting how the 2020 season will play out, including the Bengals in Year 1 of the Joe Burrow era.

Unfortunately, FPI doesn’t see the Bengals doing much next season, as the advanced analytics service has them projected at 5.6 wins with an 8% of making the NFL playoffs. That’s to be expected of a team that finished 2-14 last season, and if anything, the 2-3 win improvement shows FPI does at least believes the Bengals will be a better team this year.

Still, this projection has the Bengals finishing 30th out of 32 teams next season, which isn’t much of an improvement from being the league’s worst team. Only Washington and Jacksonville finished lower.

In addition, FPI projects Baltimore to be the NFL’s second-best team next season, trailing only the defending Super Bowl-champion Chiefs. Pittsburgh (12) and Cleveland (19) round out the rest of the AFC North.

Here is a look at the full FPI projection for the entire league in 2020:

1. Kansas City Chiefs

2. Baltimore Ravens

3. San Francisco 49ers

4. New Orleans Saints

5. Dallas Cowboys

6. Philadelphia Eagles

7. Seattle Seahawks

8. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

9. New England Patriots

10. Buffalo Bills

11. Los Angeles Rams

12. Pittsburgh Steelers

13. Minnesota Vikings

14. Indianapolis Colts

15. Green Bay Packers

16. Tennessee Titans

17. Denver Broncos

18. Atlanta Falcons

19. Cleveland Browns

20. Los Angeles Chargers

21. Chicago Bears

22. Arizona Cardinals

23. Las Vegas Raiders

24. Houston Texans

25. New York Jets

26. New York Giants

27. Miami Dolphins

28. Detroit Lions

29. Carolina Panthers

30. Cincinnati Bengals

31. Washington Redskins

32. Jacksonville Jaguars