First of all, Bengals 7-9? Wow. Almost as shocking as Titans 12-4 and Broncos 10-6. Jags 10-6 is another shocker.
What do you see in any of those teams that has you so high on them?
On the opposite end what's got you so down on the Texans, ravens, and vikings?
I think the Bengals offense, will be much improved, just by getting rid of Marvin Lewis. If Zac Taylor is even 40% of McVay, the weaponry is there. That said, they are still pretty bad on defense. Why is 7-9 a big deal? They went 6-10 last year, despite AJ Green and Andy Dalton missing big chunks of the season. They were 4-1 at one point last year.
The Jags are a year removed from being 1-2 plays away from the Super Bowl. Really feel they weren't anywhere near as bad as they played last year, they just had the look of a team that had zero belief in their QB, and it sunk everything from there. If Foles is even a C-level QB, they are a playoff threat.
The Broncos are another team that wasn't as bad as their record last year. They lost a bunch of close games they could have easily won. They beat the Chargers, they were right there in both KC games, the Rams game, and the Texans game. After Hue was fired, I'd argue Vance Joseph was the worst coach in the NFL. Fangio could be the biggest coaching upgrade of any team. Flacco could also be a little better than Keenum. The Chiefs are a lock to take a step back, and the Chargers seem to always find a way to underachieve. I think Fangio can turn that defense into a top-5 NFL defense again.
The Titans feel like this year's version of the Bears to me, only with more offensive potential. This is an elite defense, they were a playoff team last year, if they had any backup QB that wasn't Gabbert. He was awful, and forced them to play a nowhere near healthy Mariota, because 50% Mariota was arguably better. They also had some awful injury luck, and offensive identity issues. They seem to know what they want to be now, have passing game weapons beyond Corey Davis(Brown, Humphries, Walker) and a potentially elite defense.
The Texans felt a little fluky to me. They still have no o-line, a meh running game, only 1 reliable passing game weapon, and a terrible secondary that lost arguably their 2 best guys in Mathieu and Jackson, and the current top guy is like 36 years old.
The Ravens had a nice hot stretch once Jackson took over, that I feel had more to do with the schedule than him, I think they would have had the same success with Flacco starting. I can't see the NFL not adjusting to that offense, and the defense looks much worse on paper, losing both starting edge defenders, including team captain Suggs, and CJ Mosley. Yes they got Earl Thomas, but that is still more going out than coming in.
I don't know what people see in the Vikings. 2017 looks like an obvious outlier in the Zimmer era. They aren't all that talented on either side of the ball, and they toyed with firing Zimmer after the season. If they start slow, I wouldn't be shocked if Kubiak were to take over. The o-line still sucks, the defense has questions at every level, and Cousins, as was obvious to see coming, wasn't the franchise QB he was signed to be.