Quote Originally Posted by thebiggestjoe View Post
but they have the Colts... ahead of them
I live in Indianapolis Colts territory. The buzz on the Colts this year isn't nearly as high as it was last year because the Colts have lost a lot of key players over the off season (particularly defensive players). Sure, Dwight Freeney is staying, and he is a force all by himself, but several of the other defensive stars are gone. And last year, despite the explosiveness of their offense, the Colts leaned heavily on their defense (their defense carried them through the first two or three games of the playoffs).

For the Bengals, Carson Palmer is back in full form, Chris Henry is suspended for 8 games (which, IMHO, plugs a huge hole in the receiving corp for at least half the season... yeah, Henry is good when he wants to be, but when he doesn't want to be, he was worse than useless). Other than that, very few changes have been made on the Bengals, certainly none of the critical players have moved on. Palmer, Chad Johnson, TJ Houshmandzadeh, and Rudi Johnson are all returning on the offense, and I can't help but feel that the defense will be much improved over last year now that they have more experience.