Madden 22: Our 2021 NFL season sim results in some wild predictions

Cincinnati Bengals

6-11, 4th place in AFC North

I don’t really have big expectations for the Cincinnati Bengals, but they should be a fun team to follow this season. A big source of that excitement is quarterback Joe Burrow, who showed flashes of promise in his rookie season before he went down with an injury. He looks to rebound and improve upon his rookie season and Madden predicts 4,490 passing yards, 31 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions.

Rookie wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase — who has struggled with drops this offseason — lived up to his fifth overall pick status. On the year, Madden predicts he’ll build great rapport with Burrow, leading the team in receptions (73), yards (1,164) and touchdowns (9). I guess he can see the ball just fine in Madden.

Tyler Boyd is also predicted to have another solid season with 71 receptions, 999 yards and five touchdowns. Joe Mixon, the running back with a ton of potential who seemingly never lives up to it, rushed for 674 yards and six touchdowns. If he produces that kind of stat line in real life there are going to be some disappointed fantasy players. It appears that he even split some caries with Samaje Perine, who carried the ball 158 times to Mixon’s 149 times. Mixon was more productive with a 4.5 yard per carry average, so it seems an injury was at play here.

The Bengals struggles are a combination of turnovers (-5 differential) and just overall lack of production. They averaged only 22.9 points per game, which puts them near the bottom of the league. Combined with a defense that surrendered the second-most yards (6,719) in the league, and it’s easy to see why the Bengals finished last in the simulation.

It’s an improvement on last year, but the Bengals clearly aren’t ready to compete at a high level yet.