This week, Detroit withdrew a proposal designed to make late-season games more competitive; Justin Jefferson is stoked that NFL players will be able to compete in flag football at the 2028 Olympics; and the Raiders are pushing for rookie RB Ashton Jeanty to get rid of his Halloween stance. Other Fantasy football stories we’re following include…

Improving the Cincy Run Game

You may recall that the Cincinnati Bengals endured yet another slow start last season, taking until Week Four before finally bagging a W. Later, a second three-game skid put them in a hole big enough (4-8) that they couldn’t dig their way out of.

Five straight wins to finish the season was commendable, but it was too little, too late for Cincy as it missed the playoffs for a second straight season. It’s not a good look for a team that has one of the top five quarterbacks in the game in Joe Burrow.

One of two current NFL QBs that were recent Heisman Trophy winners at LSU, Burrow is always a candidate for hardware as long as he’s healthy, and next season is no different as he’s currently listed at +600 to win 2025-26 AP Regular Season MVP as per FanDuel.

He’s coming off perhaps his best season yet, staying healthy after an injury-plagued 2023 and setting personal highs in completions, passes, completion percentage, yards and touchdowns. So how the hell did the Bengals struggle to reach even nine wins?

Well, for starters, Cincy had one of the worst rush attacks in the league, relying too much on its No. 1 pass attack. Defensively, they were too easy to score on, surrendering 25.5 points per game (25th in the NFL).

In the run game, the Bengals will hope for some organic growth in the form of Chase Brown’s continued ascension into an elite back and an even better dude (see video below). They also signed free agent Samaje Perine, who had a reduced role in KC last year, but enjoyed his finest seasons with Cincinnati from 2020 to 2022. He brings needed size and pass blocking skills.

Fifth round pick Jalen Rivers, a tackle out of Miami, should also help the rush attack, as should sixth round pick, RB Tahj Brooks out of Texas Tech, who could be a steal this late in the draft given his quickness and power.

A now healthy Zack Moss is also in the mix, but who knows? Maybe Cincy will go after J.K. Dobbins, who somehow remains available as a free agent.

While the Bengals made several modes to address their defensive deficiencies, safety remains a problem area heading into 2025.

Still, it’s reasonable to expect modest improvement from Cincinnati in 2025. We anticipate a 10-win effort, which should be good enough for this team to return to the postseason.

RotoRob Tune of the Day

German electronic gods Tangerine Dream have always been a personal fave of ours, a band we’ve seen live four times over the years. They launched in 1967 and are still going strong today. In 1981, they released their 15th album, Thief, one of many soundtracks they’ve done. From this effort comes “Burning Bar,” a song used as the theme for WFLD-TV’s late night teletext service.