Cincinnati Bengals Fantasy Football Team Preview For 2026

Last season's Bengals were coming off back-to-back playoff-less 9-8 finishes. While the defense was fully expected to suck, the world knows better than to doubt a healthy Joe Burrow and his pair of stud receivers. Sadly, it only took until Week 2 for the season to effectively be lost, as the Bengals were 3-8 by the time they got their franchise quarterback back under center.

2026 Fantasy Football Preview For The Cincinnati Bengals

Good news: Burrow and this offense (again) look capable of leading the league in scoring with the blessing of the injury gods, and this defense looks more capable than usual of at least being average based on some of their offseason additions:

Cincy made probably the second biggest defensive swing of any squad on the trade market, sending the 10th overall pick to the Giants in return for longtime stud NT Dexter Lawrence.
The Bengals used both of their top-100 draft picks on the defensive side of the ball, adding Texas A&M DE Cashius Howell (2.41) and Washington CB Tacario Davis (3.72) on Day 2.
Losing Trey Hendrickson to the Ravens certainly wasn't ideal, but the team did give ex-Seahawks EDGE Boye Mafe a pretty penny (three years, $60 million), and they also added a high-priced piece to the secondary in the form of former Chiefs S Bryan Cook (three years, $40.25 million).

What follows is a fantasy-focused team preview of the Cincinnati Bengals ahead of the 2026 season. Make sure to check out our consensus fantasy football rankings for updated player ranks all year long.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

What is Joe Burrow's fantasy ceiling with good health?

QB1: Joe Burrow (QB5)
QB2: Joe Flacco
QB3: Josh Johnson

Joe Burrow has generally been pretty, pretty, pretty great at racking up fantasy points since reuniting with LSU BFF Ja'Marr Chase.

Burrow fantasy points per game:

2021: 19.6 (QB10)
2022: 21.9 (QB4)
2023: 14.7 (QB23)
2024: 21.9 (QB3)
2025: 16.8 (QB15)

Since correlation ALWAYS implies causation, our fantasy football projections have Burrow going for 21.9 fantasy points in another even year. Just kidding. 19.2 (QB6) … and he's projected to lead the league in passing touchdowns (33.6).

HOW DOES JOE BURROW PROJECT IN 2026?

Is Chase Brown worthy of a top-15 overall fantasy pick?

RB1: Chase Brown (RB11)
RB2: Samaje Perine (RB81)
RB3: Tahj Brooks (RB95)

The fantasy football world always seems to come up with new, fun, interesting ways of presenting data in our never-ending quest to better predict the future of a sport that uses a ball that isn't even round. And yet, fantasy analysis on running backs in particular still seems to more or less come down to the following four factors:

Talent: Is the RB, you know, good at football?
Offensive environment: Is the QB good? Is the offensive line good? Are there ample fantasy-friendly red-zone opportunities?
Workload: Is the team willing to feed this running back north of 300 opportunities throughout the course of a 17-game season?
Age/injury: Are there any red flags in terms of age or a concerning injury that the RB is returning from?

And guess what: Bengals RB Chase Brown checks each of these boxes with *enough* flying colors to believe that he is firmly capable of (again) working as a league-winning asset in fantasy football land.

WHAT IS THE VERDICT ON CHASE BROWN IN 2026?

**Can both Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins put up WR1 fantasy production?**

WR1: Ja'Marr Chase (WR1)
WR2: Tee Higgins (WR14)
WR3: Andrei Iosivas
WR4: Mitch Tinsley
WR5: Charlie Jones

Ja'Marr Chase (19.6) trails only Puka Nacua (20) in career PPR points per game among all wide receivers … ever. Nobody has ever scored more PPR points per game in the first five seasons of their career. This list is NUTS, man.

Only Justin Jefferson has totaled more yards than Chase when looking at the all-time leader in receiving yards during the first five seasons of a career. Jerry Rice, Randy Moss and Dez Bryant are the only dudes with more touchdowns.

Even Jason Pierre-Paul doesn't need more than one hand to count the number of players who deserve to be drafted ahead of the 26-year-old star in fantasy this season.

ARE CHASE-HIGGINS THE BEST WR DUO IN THE NFL?

Is Mike Gesicki what late-round tight end dreams are made of?

TE1: Mike Gesicki (TE37)
TE2: Drew Sample
TE3: Erick All
TE4: Tanner Hudson

This pains me to say as a longtime Gesicki truther, but the answer is in all likelihood: No.

Could Big Mike supply a few usable weeks in fantasy land? Sure, and the odds increase if one of the top dogs at wide receiver are sidelined, but c'mon: Gesicki reached 50 yards in just one game all of last season, and we didn't even get full-time roles in Week 13 (28% snap rate) or Week 15 (57%) when Higgins specifically was sidelined. In fact, Gesicki never reached a 60% snap rate in any game last season after having three such performances in 2024.

Maybe the departure of Noah Fant opens up a bit more work here, although a (finally) healthy Erick All could also feasibly take MORE snaps than what were previously being passed around elsewhere in this rotation.

Ultimately, Gesicki will be 31 in November and it's been five years since we've seen him lock down anything close to an every-down role. He's a final-round best-ball dart to throw if you've already got Burrow on the squad, but otherwise: Meh.

Also note: Erick All looked on the verge of putting together a solid rookie season back in 2024 before tearing his ACL in the same knee that he did in college. All himself said that his knee is completely stable and feels normal. Zac Taylor had some awesome quotes on the rookie, saying:

“The word ‘physical’ in the dictionary is a picture of Erick All.”
“He’s trying to put his face through somebody’s soul. That’s the best way I can describe him.”

It's more likely than not that the Bengals deploy a multi-TE committee throughout the season, but a full year of good health, combined with more of the receiving goodness we saw from All as a rookie back in 2024, could make the 25-year-old a potential fun starter as early as late-2026 or 2027. Not a bad bench stash in dynasty land!

Predictions For The 2026 Cincinnati Bengals

Win total prediction: Cincy has won 10, 12 and 9 games in the three seasons that Burrow managed to play in more than 10 games. It wouldn't surprise anyone if the Bengals lead the league in scoring with good health. The defense at least seems to have the potential to go from horrendous to something like below-average based on some of their high-priced additions. Give me over 9.5 wins for a squad capable of contending with just about anyone when operating at their best.

Bold fantasy call: Chase Brown finishes as a top-five RB in PPR points per game, and Mitchell Tinsley scores five touchdowns, leading my rag-tag 32-team fantasy squad to our first championship.

Last season predictions: Under 9.5 wins (hell yeah, brother), and Mike Gesicki catches a career-high eight TDs on his way to posting top-10 numbers at the position (damn, ALMOST got it, only 6 touchdowns short).