I was all over Cincy until looking back at 2008 and seeing they went 0-3 with healthy Carson to start the year so I'm a bit more cautious now on whether this should be the move.
Let's be honest about the Bengals start to last season:
Week 1 lost by 7 in Baltimore. Baltimore was a solid team last year, making it to the AFCCG. Cincy was a 1.5 pt fav IN Bal only because of Flacco's 1st game. Low scoring, defensive game where all 3 combined TDs were on big plays of 30+ yards (2 long runs, 1 by a WR and 1 by Flacco, and 1 fumble return).
Week 2 lost to Ten by a large margin in a literal blow out. It was 30+ mph winds throughout the game. QBs combined for under 270 yards. They couldn't move the ball though the air, and we saw how good Ten's run game was w/ Smash&Dash. Ten ended up being the #1 seed in the AFC.
Week 3 played the defending SB champs IN NY, and took them to OT and lost by a FG, easily covering the 13 points.
Look at those 3 games w/ Palmer in retrospect:
They played #1 seed in both the AFC and NFC, in Ten and NYG, and played the 11-5 Baltimore Ravens who made it to the AFCCG.
Don't look at those 3 games and write them off for this season. Their D is much improved, as they showed last season, and their D coordinator has them making good progress.
This is a team, who at 1-11-1 last season, beat a then 7-6 Redskins still in the playoff hunt, then shut out the Bengals in the snow, with Fitzpatrick throwing only 9 passes, and then beat the Chiefs to close out the season. 3 wins, 3 ATS covers, all w/ Ryan Fitzpatrick as starting QB, and with nothing really to play for, and allowing only an avg in those 3 games of less than 1 TD scored against.
They are not world beaters, but I had to chime in because you are mentioning the 1st 3 weeks of last season as a "reason not to take them" early this season. If you decide not to take them, it definitely should not be for that reason.
