Bengals, Colts, Cowboys, Saints Enter September NFL Schedule Talks — Nfl Schedule
The nfl schedule conversation has already moved to Super Bowl LXI, and Awful Announcing put five teams in the surprise-contender mix before the regular season begins in September. The Bengals, Colts, Cowboys and Saints all made the list, giving each club a preseason path that runs through what they did last year and what changed after the draft.
Bengals And Zac Taylor
Cincinnati is back in the frame after three years without a playoff appearance. Zac Taylor’s team still posted points in bunches last season, averaging 30 points or more on eight occasions, and it added Dexter Lawrence to the roster.
That combination gives Joe Burrow a better starting point than the one that followed the Bengals’ recent postseason drought. The offense already showed it can produce at a high level, and the roster addition points to an attempt to raise the floor on both sides of the ball before September arrives.
Colts And Daniel Jones
Indianapolis comes with a cleaner recent warning sign. The Colts opened last season 7-1 in their first eight games, then lost seven games in a row after Daniel Jones tore his Achilles tendon in December.
Jones is expected to be back for the start of the new season, which is the hinge point for the Colts’ case. If that holds, the team is not asking for a leap from nothing; it is trying to recover the early shape it showed before the injury stretch broke the season apart.
Cowboys And Saints
Dallas has the most straightforward statistical argument. The Cowboys finished top five in scoring and top five in yards per play last season, then replaced Matt Eberflus at defensive coordinator with Christian Parker from Philadelphia and drafted Caleb Downs.
The Saints took the opposite route to the same conversation. They started last season disastrously, then won four of their last five games, which is the kind of run that can push a team into preseason overreach if the finish is treated as the true baseline.
That is the point of the list: it is not about what these teams were in September last year, but about how much last season’s sharpest stretches can carry into a new one. With the draft done and the regular season still waiting in September, the Bengals, Colts, Cowboys and Saints enter the schedule build as teams that can force a different conversation if their best numbers show up again.
