10 biggest surprise NFL teams thus far on the season

Cincinnati Bengals: 2-0

It’s not the record that’s surprising about the Cincinnati Bengals’ 2-0 start. No, we can believe they beat the San Diego Chargers and were assuming they would pound the Oakland Raiders.

It’s the fact that they have looked so good doing it.

This is a team which, on paper, looks decent. We’re not all sold on quarterback Andy Dalton, we’re not sure who sits after AJ Green in the receiver pecking order and we think the defense could be good, but nobody is sure.

Regardless, games aren’t played on paper; they’re contested on the field. On the field, this defense is Football Outsiders’ fourth best defense after two games. Wallace Gilberry is the tenth defensive end on Pro Football Focus’ rankings (subscription required), a top fifteen outside linebacker in Vincent Rey, the second best defensive or nose tackle in Geno Atkins and the third best cornerback in Adam Jones.

This is a defense that is performing at a high level. Will it level off or regress? Well, you could see a guy like Jones backslide, but we know how good Atkins and Rey are.

Meanwhile, the offense has also been playing very well. Andy Dalton is the ninth best quarterback per PFF. While AJ Green has been off to a slow start, that’s in part because Dalton has spreads the ball around and utilized tight end Tyler Eifert quite a bit. Eifert is the most targeted receiver on the Bengals right now, with 17 to Green’s dozen.  Marvin Jones is a strong third with eight targets.

Dalton is doing a very good job moving the ball around and taking advantage of what the defense will give him. He’s also been very effective so far in completing the passes he throws, averaging a 73.5 percentage through two games.

And again, we expected them to compete against the Chargers and beat the Raiders, which might be leading some people to overlook the Bengals.

You shouldn’t as they look like they are playing some of the best football in the NFL right now.

Next: Philadelphia Eagles: 0-2