Rob Gronkowski predicts surprise AFC team will miss the playoffs

The 2023 season didn’t go according to plan for the Cincinnati Bengals, especially after quarterback Joe Burrow went down with a season-ending wrist injury midseason.

But even though Burrow is fully recovered from that injury and the Bengals have a mostly healthy team (Tee Higgins is on track to miss his second straight game), former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski still isn’t willing to give them the benefit of the doubt yet.

Following an embarrassing 16-10 loss to the Patriots in Week 1, Gronkowski admitted during a recent appearance on FanDuel’s “Up & Adams” that he believes that Cincy will miss the playoffs for the second straight season.

“The Bengals always start slow, it’s the beginning of the year still, the Bengals just aren’t there,” Gronkowski said . “I feel like they’re continuing from last year where they left off. They’re just up-and-down and just not consistent at all. I don’t think they got it right now. I think they’re going to miss the playoffs again. You got the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers that will be going to the playoffs. The Browns and the Bengals will be in the mix, they will be fighting, but they will not make it.”

The Patriots were one of the easier games to win on Cincinnati’s schedule.

In what was supposed to be a “gimme” game, the Bengals mustered just 224 yards of total offense, Burrow threw for only 164 yards and zero touchdowns, and the offense struggled to move the chains without running back Joe Mixon, who was traded to the Houston Texans, Higgins and Tyler Boyd, who signed with the Tennessee Titans.

Things don’t get any easier for the Bengals this week as they go from arguably the easiest team to beat to the toughest in the Kansas City Chiefs.

Cincinnati has typically had success against Kansas City since it drafted Burrow (he’s 3-1 against K.C. including the playoffs), but the Chiefs were quite impressive in their 27-20 season-opening win over the Baltimore Ravens last week.