Winning in March can come in various forms for NFL teams. There’s always that one team that splurges during the first week of free agency and revamps its roster because it has a ton of cap space, but that often means it wasn’t a good team the previous season. That said, adding talent to a terrible roster is still a win.
In the Bengals’ case, they made one big move, with the addition of left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. That one win in March might help Cincinnati get the ultimate win in February, as the team is a top contender for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
But there were eight teams I’d rank ahead of the Bengals in terms of winning the first wave of free agency. And yes, some of these teams might not make the playoffs, but at least they made moves in an attempt to get better in a league that hasn’t had a repeat champion in nearly two decades and often has teams go from last to first overnight.
