Cincinnati’s offense did nothing well last season. This team ranked dead-last in total yards, next-to-last in rushing, No. 27 in passing and No. 26 in scoring. The Bengals failed to score a touchdown in back-to-back home losses to open the season, which led to the firing of offensive coordinator Ken Zampese. The offensive line was a mess, allowing 41 sacks and opening few running lanes. It was, in a nutshell, a miserable year.

In 2018, Cincinnati is running it back with mostly the same offensive personnel. Bill Lazor, the man who replaced Zampese last season, was signed to a new deal to remain the OC. Marvin Lewis was of course retained as head coach.

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The team has made various changes to the coaching staff and attempted to plug holes on the O-line, but Cincy has opted for continuity among the offensive skill players. So we’ll see how that goes. The Bengals haven’t won a playoff game since the Sam Wyche/Boomer Esiason era, nearly 30 years ago. We should probably expect that drought to persist for another season.

A.J. Green deserves better

Green turns 30 at the end of July, and he remains a nightmarish matchup for opposing defenses. It’s a genuine shame that he’s never made a deep postseason run or been paired with an upper-tier quarterback. Green produced a heroic season in 2017 considering the team’s dreadful offense. He caught 75 balls last year for 1078 yards and eight scores, finishing as the seventh highest-scoring receiver in standard formats. Cincinnati only passed for 3386 total yards for the season, so the burden on Green was enormous. A hamstring injury limited him to 10 games in 2016, but he played all 16 last year. He’s great, a player who deserves his second-round ADP (20.5).

View photos A.J. Green, still an upper-tier fantasy asset. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) More

Beyond Green, the names in this receiving corps read like a list of your worst fantasy decisions. These guys are not draftable in shallow fantasy formats — no need to mess around with Brandon LaFell or Tyler Boyd, because a 55-550-3 stat line won’t help you win a 10-team league. John Ross is somewhat more interesting, but only for those of you looking for lottery tickets in deeper formats. Ross was the ninth overall pick in the 2017 draft, but knee and shoulder issues limited him to 17 snaps, two targets and zero catches. It would be fair to say he was a monumental first-year bust. Let’s just remember that Ross has rare speed (4.22) and he was a monster in his final collegiate season at Washington (81-1150-17). Everyone around the Bengals seems pleased with his offseason…

“[Ross] looks good. Completely different than he did last year,” Andy Dalton said. “You can tell he worked hard. It looks like he’s getting back to where he was. He looks smooth. Everyone knew he was fast, but he’s not just a straight-line guy. He can stop and go. He’s got some shiftiness to him.”

If Ross can simply establish himself as a credible vertical threat, worthy of defensive attention, it’s a huge win for Cincinnati’s offense. There’s a wide range of possible outcomes for the second-year receiver, but we can reasonably hope for him to emerge as a big-play specialist.

Tight end Tyler Eifert signed a one-year deal during the spring, but he was only a limited participant in OTAs. Eifert has undergone multiple back surgeries and he’s hardly a lock to be a full-go in camp. He’s appeared in just 24 games over the past four seasons. At his best, he was obviously a terrific red-zone weapon (13 TDs in 2015), but he clearly isn’t a bankable fantasy asset. Tyler Kroft produced a seven-TD season in Eifert’s absence last year; he could emerge as a deep league option if/when Eifert is sidelined in 2018.

Does the Red Rifle really deserve his own subhead? It’s debatable