The Cincinnati Bengals have been a struggling organization for some time now, but there's a lot of optimism surrounding the team as the enter the 2005 NFL regular season. What's behind the excitement in Bengals country? It's Carson Palmer at quarterback. Although the Cincinnati Bengals didn't make the playoffs last season, Palmer seemed to breath life back into the Cincinnati's football hopes. Before Palmer was sidelined by a late season injury last year, he was very exciting to watch and equally productive. In the last four games Palmer played he threw for 11 touchdowns, and engineered a come from behind victory against the Baltimore Ravens, behind 382 yards passing. Rudi Johnson is expected to provide a lot of productivity to the offense, as he had five games of over 100 yards in rushing, including one with 200 yards. Johnson scored 12 touchdowns last season also, and it seems like he's made a home in Cincinnati has the Bengals have just signed him to a very lucrative multiyear contract. Chad Johnson takes on the wide receiver position and is expected to provide a real boost to the offense. During the Bengals last eight games Johnson had 51 catches and seven touchdowns, while finishing off his third 1,000 yards in receiving for his career.

A lot of the question marks still surround the defensive side of the ball for the Bengals. On a per game basis the Bengals gave up lot's of points, including 48 points to the Cleveland Browns. The Bengals have made strides to improve their defense with the drafts of David Pollack and Odell Thurman.

The Cincinnati Bengals are in a very tough division, with the Ravens and Steelers, but as they say on any given Sunday anything can happen. The Bengals get a chance to test the new defense on November 20th, 2005 against the prolific quarterbacking skills of Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.