I am not in any way trying to troll, but you wrote this back in July:
What has changed in your view?
Edit: and for reference, this year the Bengals are 43 points worse than the Steelers, 51 points worse than Cleveland, and 80 points worse than the Ravens.
I'm generally a glass half-empty guy (as if this franchise has given me any reason not to be) but this is pretty ridiculous. Johnson is a big loss and Zimmer leaving will have some effect, but that should be at least offset by having Hall and Atkins for more than half a season. Offensively, Jackson is a sizable upgrade on Gruden and they gave 220 carries to BJGE and Sanu a bunch of snaps on the outside, both of which are being replaced by clearly superior options. While I'm certainly not a Dalton fan, he's good enough to consistently beat mediocre and bad teams. Plus, there are a lot more younger guys in significant roles with arrows pointing up than the other way around.
The Bengals were 116 points better than the Steelers last year, 157 than the Ravens and 223 than the Browns, who lost their best player. There's no way they finish last and it's pretty doubtful they come in third.
What has changed in your view?
Edit: and for reference, this year the Bengals are 43 points worse than the Steelers, 51 points worse than Cleveland, and 80 points worse than the Ravens.