Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals have won four straight games, improving to 5-2 with an AFC North showdown against Pittsburgh on deck. Fans want to know how good this team really is — and AccuScore's Market Index has an answer that cuts against the hot streak.
Despite the winning run, AccuScore's betting-price-based Market Index has Cincinnati at No. 8 of 32 teams for NFL 2026 Week 8, with a rating of +3.12 points. That's down from a previous rank of No. 6. The win streak is real, but the market has not moved the Bengals up — it's moved them down two spots.
That doesn't mean AccuScore's season simulation is down on Cincinnati. Running the Bengals' full schedule forward, AccuScore projects a 11.4-5.6 record and an 83.4% probability of reaching the playoffs. That's a strong number on its own — just not one that's climbing in lockstep with the win total.
For context on where Cincinnati sits against the other teams making headlines this week: the Buffalo Bills (6-1, 94% playoff probability) sit at No. 4 in the Market Index, the Seattle Seahawks (4-4, 52.9% playoff probability) are at No. 2, and the Minnesota Vikings (6-1, 77.9% playoff probability) are at No. 14. Cincinnati's rating of +3.12 points slots it below both Buffalo and Seattle, even with its own win streak intact.
The Bengals' next test is Pittsburgh, a game that will add another data point to that Market Index rating. For now, the simulation numbers tell two separate stories: a team trending toward the playoffs at 83.4%, and a market rating that, for whatever reason the betting markets are weighing, slipped from No. 6 to No. 8 even as Burrow's win streak grew to four.