The bad news is that the Cincinnati Bengals recent history is:
No playoffs, Wild Card loss, Wild Card loss, Wild Card loss, Wild Card loss, Wild Card loss. Prior to 2016: five years, five Wild Card losses. The good news is that most of the Bengals history doesn’t even include the playoffs. Most of their seasons were finished before they started, but now Cincinnati is a major contender
Just because the Bengals went 6-9-1 last year, there is no loss of expectation that they should be a postseason contender again in 2017. However, several of their key starters are free agents and a couple more seem destined to buck the trend of Cincy being reluctant to cut veteran players before their original contracts expire.