The Cincinnati Bengals will be watched by every NFL fan around the world when Super Bowl 56 kicks off on Sunday night. But they will be very closely monitored by a few NFL teams in particular as they take on the Los Angeles Rams.
The likes of the New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Giants and Chicago Bears will all be wondering if they can emulate the Bengals by reaching next year's Super Bowl a year after posting losing records in 2021.
Each of those teams will feel good about their futures if their quarterbacks pan out and become franchise leaders. Zach Wilson (Jets), Trevor Lawrence (Jaguars), Daniel Jones (Giants) and Justin Fields (Bears) will all be watching Cincinnati's Joe Burrow very closely on Sunday night and wondering, 'Could that be me, next year?'
There will be plenty of other teams rooting for the Bengals on Sunday because Zac Taylor's team have become the poster children for the quick NFL turnaround. 'If they can do it, why not us?' That will be the pervading question across the league.
You can add this one. 'Do you believe in miracles?'
Well, they can happen in the NFL and the team in the tiger stripes are living proof of that.
The Bengals are playing in their first Super Bowl in 33 years. The Bengals are coming off five losing seasons and three straight years at the bottom of the AFC North Division. The Bengals are coming off a four-win campaign in 2020 in which their star quarterback won just two of those contests before blowing out the ligaments in his knee.
And yet here they are, proving that we should always be prepared to 'expect the unexpected' in the NFL and getting ready to play for all the marbles in SoFi Stadium on Sunday night.
Burrow, the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, has been the key addition in Cincinnati and his confidence and swagger has proven to be infectious. While the rest of us talk about the Bengals bucking historical trends en route to the Super Bowl, the super-talented quarterback and his teammates could not care less about the past. The subject of the playoff drought (the Bengals had not won a playoff game in 31 years before going on a winning march to LA) has not even come up in the locker room.
"We don't understand the historical relevance of what we're doing," Burrow insisted this week. "We're just out there playing football."
The drafting of Burrow first overall was a no-brainer in 2020, given how he finished his nomadic college football career in outstanding, national championship-winning form with Louisiana State University. But the other pieces added via the draft have played a major role in Cincinnati's turnaround.
Key players have come from the annual college selection process… wide receiver Tyler Boyd in the second round in 2016, running back Joe Mixon in the same round in 2017, safety Jessie Bates in the second round in 2018, receiver Tee Higgins in the second round in 2020 and then the jewel in the receiving corps crown in Ja'Marr Chase in the first round in 2021. Add in kicker Evan McPherson in the fifth round in 2021 and you can see how well the Bengals have drafted in recent years.
Speaking of recent drafts and additions in Cincinnati, the rookie kicker with ice in his veins said: "All those guys came from winning teams in college with guys from Clemson, LSU and Ohio State. But we've also got some players from the New Orleans Saints, who have been in the playoffs the last few years.
"Having guys who have been there and done that and are used to winning is what has changed this culture."
The confidence and belief cascading through Cincinnati's locker room is why head coach Zac Taylor, who won just six games in his first seasons in charge of the Bengals, had high hopes for his team heading into the 2021 campaign. There were certainly no worries about the fact that Cincinnati had been mired in losing for quite some time.
"That has not been our focus," the third-year head coach told the media on Monday night. "We expected to be here. We've known what type of team we've had all along. We've never surprised ourselves, I can promise you that. We'll let everybody else paint the picture of what this game means to the outside world. To us, we expected to be here.
The Bengals did indeed keep the faith, even when they lost back-to-back games against the Los Angeles Chargers and San Francisco 49ers to fall to 7-6 in mid-December. They then went on a three-game tear that included huge wins over Baltimore and Kansas City. The Bengals' only loss since falling to 7-6 came against Cleveland in Week 18 when several key starters – led by Burrow – were rested with the AFC North crown already secured. The quarterback has not lost a game since the overtime defeat to the Niners on December 12, winning his last six starts to reach Super Bowl 56.
"We've been playing some really good teams all year long," Taylor explained. "Win or lose, we learned a lot from those games. We've been battle tested. Our guys know they belong on this field on Super Bowl Sunday and I expect to see our guys' best."
Burrow is full of confidence as he comes to the end of his second NFL season and why not? He has won all seven playoff games he has played in college and the pros. And his belief certainly rubs off on the rest of this Bengals team.
"I've always been a confident player," Burrow told me during a virtual media session on Monday. "More so now than I ever have been before. I feel like I can play at a high level at this level of football. As a quarterback, I think it's really important to exude that confidence, not only in yourself but in all of your teammates. The quarterback sets the tone for the culture in the locker room. I try to be that kind of player and person for everybody here."
Burrow's connection with former college teammate Chase has been spectacular. The pair have now combined for 34 touchdown passes in 33 games in the NFL and at LSU. Chase racked up 1,455 receiving yards in the regular season for the greatest first year by a wide receiver in the Super Bowl era, at least statistically.
But Chase was not alone in providing a reliable target for Burrow. The Bengals were the only team in the NFL this season to have three receivers who topped 800 receiving yards each and scored at least five touchdowns apiece. Tee Higgins (74 catches for 1,091 yards) and Tyler Boyd (67 catches for 828 yards) rounded out the playmaking trio.
Burrow's confidence and outstanding play has also fueled a defense that has produced seven takeaways in three playoff games, with interceptions either sealing or setting up the winning points in each contest.
Defensive end Trey Hendrickson, who recorded 14 sacks in the regular season and another two and a half in the playoff run, explained: "It starts with the quarterback and every good football team needs to have a great quarterback and when he's confident like that, it does a lot for the defense. We know we have a guy who is confident of getting a first down on third and long, he's confident of getting a first down on first and 15. We know if we get him the ball back, it's going to result in points. It's 22 guys playing for a collective goal and with a quarterback like Joe, you always have a shot.
"This is my first year with the Bengals, but I did play against them (with the Saints) and knowing the difference with who is in at quarterback, it has been an overall change for this organisation and it's something I'm excited to be a part of."
The Bengals have a chance to make history on Sunday night by removing their name from the list of 12 teams who have never won a Super Bowl. And while they will happily give a nod to some of the great Bengals teams of the past, they are most definitely doing it for themselves and for Cincinnati's long-suffering fans in the here and now.
As we ponder which teams might be able to mount a similarly-miraculous run in the future, the Bengals have turned the page on their inglorious past. Whatever the result on Super Bowl Sunday, Cincinnati have every reason to look forward – and not back – in the coming years.
With that in mind, these Bengals are already winners!
