The Cincinnati Bengals finished the 2025 regular season 6-11 and third in the AFC North for the second consecutive season. While the Bengals have not been overwhelmingly good, record-wise, over the last three years, Cincinnati is a team that, when fully healthy, can compete with anyone in the NFL.
With quarterback Joe Burrow healthy for the 2026 season, running back Chase Brown ready for another year as the workhorse in the backfield, and receivers JaMarr Chase and Tee Higgins locked in on long-term deals, could next season be the Bengals’ year?
Tee Higgins, Chase Brown Share What Cincinnati Needs for Super Bowl Run
Bengals coach Zach Taylor took over in 2019, and Cincinnati won just six games combined in his first two years. However, in Taylor’s third year and Burrow’s second year, the Bengals went to the Super Bowl.
Cincinnati won 22 games in 2021 and 2022 and played in the AFC Conference Championship game both years. The offense looked unstoppable, and it was just a matter of whether the Bengals could get the stops they needed to win games.
However, their Achilles heel has been slow starts to the season, and that is exactly what Higgins believes needs to change for Cincinnati to make another Super Bowl run.
“I think just playing together at the beginning of the season and just starting faster than we usually do,” Higgins told PFSN’s Alex Kennedy. “Obviously, the past few years, we’ve been getting it going a little late, and it’s been a little bit too late, you know what I mean?
“So hopefully next year, we put it all together and get it going early.”
The Bengals started the 2023 season 1-3 and the 2024 season 1-4. Another part of the equation has been Burrow’s health.
The star quarterback played in 10 games in 2023 and eight games in 2025. Cincinnati started last season 2-0 before losing 10 of its next 12 games.
Brown also underscored the importance of starting fast.
“We’ve got to fire on all cylinders. I think we put a big emphasis on starting fast, and we did,” Brown told Kennedy. “We won some games at the start of the year, but they weren’t exactly wins that we kind of walked away feeling like, ‘Okay, that was good.’ But we’re a hard team to beat when we’re firing on all cylinders offensively and defensively.
“So, that’s what I look forward to, doing that and winning a lot of games.”
The Bengals’ two wins to start the 2025 season were by a combined five points, and they struggled significantly in games without Burrow.
Cincinnati’s dates and times for its 2026 schedule have not been announced yet, but its opponents have. The Bengals will face the AFC and NFC South divisions in addition to their AFC North counterparts.
