The start of the NFL season brings hope and optimism. With teams that spent in the offseason and draft, the franchise sees this year as its chance. The Cincinnati Bengals are no exception. After a bumpy few years, the organization hopes to right the metaphorical ship and return to the postseason.
Still, playing in the contentious AFC North does not make life any easier for them. Yet, with many of their top players still in their respective primes, hope springs eternal in the state of Ohio. However, one player in particular delivered a take that is sure to get the league and fans talking ahead of the season.
Bengals QB Joe Burrow Doesn’t Hide His Team’s Super Bowl Aspirations
The Bengals have not made the playoffs since losing in the AFC Championship Game to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2023. In that time, the team has a 24-27 record. Yet Burrow feels his team is right in the hunt for a Super Bowl, and he doesn’t think anyone needs to be coy or try to hide it.
“I’ve never understood why people are scared to say it,” Burrow said. “I guess people get scared of how the media might portray them or their team. But you have to set expectations with yourself, your teammates, your organization.”
In decades past, the concept of bulletin board material was a dominant part of football culture. In essence, when an opponent made a quote that appeared in a newspaper, teams would cut out the article and paste it on the locker room bulletin board as a source of inspiration.
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Plus, many coaching staff want their players to participate as little as possible in press conferences, hoping to limit the scope of their questions. Yet Burrow, as the face of the Bengals, wants those around him not to run from the potential drama that comes with that level of confidence.
“Everybody says they want to win the Super Bowl, you talk about it every day, you set that expectation every day, you go and work for it every single day,” Burrow added. “I won the championship in college, and there’s no freaking better feeling than that. And if you don’t talk about it, I don’t know how you can do it.”
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Last season, the Bengals’ offense did not seem to be the overarching problem. According to the PFN’s Offense Impact Metric, the Bengals finished at the No. 15 spot.
In contrast, the defense finished ranked No. 26. In the offseason, Cincinnati changed the front. They traded for New York Giants standout Dexter Lawrence II. Plus, they brought in defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and former Seattle Seahawks edge rusher Boye Mafe.
While Burrow seems confident, the defensive pieces still need to bond to make the Bengals a balanced team. Whether they can do this consistently during the season remains unclear.
