NFL Analyst: Bengals Must Win Super Bowl to Have Successful 2024 Season
CINCINNATI — The Bengals are hoping to bounce back this season after finishing 9-8 and missing the playoffs last year.
Despite a down 2023 campaign, NFL.com's Adam Rank believes Joe Burrow and the Bengals have to win the Super Bowl to have a successful season.
"Look, the Bengals have been to two of the last three AFC Championship Games. I know they took a step backward last season. But would you consider it a success if Cincinnati made it to the conference title match and lost?" Rank wrote. "I get that some teams would be lucky just to make the playoffs, but the expectations for the Bengals are elevated; having Joe Burrow under center means the playoffs are the floor. (Or, as he put it in 2023: "The window is my whole career.") This is likely to be the last season in which Cincinnati has Ja'Marr Chase and the franchise tagged Tee Higgins together. Anything less than winning a Super Bowl should feel like a failure. It's almost unfair, but it's the reality."
The Bengals made back-to-back AFC Championship Games in 2021 and 2022. They were a few plays away from making it to two-straight Super Bowls. When Burrow is healthy, they've been as dangerous as any team in the NFL—especially in January.
Rank wrote an entire Bengals preview with training camp just a few weeks away. Check it out here.
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JAMES RAPIEN
James Rapien covers the Bengals for Sports Illustrated's AllBengals.com and is one-half of the Locked on Bengals Podcast. He's also the co-owner/creator of Cincinnati Bengals Talk on YouTube. He earned a journalism degree from the University of Cincinnati and has spent the majority of his professional career in the Queen City. Rapien previously covered the Cavaliers and Indians in Cleveland. He has a background in radio, which includes stops at 700 WLW, ESPN 1530 and 92.3 The Fan. He loves a good trade rumor and uses copious amounts of hot sauce on his food. Cincinnati chili is his go-to meal, followed by gallons of mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert. When he isn't working or eating, he's probably walking his dog Finley or spending time with family.