Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals and their fans are hurting today. After all those years of struggling, they were a couple of minutes away from winning their first-ever Super Bowl. Yes, the Bengals were ahead of schedule this year and with their insanely talented core of offensive skill players they’ll be threats for years to come, but to be that close and let it get away has to hurt. There are no guarantees that they’ll get back again, so my heart goes out to them (well, except for Eli Apple).
So now the question becomes was this a one-year lucky run or the beginning of them being a powerhouse in the AFC? As I already said, that group of insanely talented and incredibly young offensive players is going to keep them in contention for years as long as the rest of the team around them is solid. That having been said, there isn’t a great track record of teams losing the Super Bowl and then getting back there the next season. While two of the first six Super Bowls were won by teams that lost the Super Bowl the year before, in the last 50 seasons the 2018 New England Patriots are the only team to lose the Super Bowl and come back and win it all the following season. Besides that 2018 Patriots team, you have to go all the way back to the Buffalo Bills teams of the early 90s to find a team that lost the Super Bowl and made it back to the Super Bowl the next season.
What the Bengals do have going for them is that their salary cap situation is the best of the three teams on this list. They are set to have over $57 million in cap space entering free agency. There are some players they will need to re-sign, including Jessie Bates, CJ Uzomah, Larry Ogunjobi, Riley Reif, and maybe Eli Apple. Even if they brought all five of those guys back they should still have room to bolster their suspect offensive line and perhaps add another defensive starter. That should make the Bengals a force again next season.
Is that enough to make them the favorite or do you think they’ll take a step back next season? If you think they will struggle to repeat do you think the Chiefs can reclaim their top spot in the conference?