Here the Bengals go again. They have now had five cracks at building a championship roster around Joe Burrow since drafting him No 1 overall in 2020, and have fallen short all five times. Entering year six, it’s already starting to feel like Burrow is this generation’s Dan Marino or Philip Rivers, an all-time great quarterback let down by the franchise around him.
After going 4-12 in Burrow’s rookie season, Cincinnati made the Super Bowl, lost, returned to the AFC title game the next season, and then lost there. Burrow missed almost all of his fourth season with an injury, but put forth the best season of his career statistically last year … before the Bengals surrendered it, finding novel way to give up close leads early in the season and failing to reach the playoffs despite winning five straight games to close it. In a league where 44% of teams make the postseason, it was almost impressively bad.
