Can the Bengals win the Super Bowl with Burrow now extended?
The countdown to kick-off is underway as the Cincinnati Bengals gear up for the highly anticipated 2023 NFL season.
With a blend of young talent and experienced veterans, this season holds the promise of excitement, some growth, and the hopes of a deep playoff push for the team that reached the Super Bowl only two seasons ago.
Quarterback Joe Burrow has now been made the highest paid player in NFL history, and their is real excitement that more good times for the franchise are coming.
Under his leadership, despite returning from injury but will reportedly be ready for week one, the Bengals’ offense looks poised to make yet another statement. Burrow’s chemistry with star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, his former college teammate, is well documented but with depth at the position in Tee Higgins – arguably the best number two receivers in the league – and Tyler Boyd, simply doubling down on Chase will leave spaces on the field for Burrow to exploit.
Last season, the Bengals ranked fifth in points per drive (2.34) and red zone efficiency (64.9%) and even when defenses forced Burrow into shorter passes to gain yards, Cincinnati still ended 27.8% of its drives for touchdowns. Despite that Cincinnati were 29th in rushing in the National Football League in 2022 at an average of 95 yards per game, and they had only 3.8 yards per attempt a season ago.
They have Joe Mixon. They’ve got Trayveon Williams as a backup, and then they drafted Chase Brown. They need to figure out how to run the football a little more effectively.
Bringing in Orlando Brown Jr. at left tackle, moving Jonah Williams to right tackle and a second year of chemistry for the interior players could also be crucial to improving a unit that ranked 30th in pass block win rate (50.1%) in 2022. Since drafting Burrow in 2020, Cincinnati has had the worst pass block win rate (49.6%) in the NFL. And only the Bears (152) have allowed more sacks than the Bengals (147) in that span. It’s easy to see now why they paid top dollar for a man like Brown.
Cincinnati brought back Alex Cappa, Ted Karras and Cordell Volson on the interior. Williams looks comfortable at right tackle. With guys like Jackson Carman, D’Ante Smith, Max Scharping and La’el Collins (PUP) still on the roster, there’s a chance that this is the best offensive line the team has had since 2015.
The Bengals lost starting safeties Jessie Bates to Atlanta and Vonn Bell to Carolina in free agency. Last year, this team only intercepted the ball 13 times and Bates and Bell combined for eight of those 13 and we know how important takeaways are. If you’re plus-one in the NFL on the turnover margin, you win 66 percent of the time.
They can plug in Daxton Hill, their 2022 first-round pick out of Michigan, and then Nick Scott comes over (from the Rams) and is the other starter, at least going into training camp. Chidobe Awuzie is one of the corners and Mike Hilton is a solid option at nickel.
The Bengals have talent on the defensive side of the ball, especially on a deep line that should be better with the addition of first-round draft pick Myles Murphy, but plenty of the credit goes to defensive coordinator, Lou Anarumo, and his complex schemes for making opposing quarterbacks lives difficult. Let’s hope he’s got a few tricks left up his sleeve for this year to stop that other guy in the conference, what’s his name, Patrick something-or-other.
Barring major injury woes, we have a good idea of what the Bengals will be. Burrow will be one of the best quarterbacks in the game, the offense will be very good and the defense will continue to be underrated. But winning the AFC North is no guarantee.
Any one of the other three teams could win it; the AFC North has a good argument for the toughest division in football but whilst it will undoubtedly be a tougher division this year, it’s hard to see anyone other than the Bengals winning it. I know, I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth here.
They’re looking to get into the playoffs and make another huge run. If they have to go on the road, the Bengals have shown that they can go into Kansas City and upset the Chiefs; they did it two years ago and made the Super Bowl.
Can the Bengals win it all before they have to cough up big for their top stars? It’s obvious they’re one of the few teams with a realistic shot at a championship this time around and if they have to go on the road, the have the credentials.
This team has a chance to chalk up some wins early before their week seven bye, after that however tougher tests will present themselves with the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills and Chiefs all on the slate at the business end of the year.
The Bengals’ fifth-best odds to win the Super Bowl has more to do with the teams they face this season and those teams’ strength of schedule. Smart money should be on the Chiefs or Bengals to be representing the AFC, and from there it all comes down to the actual game being played.
