NFL Analyst Questions Why Bengals Are Still Being Talked About

· Yahoo Sports

The Cincinnati Bengals enter the 2026 NFL season as one of the league’s most talked-about teams. Much of that optimism is tied to Joe Burrow’s health, the addition of Dexter Lawrence, and a defensive front that looks significantly stronger than it did a year ago. The message around Cincinnati has been consistent all offseason: if Burrow stays healthy and the defense improves, the Bengals can contend for a Super Bowl.

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However, not everyone agrees. The Bengals have not played a playoff game since the 2022 season, when they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game.

Fox Sports analyst Nick Wright pointed this out on Friday’s edition of “First Things First.” After praising Burrow as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, he revealed his shock about the amount of coverage the Bengals have been getting during the offseason despite their lack of team success in recent years. 

“I am stunned at how much attention the Cincinnati Bengals get on shows like ours,” Wright said. “I understand five years ago they won one game against Kansas City and I’m very happy for them that they did that. But it has been four years since they last played in a playoff game.”

Wright went on to argue that other teams with similar recent results do not get nearly the same level of national attention.

“The Bengals have gone 0 for 3 the last three years,” Wright said. “I do like their defensive line additions, I do think that should help them. But they wouldn’t be one of the first 10 teams I listed to win this year’s Super Bowl and they have not been anywhere close in the last three seasons that have been played. It is surprising to me how much staying power that one win against the Chiefs has had them.”

The 2021 Bengals earned lasting credibility by beating the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game and reaching the Super Bowl, but that success has continued to shape the way the team is discussed long after the results stopped matching the hype. Burrow’s profile as a consensus top five quarterback in the NFL has only added to that, keeping Cincinnati in the spotlight even as the team has gone three straight years without a playoff appearance.

However, the counterargument to Wright's point is Burrow himself. He has not completed a fully healthy season since 2023, missing significant time with a wrist injury that year before suffering a Grade 3 turf toe injury in 2025. Cincinnati’s case is that its true ceiling has not been seen because its franchise quarterback has not been on the field consistently. The additions of Lawrence, Boye Mafe, Bryan Cook, Jonathan Allen and Cashius Howell are also expected to improve a defense that has been one of the team’s biggest problems in recent years.

Whether that is enough to justify the Bengals’ offseason hype will be decided on the field. For now, Cincinnati heads toward training camp with plenty of believers and at least one prominent skeptic.

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