While there was optimism about the team’s general directory this season, I don’t recall that there were a ton of pundits predicting that the Cincinnati Bengals would be topping the AFC North this year, let alone advancing to the conference finals for just the third time in the franchise’s history. I think most were just acknowledging that they wouldn’t finish last in the division again.
That was never their own outlook, however, in that locker room, even after compiling just six wins over the previous two years. Especially buoyed by the continued development of second-year quarterback Joe Burrow, and with the addition of his favorite target in college, Ja’Marr Chase, the Bengals are not who we thought they were—they are who we thought they would be.