The Cincinnati Bengals have spent much of their history as a bottom-feeder in the NFL, especially in the AFC North era. Only brief periods with Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton as their quarterbacks produced any kind of consistency, but still not postseason success, at least until Joe Burrow came along in 2020.
Three years into his career, he is threatening to take the Bengals to the Super Bowl for the second time. They have doubled their franchise postseason victory total in the past 13 months—which says as much about their history as it does their present.
But it still says a lot about their present as well, and how far they came in a short time.