The Cincinnati Bengals didn’t make the Super Bowl for the second year in a row — but they sure could learn quite a bit from looking at the two teams that just played in it.
That Super Bowl — a 38-35 win for the Kansas City Chiefs over the Philadelphia Eagles– featured a big display of modern football and what makes a team successful in this era.
The Bengals already have the biggest piece, of course, via rostering a top-five quarterback with Joe Burrow.
But the lessons from the Super Bowl should be something the team heeds as it heads into a critical offseason with many free agents and needs to address.
Upgrade RB -- cheaply
The Bengals have a tough decision to make at running back with Joe Mixon — but it should be rather easy. He’s a $12.8 million cap hit in 2023 and that’s far too much. Cutting him would save roughly $10 million on a post-June 1 move and the team needs to use that elsewhere.
Just look at the Chiefs: Seventh-round rookie Isiah Pacheco rushed 15 times for 76 yards (5.1 average) and one touchdown in the Super Bowl. This list of Super Bowl-winning running backs who led the big game in rushing has consistently had cheaper contracts, so the Bengals need to follow suit.
Get a playmaking TE and implement it
Hayden Hurst was an awesome addition to the team. But he also caught just 52 passes for 414 yards and two touchdowns over 13 games.
Look at the Super Bowl. Travis Kelce had six for 81 and a score. For the Eagles, Dallas Goedert caught six for 60. Both made huge plays down the field, consistently provided a vertical threat and extended drives.
The Bengals aren’t going to find a Kelce, of course. But they can find a (rookie?) big-play threat down the field, then lean into the position more in the offense.
Upgrade the o-line
There’s the problem of the slick, miserable field in Arizona negating the pass-rush of both teams in the Super Bowl. Still, Patrick Mahomes was never sacked. Jalen Hurts took two sacks, but was behind the league’s best line all year.
Some of the reason for this was due to superb play-calling, too. But only one of the five line jobs in Cincinnati should be safe — the one belonging to right guard Alex Cappa. Upgrading the others should be a consideration and especially at the tackles.
Let the defenders walk (but not pass-rushers)
This might be a little controversial, especially with the heavy lifting the Bengals defense has done in recent years. But the money should clearly be spent on the offensive side of the ball around Burrow.
The Chiefs started a handful of rookies along the defense all year and they got key experience while winning it all. The Bengals usually draft well, so replacing Jessie Bates, Germaine Pratt and others with rookies and spending that money on the offense is a trend they could get behind. And look at the Eagles — three of their five biggest cap hits in 2022 were defenders and it’s not like that helped slow Mahomes too often. The Bengals are building to stop Mahomes and the Chiefs and it’s an offensive arms race.
If the Bengals spend big resources on defense, it needs to be on pass-rushers similar to a Frank Clark or Haason Reddick.
Now for the good news...
…the Bengals are already following much of the blueprint that got the Chiefs and the Eagles to the big one. They’ve invested heavily in receiving weapons around the elite quarterback. They’re drafting to replace key free agents (Dax Hill, Cam Taylor-Britt) rather than paying up. Now they just need to re-allocate money away from running back, get more dynamic at tight end, continue to upgrade the line and smartly spend cap and there’s little reason to think they can’t get back in the big game next year.
