How the Bengals can take a page out of the Chiefs' book to help their Super Bowl odds in 2023
The Cincinnati Bengals don't necessarily need any added motivation in 2023. Falling to beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game and coming up short of their ultimate goal last year — hoisting the Lombardi Trophy — is all the motivation the Bengals need this upcoming season. But like Joe Burrow said during […]
The Cincinnati Bengals don't necessarily need any added motivation in 2023.
Falling to beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game and coming up short of their ultimate goal last year — hoisting the Lombardi Trophy — is all the motivation the Bengals need this upcoming season.
But like Joe Burrow said during the playoffs last season, if the motivation is there, you might as well use it.
The Bengals might be on the verge of receiving some bulletin board material in 2023 that will be similar to some bulletin board material that helped the Chiefs win a Super Bowl last season.
A year ago at this time, the national media started hyping every team in the AFC West except the Chiefs.
The idea was that the Las Vegas Raiders, Denver Broncos, and Los Angeles Chargers made the improvements necessary to compete with the Chiefs in the AFC West.
That obviously proved to be incorrect as the Chiefs won their seventh straight AFC West division title.
Kansas City's players never forgot about the way the national media hyped those other teams.
“Let me take you back to 2022 in the month of maybe April, maybe,” said Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce at Kansas City's Super Bowl parade. “Guys were getting signed left and right. The haters were saying that the Chiefs would never make the playoffs, the haters were saying the Chiefs were done."
The Bengals could be on the verge of receiving the same treatment that Kansas City received last offseason.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are viewed as a team that can take a big step forward in 2023 behind second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett.
It won't be a surprise if some analysts pick the Steelers as their AFC North winner in 2023.
On Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens signed free agent wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr to a one-year deal. The signing signals that quarterback Lamar Jackson will likely be back in Baltimore in 2023 (he still hasn't signed his franchise tag or agreed to a longterm extension). If Jackson and OBJ are together in Baltimore next season, I'd look for predictions that the Ravens are going to win the AFC North to start rolling in.
And when those predictions happen, the Bengals should treat them just like the Chiefs treated them a year ago — use it all as motivation.
There's nothing more dangerous than a team that plays with a chip on its shoulder. That's a big part of what's fueled the Bengals the last two years. Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor has even admitted to searching every inch of the internet for motivation for his team.
It worked out pretty well for the Chiefs last season. There's no reason the Bengals shouldn't try to utilize the same strategy in 2023 — that little added piece of motivation could be the difference in winning or losing a championship.
