Orlando Brown Jr. hits the nail on the head regarding how the Bengals need to change in 2025
Left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. and the Cincinnati Bengals ended the 2024 season on a high note. Cincinnati has almost always played its best football when the playoffs draw close in recent years. Winning five games in a row to wrap up the season is not much different than how the past several years have […]
Left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. and the Cincinnati Bengals ended the 2024 season on a high note. Cincinnati has almost always played its best football when the playoffs draw close in recent years. Winning five games in a row to wrap up the season is not much different than how the past several years have gone.
Once again, it was a porous start to the year that did them in. The Bengals' record was 0-3, 1-4, and 4-8 during different points of what was supposed to be a Super Bowl-contending season. Falling short of the playoffs ended up costing the jobs of several coaches including Brown's position coach, Frank Pollack.
Now that the season is all wrapped up, Brown can't help but point out what needs to happen in order for the Bengals to stop this cycle.
Orlando Brown Jr. laments Bengals' lack of early-season fire
The Bengals are 9-3 from Weeks 13-18 over the past two years. Their ability to win at all costs down the stretch of the season, in Brown's eyes, needs to be applied long before the season even begins. Brown believes it all starts in the mind.
"I think it's more mentality than anything," Brown told reporters Monday afternoon. "It's hard to win. It's hard to win in life, it's hard to put yourself in good position. It's hard to really understand all those things. And sometimes at the highest level of football, you got to get used and comfortable with understanding and pushing yourself to the limit of what it takes to win.
"And I think that these last two years, mentally, we haven't been in that state of mind," Brown continued. "Our backs are against the wall in December and November, and we got to fight for a chance to get where we want to get. The mindset, the fire that's lit underneath your ass, that needs to be there in July, June, August, all the way through."
The topic of slow starts has been brought up numerous times while they were happening. 0-2 starts in 2022 and 2023 turned into 0-3 and 1-4 in 2024. There weren't very many answers a few months ago, but after the desperate grind of winning just to stay alive in the playoff race, there may be a sense of clarity.
Leadership matters in terms of getting everyone else in the locker room on the same page to fix this problem. That falls on guys like Brown, who's won a Super Bowl and turns 29 in May.
"I take a lot of pride in that as a player," Brown said. "Putting more pressure on myself to be more for us at those points."
Starting slow will be the expectation for these Bengals until they do what's necessary to change that narrative. It's going to take everyone following Brown's lead to light that fire this offseason before it's too late once again.
Bengals’ final playoff fate stings even more when looking back at the last 50 years of NFL history
Cincinnati will miss the playoffs again after another 9-8 season.
