Bengals Impressive Rebuild
Exciting times are few and far between in Cincinnati, especially for the Bengals. This year, however, everything is different. The first playoff appearance since 2016 was followed by the first playoff win since 1991. Now the Cincinnati Bengals are in the Super Bowl – the first time since 1989.
Who Dey? …More like How Dey?
In April 2020, the franchise faced a long-awaited rebuild and secured the first pick in the 2020 NFL Draft after going 2-14. Joe Burrow, who had previously come out of nowhere to lead the LSU Tigers to the college championship and has roots in Ohio State himself, was the logical choice. After a promising start to his rookie season, the worst-case scenario occurred. Joe Burrow severely injured his knee in Week 10, tearing his ACL. By then, Burrow had racked up 2,688 passing yards and 13 passing touchdowns, for a 65.35% completion rate.
It was questionable whether Joe Burrow would return as strong after his serious injury. Today, we know that he has actually improved. Joe Burrow is in the top 10 of the league in all relevant statistics. Burrow leads the league with a completion rate of 70.4% as well as 8.9 yards per pass attempt. His passer rating of 108.3 shows that he is one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Only Aaron Rodgers has a better rating. These numbers are even more impressive when you consider that Joe Burrow is the most sacked quarterback in the league with 51 sacks.
After picking Clemson wide receiver Tee Higgins in round two of the 2020 draft, the Cincinnati Bengals selected LSU wide receiver, Ja’Marr Chase, in the 2021 draft. The chance to reunite Chase and Burrow in the NFL was just too tempting, given the chemistry the two had at LSU. And it paid off. Ja’Marr Chase’s 1,455 yards is fourth-best among all receivers, and he ranks third with 13 touchdowns. For his efforts, the rookie was promptly voted to the Pro Bowl.
But Tee Higgins was also often put in the spotlight by Joe Burrow and provided important first downs with his catches in the Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs, among others. The receiver will certainly not forget his first 1,000+ yard season in a hurry.
With these two young wide receivers, the Cincinnati Bengals are primed to be a contender in the AFC for years to come.
With all the young receiver power, though, don’t lose sight of the running game. The Bengals have a bona fide star running back in Joe Mixon, the 2017 second-round pick. With 1,205 rushing yards, Joe Mixon provided the third-best value of any running back in the regular season, and his 13 touchdowns rank fourth. With 76 evaded tackles, Joe Mixon also plays in the top third of the league.
One pick in the 2021 draft, however, left many experts with question marks. Cincinnati selected Evan McPherson in the fifth round (149th overall) of the 2021 NFL Draft, leaving some wondering if a team that finished the previous year 4-11-1 should select a kicker from the middle rounds. Bengals director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin, the team’s closet general manager, shared some details about the decision to take McPherson in a conversation with NBC Sports’ Peter King.
“My dad told me that in 1985 when he was with the Bears, they took a kicker in the fourth round who made a big difference on their Super Bowl team that year,” Tobin told King. “That kicker was Kevin Butler. So it’s not without precedent to take a kicker and make him a real difference on your team. We felt good about Evan being there for us in the fifth round, and we knew he could be a difference-maker for us.”
The Bengals traded pick No. 38 to the Patriots for picks No. 46, 122, and 139 in the draft. That allowed them to fill another need earlier in the draft, giving them the freedom to take McPherson in the fifth round. That move has more than paid off so far. For with his two game-winning field goals against the Titans and Chiefs, Evan McPherson has been instrumental in getting them to the Super Bowl. We all know how things turned out for the Chicago Bears in the 1985 season.
Cincinnati Bengals Drafts from 2021, 2020, and 2019
- Yellow – Starter
- Blue – Backup/Depth Player
It’s rare to see so much production out of two NFL drafts by any team, but the Bengals really did maximize value with the picks they had in the last two to three years. This has allowed the Bengals for a quick rebuild, adding 9 starters over the last three years along with 8 to 10 depth players that are contributing and in the works to start next season.
But a successful draft is not the only part of a rebuild. Good free agency is just as important. After the Dalton era ended in Cincinnati in 2020, AJ Green’s time in Ohio had also come to an end in 2021. Starting CB William Jackson III was let go, as was Mackensie Alexander, who had come from the Vikings the year before. They replaced them with Chidobe Awuzie from the Dallas Cowboys and Mike Hilton from the Pittsburgh Steelers. DE Carl Lawson, who joined the Jets in New York, was not retained and was replaced by Trey Hendrickson from New Orleans.
But other big names also had to vacate their locker at Paul Brown Stadium after a long time. DT Geno Atkins was released after failing physical, as was RB Gio Bernard. RT Bobby Hart also had to give up his roster spot. That is now taken by Riley Reiff, who was expected to protect Burrows’ right side after being cut in Minnesota. Atkins role goes to Larry Ogunjobi, who could be lured away from Cleveland. They addressed the depth weakness in the secondary with CB Eli Apple from Carolina and safeties Ricardo Allen from the Falcons and Kavon Frazier from Miami.
Joe Burrow is the first QB in NFL history to be selected No. 1 overall and reach the Super Bowl within his first two seasons.#Bengals #SuperBowl
— FantasyData (@FantasyDataNFL) February 5, 2022
That change ensured that not only did Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Joe Mixon become fantasy football relevant, but so did the Cincinnati Bengals defense. While the defense was a bottom 3 defense in 2020, averaging 3.6 fantasy football points, that changed in 2021 when the defense landed in the middle of the league with an average of 5.6 fantasy football points.
Even more exciting is the development of Joe Burrow. Burrow finished the season as QB8 according to PPR. However, in the first six weeks of the season, Joe Burrow only made the top 10 QBs once, while he finished the final two weeks of the regular season as QB1.
Chase’s numbers show just how much Joe Burrow is benefiting from Ja’Marr Chase in the process, and vice versa. With 304.6 PPR points, Ja’Marr Chase finished the regular season as WR5. In only three weeks did Chase score fewer than 10 PPR Points (Weeks 9, 15, 18).
The same is true for Joe Mixon. With 287.9 PPR Points, Mixon finished the Regular Season as RB4. While he scored less than 10 PPR Points in four weeks, he also scored over 25 PPR Points in six weeks.
Regardless of the outcome of Super Bowl LVI against the Los Angeles Rams, with many of the right decisions made over the last two years and the courage to try something out of the ordinary, the Cincinnati Bengals have a bright future ahead of them.
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