Daisy chaining games together in the NFL is one of the most futile endeavors anyone could undertake. That's one of many reasons why the Cincinnati Bengals should be feeling themselves a bit after Aaron Rodgers' Pittsburgh Steelers got embarrassed in a 30-6 home playoff loss to the Houston Texans on Monday.
What I mean by that is, Bengals fans could look at that postseason result and be discouraged by, say, Week 11's 34-12 loss in the Steel City. I sure was! But Cincinnati's defense improved down the stretch, Joe Burrow is back and balling, and the Bengals have a higher draft position to improve their team — not to mention far more salary cap space to work with in free agency.
Rodgers looked every bit of 42 years old versus Houston. While the Steelers' offensive line and skill group didn't help him much against the Texans' swarming defense, it proved how far off Pittsburgh is from legitimate Super Bowl contention.
Why the Steelers keep running it back with Mike Tomlin as head coach is beyond me. He's refused to field a modern-esque offensive scheme for the last decade.
The bigger-picture view, regardless of Tomlin's fate, is the fact that Rodgers and that Pittsburgh offense looked bad to the point that Rodgers might retire. This obviously has massive implications for the Bengals in 2026.
Bengals stand to benefit bigly from Aaron Rodgers' awful playoff performance, which sends Steelers spiraling into the new year
It'd be one thing if Rodgers showed flashes of brilliance in spite of his inept supporting cast on Wild Card Weekend. Yeah, not so much. He was historically bad.
There have been 283 instances where an NFL QB had 20+ pass attempts in a playoff game since 2013, per @TruMediaSports.
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) January 13, 2026
Aaron Rodgers' game tonight against the Texans ranks 283rd in dropback success rate (21.2%) and EPA per dropback (-.76).
If Pittsburgh has a plan at quarterback in 2026, I haven't caught wind of it. Doubtful that Rodgers wants to go out like this, but in what world would he want to return to the Steelers? They just finished 26th in total defense, and I can't imagine Rodgers longs to work with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith again.
In the event that Smith leaves for another gig, Rodgers would be picking up a new offense. Why not do that somewhere else with a better team surrounding you?
It's also a lose-lose scenario to a large degree when it comes to Tomlin's fate. Fire him, and who do you upgrade with? Is it possible Tomlin has covered a lot of the Steelers organization's warts over the last 10-plus years? I'd say so!
Then again, if you keep Tomlin on, what message does that send to Yinzers? That ownership and the front office are A-OK with seven consecutive playoff losses?
You see what I mean? When the Bengals lost that post-bye game to Pittsburgh and Joe Flacco's right arm was basically falling off, it felt so stupid to hope the outcome could be flipped by next season.
All of a sudden, AS LONG AS JOE BURROW STAYS HEALTHY, the Bengals are in prime position to take back the AFC North. Because think about it. The Browns are the Browns. The Ravens just fired John Harbaugh. And we saw what the allegedly good 10-win Steelers looked like on a prime-time playoff stage.
These factors, and especially the Steelers' obvious, sharp decline, make it all the more important for Cincinnati to operate as if this offseason will determine whether Burrow demands a trade after the 2026 campaign.