NFL analyst and Chiefs homer goes scorched earth on Bengals after playoff elimination

It didn't matter that the Cincinnati Bengals finished the 2024 regular season with five straight wins to sit at 9-8, as they missed the playoffs despite Joe Burrow putting together an MVP-caliber season. It was a massively disappointing year for the Bengals even with them finishing with a winning record because everyone knows this team is better than this.

Bengals fans can look back at the season and regret not beating the lowly Patriots in the first game of the season or losing close games to the Chargers, Chiefs, Commanders, and Ravens (twice) but some might have been quite angry at the Chiefs in Week 18. You see, for the Bengals to sneak into the postseason after their five-game win streak, they needed KC's backups to beat the Broncos starters.

That, of course, didn't happen and Nick Wright was absolutely elated to stick it to the Bengals on the Monday edition of First Things First. For those who might not know, Wright is a Kansas City guy and therefore is a diehard fan of the Chiefs. That might help put this clip a little more into perspective.

Nick Wright tears into Bengals after they get eliminated from playoff contention

The clip consists of Wright going through all of the "shots" that Bengals players said about the Chiefs this year and then slapping an "ELIMINATED" sign over their faces. He starts with Ja'Marr Chase's comment from the beginning of the regular season where he said the Bengals were the team to beat in the AFC, something that clearly didn't age well.

"Okay, well the team to beat in the AFC for the second straight year won't be in the playoffs in the AFC," Wright said.

That's when the board with all of the quotes is rolled over to Wright so he can continue to dog on the Bengals. Wright explains how the Chiefs eliminated the Bengals in 2022 "the old fashioned way" by beating them in the playoffs and eliminating them straight-up. In 2023, he says they beat them in the regular season to eliminate them and this year, it was obviously by losing to a team that the Bengals needed them to win against.

"Let's see how many s-talking Bengals have to be eliminated because there's a lot of 'em," Wright said before going into his schpeal. He starts with Zac Taylor for his comments about how he wouldn't trade Joe Burrow for Patrick Mahomes. "Okay well maybe because you get more time off with Burrow, I'm not sure."

Next up, Wright circles back to Chase with the AFC's best comment. "You're going home early again." After Chase comes Cam Taylor-Britt for the quote he had about how Xavier Worthy can't do anything but run straight to which Wright quips, "Only runs straight into the postseason while you run straight to Cabo."

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This isn't the end of Wright's bit, however. He flips the board over and it has more quotes from the Bengals that occurred over the offseason. First up is how Chase wouldn't say Mahomes' name. "Well, I hope you're not watching the Super Bowl, they're gonna be saying it quite a bit."

Burrow isn't safe from the wrath either. Wright points out how Burrow said the Bengals are "built to beat the Chiefs" and jokes, "Well, you've lost three times in a row to [the Chiefs] and you're not gonna get to play them next year because the Chiefs play a first-place schedule and you play a third-place schedule."

Now it's worth noting that this board isn't just to clown on the Bengals but rather anyone who trash talked Wright's Chiefs throughout the season. He proves that much by slapping the eliminated label on Tyreek Hill's face as the Dolphins were also eliminated from postseason contention on Sunday.

While Bengals fans can be upset about not being in the postseason for the second straight year, the fact of the matter is that this team has to start winning games early in the regular season or this is going to continue happening.

Stop treating the first few weeks like the preseason and maybe then you won't have to treat the final few games as a do-or-die situation.