5 New Years' resolutions for the Bengals in 2023

Evan McPherson: Return to rookie form

McPherson was one of the greatest surprises of last year. A fifth-round pick that led the Bengals to the Super Bowl with his leg, having one of the best postseason performances for a kicker of all time, as well as making multiple game-winners during the regular season. All in all, Money Mac was incredible and easily one of the best kickers the Bengals had in a long time.

However, this year has been largely disappointing for the former Gator, having missed double the amount of extra points and the same amount of misses as last year on six fewer tries. To be fair, it would be disingenuous to pin all of his misses on him.

In Week 1, longtime long snapper Clark Harris suffered a biceps injury midway through the game, and this past week, which was one of the worst of his young career, the weather could take partial blame as Patriots kicker Nick Folk also had a rough day.

Still, he's missed some easy ones that are very unlike what we saw last year. Hopefully, he returns to his rookie self as we enter 2023 and the Bengals are playing critical games. Though I will say, I'm not worried until he misses a game-winner, then I'd start to panic a little bit.

Win the Super Bowl

An obvious one, but also the most important. I'm not saying the window for a championship closes after this year, but returning to the Super Bowl is never guaranteed. We don't even know if they'll make it back this year, because nothing is guaranteed besides death and taxes. A run to the big game can be derailed by injury, or by simply playing a bad game.

After coming up short last year, everyone in that locker room and every fan wants the Lombardi. It's weird to say considering how bad they started the season, but anything less would almost definitely be a disappointment now that, after so long, we have a taste of postseason success.

The Bengals no doubt have this at the top of their list of resolutions, we'll see if they can fulfill it this postseason.