There are 12 NFL teams who've never won the Super Bowl entering the 2026 season, and unfortunately, the Cincinnati Bengals are among them.
Will this finally be the year? As long as Joe Burrow stays healthy, Cincinnati should have as good of a shot as anyone at the Lombardi Trophy — even franchises who've lifted that hardware before.
NFL.com's Eric Edholm recently power ranked the 12 Bowl-less teams, and only put the Bengals at No. 4 behind, in order, the Buffalo Bills, the Detroit Lions, and the Houston Texans. I'm compelled to explain why these rankings are wrong, and why Cincinnati deserves the No. 1 spot.
Why Bengals should beat out Bills, Lions and Texans as top dog for maiden Super Bowl win
Any psychological scar tissue Joe Burrow has from his NFL career has to do with injuries. The same can't be said for one of his elite contemporaries, Bills superstar Josh Allen.
In an eerie parallel to those teams of yesteryear that lost four straight Super Bowls, the Allen era Bills are seemingly cursed in the postseason. They can't even make it to the NFL's grandest stage before some cruel twist of fate befalls them.
Allen's stats in the playoffs are phenomenal. However, he's committed some trademark untimely turnovers that have stained an otherwise tremendous legacy. Buffalo has also not done the greatest job of assembling a top-flight roster around Allen, and that only continued this offseason, when GM Brandon Beane's marquee acquisition was ex-Bears wideout DJ Moore.
For the uninitiated, Moore is notorious for poor effort. It's a literal running bit on J.T. O'Sullivan's The QB School Patreon community. High comedy. Highly recommend. As J.T. says, "The film is the film."
Did y'all see what happened on Caleb Williams' losing interception in the playoffs? Moore was the intended target. He stopped running. If it wasn't the umpteenth time something like that happened, it'd be one thing. But it wasn't some outlier or isolated incident. This dude is insufferable.
Bookmark this article. Come back in a year and tell me how it went when the Bills made Moore the focal point of their passing attack, and whether Moore's departure from Chicago wasn't addition by subtraction for Williams' development.
Just the DJ Moore of it all in Buffalo alone is reason enough to discount their Super Bowl chances. Never mind how in-his-own-head Allen must be in the playoffs at this point. Never mind the fact that the Bills' oft-reputable defense was "improved" by adding Bradley Chubb, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, ex-Bengal Geno Stone (LOL), and, um, Dee Alford at nickelback? Come on. Get serious.
Speaking of Da Bears, they employ Ben Johnson as their head coach. He is a one-of-one play-caller who elevated Lions QB Jared Goff and that entire offense while he was Detroit's offensive coordinator.
Goff actually had a low-key phenomenal season in 2025 without Johnson. The Lions, like the Bengals, have what's considered an easy schedule. However, Detroit's secondary is in real trouble with Kerby Joseph recovering from a knee injury and Brian Branch coming off a torn Achilles.
Also, if you were given a QB to play in the Super Bowl, would you take Burrow or Goff? I know who I'd take. Plus, are we sure Lions tailback Jahmyr Gibbs can handle a workhorse workload? That's a major concern, given that the offense has been built around the tandem of Gibbs and David Montgomery.
And that dovetails nicely into the Texans, where Montgomery plays now. Their QB, C.J. Stroud, fumbled five times on Wild Card Weekend and still managed a blowout win over the Steelers. His encore: Throwing four INTs in a loss to the Patriots. That is a so-called field general figuratively urinating down his leg in the spotlight.
As exceptional as that Houston defense is, I know who I trust more in the playoffs between Burrow and Stroud. It's not close.
There's that basketball saying that great offense beats great defense. It applies to football as well. The difference between the Goff-Stroud combo and Burrow is that the latter can deliberately throw the ball to targets in coverage where the ball isn't *supposed* to go, and yet still make it right.
Goff is so immobile and pocket-dependent — behind a very shaky o-line, mind you — that he can't do things like that. He must play on time, in structure, and never "miss" a read. He's very good that way, yet it limits his ceiling. Stroud doesn't have the experience or football IQ to operate at that level. That's not a knock. That's a testament to how elite Burrow is. Helps to have Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to throw the ball to, too.
So yeah. Joe Burrow, who's 11-6 in his last 17 starts with a dreadful defense, now has a real defense. The key additions: An All-Pro nose tackle in Dexter Lawrence, a newly minted Super Bowl champ from Seattle in Boye Mafe on the defensive line with him, and a long-awaited savior at safety in two-time Bowl winner Bryan Cook.
You're telling me that Burrow isn't about to go on an absolute tear? That he won't blow past these peers of his with what he deems to be his most talented roster? Get real.
The Bengals are the clear-cut best candidate to be a first-time Super Bowl champ this year. Try to change my mind if ye dare.
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