Bengals provide hope, blueprint for lowly teams

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The Cincinnati Bengals were downright dreadful at this time two years ago.

They were the worst team in the NFL, coming off a 2-14 season with a first-year head coach and facing the franchise-shaping decision of who to take with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

Things worked out, well, super.

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The Bengals have put those dark days far behind them. Led by coach Zac Taylor, quarterback Joe Burrow and a roster of promising young talent mixed with savvy veterans, the franchise — not-so-affectionately called the "Bungles" for decades — is playing in the Super Bowl for the first time in 33 years.

"I think if you would’ve told me coming into the league, when I got drafted, that we would be here this year, it would be a shock," said Burrow, the top pick in 2020. "Now, I’m not surprised."

Even if some outside the organization still are.

"We believed from the get-go," Taylor said after the Bengals' 27-24 overtime win at Kansas City in the AFC championship game. "Whether people believed in us or not, we did."

In fairness to the skeptics, changing the narrative in the NFL comes through consistent results over time.

If you win Super Bowl titles or are regularly in position to play deep into the postseason, your franchise is viewed as successful. But if you're often already looking to the draft and the next season by November, you're labeled lowly losers.

The latter is the case for the New York Jets, who have the league's longest active playoff drought at 11 seasons. And for the Jacksonville Jaguars, picking No. 1 overall for the second straight year. And teams such as the Giants, Detroit Lions, Houston