MOBILE, Ala. — One week from today, the Cincinnati Bengals will play their first Super Bowl in 33 years, capping a miraculous rise for a franchise that has long been one of the NFL’s dregs and giving hope to other woeful organizations, such as the Detroit Lions, that they can one day do the same.
The Bengals’ first victory this postseason was their first since the 1991 campaign, leaving the Lions with the longest active playoff drought in the NFL.
They went from worst to first in the tough AFC North, leaning on a young nucleus built through high draft picks.
And they did it by sticking to a plan that, while significantly different from the one the Lions are following, has hardened Lions general manager Brad Holmes’ resolve.
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“When I look at what the Bengals did, I just, like, look, those guys stayed the course,” Holmes said at Senior Bowl practice this week. “They stuck to their process. Just from the outside looking in, it looks like they just kept drafting, they added the free agents they needed to add, and they kept drafting and it eventually turned for them.”
The Bengals suffered through five straight losing seasons — winning more than six games only once in that span — before going 10-7 in the regular season this year.
They changed coaches in 2019, firing Marvin Lewis and hiring Zac Taylor, and forced Taylor to overhaul his staff last season.
And they spent wisely in free agency — a rarity for a Bengals team known as one of the most frugal in the NFL — to supplement their mostly homegrown roster.
“It’s a good process they had in place, and it worked for them, but we have to create our own plight,” Holmes said. “We have our own plight, but we do have a process in place and then we’re going to have to — hopefully we can get some similar success.”
The Lions are not yet on a parallel path to the Bengals, and may in fact be closer to where the Bengals were when Taylor took over in 2019.
Cincinnati, after suffering through a 2-14 season with Andy Dalton at quarterback that season, hit the NFL version of Powerball in the 2020 draft when it landed star quarterback Joe Burrow with the No. 1 overall pick.
The Lions, who had winning numbers in the same quasi-lottery but passed on quarterback Justin Herbert at No. 3, have their version of Dalton under center — Jared Goff, though they may not be inclined to draft his replacement this year.
Burrow missed six games with a torn ACL last season, but he has starred when he has been on the field. In three postseason wins, he completed nearly 69% of his passes while leading the Bengals to last-second road victories over the Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs and a home win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
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More importantly, his relatively cheap deal — for comparison, Burrow will count $9.8 million against the cap next season, while Goff will count more than $31 million against the Lions’ cap — has afforded the Bengals the cash and cap room they needed to build out their roster.
This year marks the fifth straight Super Bowl in which at least one of the participants has had a good, young quarterback on a cheap contract: The Chiefs (in 2020) and Philadelphia Eagles (2018) won titles with quarterbacks on their rookie deals, and the Chiefs (last year) and Los Angeles Rams (2019) lost in the final game.
The Lions may be hard-pressed to have a Bengals-type run without a Burrow-type talent at quarterback, but their rebuild does mirror Cincinnati’s in other ways.
Most of the Bengals’ key players are recent draft picks, and many weathered lean years in the organization before tasting success.
Leading tackler Logan Wilson was a third-round pick (No. 65 overall) in 2020, part of a fruitful rookie class that also produced Burrow and starting receiver Tee Higgins (second round, No. 33 overall). Jessie Bates, one of the best safeties in the NFL, and pass rusher Sam Hubbard were second- and third-round picks in 2018, respectively. Germain Pratt, who starts alongside Wilson in the Bengals’ linebacking corps, was a third-round pick in 2019. Left tackle Jonah Williams was the Bengals’ first-round choice the same season.
And Ja’Marr Chase, Burrow’s college teammate at LSU, had a historic rookie season this year and already is in the conversation as one of the best receivers in the NFL.
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The Lions breathed a sigh of relief when the Bengals chose Chase over Penei Sewell in last year’s draft, and while history will eventually judge those picks, the Lions’ elation at landing Sewell had a lot to do with the vision Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell had for their roster.
While the Bengals have built one of the best offensive skill groups in the NFL — running back Joe Mixon and slot receiver Tyler Boyd also were Cincinnati draft picks — and added key free agents on their offensive and defensive lines (ex-Lion Riley Reiff, Trey Hendrickson), the Lions intended to build through the trenches and believe they have one of the league’s best offensive lines with Sewell, Taylor Decker, Frank Ragnow and Jonah Jackson all homegrown draft picks.
Holmes has made no secret of his desire to continue to build through the draft. The Lions had one of the youngest rosters in the NFL this season and have extra first-round picks each of the next two years.
He said he and Campbell are “very open-minded” about sprinkling their rebuild with lessons learned from other teams.
“But we do have a specific plan in place that we’re very confident in,” he said. “And we’re going to believe in that and we’re going to stick to it.”
Regardless, Campbell said he sees similarities between what Cincinnati has accomplished this season and where the Lions are headed, and he hopes those bear fruit soon.
“It’s living proof that it can be done,” Campbell said. “And look, I just came from a place that that’s what we did. When I got to New Orleans in ’16, they had been 7-9 for a few years in a row and then they hit on some draft picks, man. Mike Thomas and (Alvin Kamara). and (Erik) McCoy. (Marcus) Davenport. (Marshon) Lattimore and Marcus Williams. All of a sudden you draft and a couple of years, and you can just totally flip the script. With what’s already there, you add a couple of free agents and if you do it right in the draft, all of a sudden man, you catch lightning in a bottle.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.