On Sunday the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium, their home stadium, defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 to be crowned Super Bowl LVI champions.
With the NFL offseason officially underway, the question that must be asked is how these teams will be able to follow up their great seasons in 2022.
The Bengals, a team very scarcely picked to even make the NFL playoffs before the season, shocked the NFL world to be the AFC’s representative in the Super Bowl. Cincinnati has an uphill battle in front of them if they want to make it two straight Super Bowls though.
The first thing the Bengals must do this offseason is finding a way to better protect their franchise quarterback Joe Burrow. Burrow was sacked a whopping 70 times combined in the regular season and playoffs in 2021. This is not a sustainable recipe for the young quarterback in the years to come.
The biggest reason why the Bengals have very little chance to make it back to next season’s Super Bowl is the gauntlet of quarterbacks they would have to face in the AFC playoffs next season. Some of the prospective quarterbacks the Bengals can see in the next playoffs are Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs), Josh Allen (Bills), Lamar Jackson (Ravens), and Justin Herbert (Chargers).
The quarterback situation of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Indianapolis Colts, and Denver Broncos being in flux has the possibility of making the AFC even tougher for the Bengals next season.
The Rams pushed all their chips into the middle of the table in 2021 and it yielded a Lombardi Trophy. The key components of the Rams championship run should return for 2022 including Matthew Stafford, Aaron Donald, and Super Bowl LVI MVP Cooper Kupp.
Another thing working in the Rams favor heading into the offseason is the changing of the guard of NFC quarterbacks. The lion's share of the NFL’s best quarterbacks lies in the AFC, not the NFC. Tom Brady just retired, both Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson may wear a different uniform in 2022 and many of the other NFC teams have either young quarterbacks or a signal-caller that is limited.
The history of the NFL shows the odds are against either one of the Super Bowl teams from the previous season making it back to the big game, let alone win the Super Bowl. History will repeat itself. Neither the Rams or Bengals will punch their ticket to Super Bowl LVII in Las Vegas, Nevada in February 2023.
Comments