{"id":744462,"date":"2026-06-18T12:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/744462\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:44:11","slug":"4-nfl-teams-reaching-super-bowl-contender-status-after-offseason-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/744462\/","title":{"rendered":"4 NFL Teams Reaching Super Bowl-Contender Status After Offseason Moves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Cincinnati Bengals understood the assignment this offseason and passed with flying colors. They couldn&#8217;t go into another season fielding a defensive unit that&#8217;s not good enough to finish better than the league&#8217;s bottom 10. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">So, the front office went to work. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">In one of the league&#8217;s biggest offseason moves, the Bengals traded this year&#8217;s 10th overall draft pick to the New York Giants for Dexter Lawrence. At full tilt, the 28-year-old veteran is the game&#8217;s best nose tackle. He&#8217;s a difference-maker capable of blowing up opposing offenses. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Lawrence&#8217;s addition by itself is a gigantic step in the right direction, but the Bengals did not stop there. Fellow interior defender Jonathan Allen, edge-rusher Boye Mafe and second-round rookie Cashius Howell, who is the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year, also joined the defensive front. Bryan Cook signed in free agency to give Cincinnati a tone-setting safety. The team drafted cornerback Tacario Davis in the third round as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">&#8220;The front office has taken a lot of heat from the fans, the public, the media,&#8221; quarterback Joe Burrow <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7294661\/2026\/05\/20\/joe-burrow-bengals-offseason-2026\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">told reporters<\/a>. &#8220;We can put all of that behind us. They went and made it happen with free agency. I thought the draft, obviously, we&#8217;ll find out. We don&#8217;t know a ton about these rookies yet, but it seems like they brought the right kind of guys in. And then obviously with Dexter (Lawrence), making a trade like that, that doesn&#8217;t happen a ton in the\u00a0NFL. So it&#8217;s exciting to see.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The quarterback&#8217;s positive mental attitude is a refreshing departure from last year&#8217;s despondent tone. A fully committed and healthy Burrow, with all of the talent found around him on offense, already showed he can lead his team to a Super Bowl. But the Bengals failed to make the postseason in each of the last three season primarily because the team couldn&#8217;t play complementary football. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">With the defensive pieces Cincinnati now features, the Bengals can compete for an AFC North title and a possible championship run. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cincinnati Bengals understood the assignment this offseason and passed with flying colors. They couldn&#8217;t go into another&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-744462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}