I took the displeasure of watching the 2015 Bengals vs Steelers playoff game last night and I walked in happy and walked out disgusted with what I had done. It truly is sickening; I even forgot about AJ McCarron playing as the QB. I even forgot about the double penalty and Joey Porter egging Pacman into getting another penalty making the FG a chip shot.
Now that I tortured you with that too I want to get back to the point and compare the rosters. The player in bold is the better player in that respective year.
| 2015 | 2020 |
| Andy Dalton | Joe Burrow |
| Jeremy Hill | Joe Mixon |
| AJ Green | AJ Green |
| Marvin Jones | Tyler Boyd |
| Mohammed Sanu | Tee Higgins |
| Tyler Eifert | CJ Uzomah |
| Andrew Whitworth | Jonah Williams |
| Clint Boling | Michael Jordan |
| Russell Bodine | Trey Hopkins |
| Kevin Zeitler | Xavier Su’a-Filo |
| Andre Smith | Bobby Hart |
| Carlos Dunlap | Carlos Dunlap |
| Domata Peko | DJ Reader |
| Geno Atkins | Geno Atkins |
| Michael Johnson | Sam Hubbard |
| AJ Hawk | Germaine Pratt |
| Rey Maualuga | Josh Bynes |
| Vontaze Burfict | Logan Wilson |
| Dre Kirkpatrick | William Jackson III |
| Adam Jones | Trae Waynes |
| George Iloka | Vonn Bell |
| Reggie Nelson | Jessie Bates III |
Before you get your panties in a bunch I am not saying that Burrow won’t be better than Dalton but in 2015 Dalton was on a MVP run before his injury. He got the Bengals to the playoffs and was extremely good that year. Another takeaway was that our OL was a lot better. We all hated Russell Bodine but that season he was our weakest link. This year it is our RT and we would rather have Andre Smith of 2015 sadly.
I also think that we have a much better defense than the 2015 Bengals. It was a special year for Reggie Nelson wit 8 INTs and that team seemed to create turnovers. Defenses are streaky like that and the 2005 team also benefited from a great turnover run.
My biggest takeaway was that the Bengals are not that far off from having a great roster. The 2015 was a roster built from the ground up to plateau at 2015. The 2020 roster is our starting point and that makes me really excited. If a Wild Card game was the peak of that 2015 roster then our 2022-2024 team’s peak might be a Super Bowl. In Burrow we Trust!
