In the post-Boomer Esiason era there were two teams that legitimately had a chance at winning the first franchise Super Bowl. Injury struck both teams at the worst times and they never had a chance because in both scenarios the starting QB went down. In 2005 Carson Palmer received a dirt knee shot from Voldemort on the first passing play of the game and tore his ACL. In 2015 Andy Dalton broke his thumb while diving for a loose ball in week 13 which ended his season. Both of these losses were crushing for Bengals fans, particularly in 2005 when Cincinnati was a defensive turnover machine and had a high-powered offense to match. In 2015 Andy Dalton was in the running for MVP and the 12-4 team was firing on all cylinders.
The winning recipe is long debated but I wanted to compare the rosters of the 2005, 2015 and 2020 Bengals to see just how close the current day Bengals could be to returning to greatness. Post analysis it was quite interesting what I found (best player in bold):
| QB | ||
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Carson Palmer | Andy Dalton | Joe Burrow |
Carson Palmer is clearly the best of this group, followed by Andy Dalton. Burrow has the opportunity to be the best but only time will tell.
| RB | ||
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Rudi Johnson | Jeremy Hill | Joe Mixon |
Rudi and Hill are no slouches but I gave the edge to Joe Mixon because he can handle both run and pass. He is able to make plays when holes aren’t there whereas Rudi and Hill were hit-the-hole type players.
| WR | ||
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Chad Johnson | AJ Green | AJ Green |
| TJ Houshmandzadeh | Marvin Jones | Tyler Boyd |
| Chris Henry | Mohamed Sanu | Tee Higgins |
This was fun to look at and is likely to be widely contested. I can make a case for each group but that 2005 team was special in the wide receiver room and each one of those guys could have been WR1 on any other team. I think the 2020 wide receiver group is second best here.
| TE | ||
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Reggie Kelly | Tyler Eifert | C.J. Uzomah |
The Bengals have not focused on TE to be great, until Tyler Eifert came around. In 2005 the Bengals realized that Reggie Kelly was just an okay TE and that is why Germaine Gresham was drafted. In 2020 we know that C.J Uzomah is not the long term answer and we hope that Drew Sample is.
| OL | ||
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Levi Jones | Andrew Whitworth | Jonah Williams |
| Eric Steinbach | Clint Boling | Michael Jordan |
| Rich Braham | Russell Bodine | Trey Hopkins |
| Bobbie Williams | Kevin Zietler | Xavier Su’a-Filo |
| Willie Anderson | Andre Smith | Bobby Hart |
Just wow when I started piecing this together. The 2005 and 2015 teams both had incredible offensive lines. I wanted to pick the 2015 team but Russell Bodine and Andre Smith brought down the average of the overall line. It is hard to argue against Big Willie, our best center ever (Richie Braham), and two stalwart guards. Levi Jones was a good (not great) LT but he certainly was good enough to handle the backside. I won’t talk about the 2020 OL because it makes me sad.
And this is where things get interesting:
| DE | ||
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Robert Geathers | Carlos Dunlap | Carlos Dunlap |
| Justin Smith | Michael Johnson | Sam Hubbard |
Sure Justin Smith was an incredible player but I looked at this as a tandem. Hubbard is so good so young that I gave the edge to 2020. Robert Geathers was really good in his prime but Hubbard was better.
| DT | ||
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Bryan Robinson | Domata Peko | DJ Reader |
| John Thornton | Geno Atkins | Geno Atkins |
Clearly the 2020 DL is going to be a monster. Reader/Atkins is the best tandem that we have ever had and surprisingly the 2005 DT tandem was just meh. Peko was a good player but he didn’t always plug the hole for as large of a NT as he was.
| LB | ||
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Landon Johnson | Vontaze Burfict | Logan Wilson |
| Odell Thurman | Rey Maualuga | Josh Bynes |
| Brian Simmons | AJ Hawk | Germaine Pratt |
| David Pollack |
No arguing here that the 2005 linebacking corp was really good. When Thurman stayed off the meth, Brian Simmons was at the tail of his prime and Pollack rotated in as the fourth linebacker this was a really good group. The 2015 team was okay but Rey Maualuga never lived up to his draft day steal hype and AJ Hawk was past his prime. The 2020 Bengals are too early and young to tell.
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Tory James | Dre Kirkpatrick | Trae Waynes |
| Deltha O’Neal | Adam Jones | William Jackson III |
| Keiwan Ratliff | Darqueze Dennard | Mackensie Alexander |
This was a really hard one because it was based off of a lot of speculation. The 2005 team created a ton of turnovers and that year Deltha O’Neal had 11 interceptions. They were a turnover team and incredible but pure talent had to be looked at. The 2015 team also was really good and Pacman lead that secondary. Dre obviously had some problems but they were balanced out by Dennard in the slot. The 2020 Bengals have the opportunity to be the best secondary perhaps in the league. I know this one is contentious.
| S | ||
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Ifeanyi Ohalete | George Iloka | Vonn Bell |
| Kevin Kaesviharn | Reggie Nelson | Jessie Bates III |
This one is not contentious. Kevin Kaesviharn single-handedly lost that 2005 playoff game when we lost his coverage and Ben through a bomb right before halftime. Ohalete was just okay at safety and clearly this was the weakest position group of that team. In 2015 things certainly improved and Reggie Nelson was always in the right position. Iloka was good but not great and was not the liability that KK was. The 2020 Bengals though have elite talent in the backfield with Vonn Bell and a young and learning Jessie Bates. If Bates improves then it is going to be scary back there but he is already better than Iloka.
| K/P | ||
| 2005 | 2015 | 2020 |
| Shayne Graham | Mike Nugent | Randy Bullock |
| Kyle Larson | Kevin Huber | Kevin Huber |
Shayne Graham-o-matic goes down as the most accurate kicker in Bengal history with an 86.8% field goal success rate. Bullock was a close second and even Nugent was no slacker but the nod goes to Graham. Punting was a little different because Huber has been so steady all of these years. The tandem of Graham/Larson won out though but the Bullock/Huber combo of 2020 certainly is strong.
In conclusion this was just fun to do but there are some takeaways I wanted to point out that I saw between 2005 and 2015: 1) The offensive line was extremely strong. 2) A franchise QB is a must. 3) Linebackers are very important for the defense to create turnovers. 4) WRs are a must to put up points and help out your QB.