The Bengals are trying to end a streak of three years without a playoff berth. To get there, they’ve added former Chiefs safety Bryan Cook.
With the three-year, $40.25 million contract, the Bengals added both a skilled defender and a player who has been part of three Super Bowl teams and two NFL champions.
For now, Cook is working to help himself and his teammates get ready for the grind to come.
“I’m doing the best I can learning the system and learning the plays, learning the guys and the locker room,” Cook said this week, via Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “Just be who I can be for the team and go from there.”
It’s going to take some time. And Cook plans to take full advantage of the time he has.
“It feels like forever to the first game,” Cook said. “These are important days that you have to stack to get to that point of being very comfortable about who we are and I’m very excited about that. What we can bring to the table going into the regular season and hopefully the postseason.”
With the Bengals currently favored in 15 of their 17 regular-season games, playoffs are the minimum expectation. And quarterback Joe Burrow proved, both in 2021 and 2022, that when he gets to the postseason he unlocks an even higher level of performance.
“You need a quarterback first and foremost, and weapons on offense,” Cook said. “We’ve found some pieces on defense and changed the mentality going into the offseason. They’ve put up a lot of points. I know if we can stop them, it can turn into a blowout really quickly.”
It’s more than that. A team needs to find a way to work together. To support each other. To know each other.
“I’m listening to the guys, trying to understand where they’re coming from and how they move,” Cook said. “How can I reach this person if need be. Reading and seeing that person. You never know what somebody is going through no matter what day it is. Just being somebody to lean on these guys.”
The goal is clear, for Cook, Burrow, and the Bengals.
“Now it’s just trying to get over this hump so you can say you did something that’s never been done in franchise history,” Cook said.
The Bengals have been to the Super Bowl three times. The next step is to get there and win it. There’s an urgency to do it sooner rather than later, especially since the recent struggles have raised a fair question as to whether Burrow will start exploring his options elsewhere, if the Bengals can’t get him where he wants to go.
