The Kansas City Chiefs may be the two-time defending Super Bowl champs with an improved roster, but that doesn’t mean their quest for an unprecedented Super Bowl three-peat will be the least bit easy.
There are two or three teams in the AFC that could have a real shot at toppling the Chiefs come playoff time, and one of them is the last team to prevent the Chiefs from getting to the Super Bowl.
The Cincinnati Bengals got to the big game in the 2021 season, and after an injury-riddled 2023 campaign, they have been hoping to get back on track this fall.
But they’re dealing with some drama right now in the form of star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase’s contract dispute, and it led former NBA player Paul Pierce to say that the “vibes are shaky in Cincinnati” during an episode of Fox Sports 1’s “Speak.”
The Speak crew tells us what the vibes are in Cincinnati with the Bengals right now. 😎
“The vibes are shaky in Cincinnati!” — @paulpierce34 pic.twitter.com/gHuG2kootS
— Speak (@SpeakOnFS1) September 6, 2024
Chase had held out of practice periodically over the last few weeks, and his status for Sunday’s season opener is in question as of this writing.
Pierce also mentioned the wrist injury that prematurely ended quarterback Joe Burrow’s season last November and questioned if it has fully healed.
If Cincinnati is healthy, both physically and emotionally, they should at least mount a serious challenge to Patrick Mahomes and crew.
But a team cannot win a world championship unless everyone is focused on the same goal while putting individual agendas aside, and one has to question if the Bengals are one band with one sound right now.
