Top 50 Cincinnati Bengals
If you want to name a team that exemplifies hard luck in the National Football League, it would have to be the Cincinnati Bengals.
Formed in 1968 as the last member of the American Football League, the Bengals joined the NFL with the official merger two years later. Cincinnati always seems to be a team that struggles, but they have appeared in three Super Bowls, losing the first two to the San Francisco 49ers and in 2020 to the Los Angeles Rams. While they have never been a champion, three Super Bowl appearances are the envy of a few teams in the NFL.
This list is up to the end of the 2022 regular season.
Note: Football lists are based on an amalgamation of tenure, traditional statistics, advanced statistics, playoff statistics, and post-season accolades.
The 1980 Draft yielded three future Hall of Famers, and the Cincinnati Bengals, who had the third pick, took the best of them all that year, Anthony Munoz.
Playing his entire career with the Cincinnati Bengals, it is mostly acknowledged that the most productive Quarterback in franchise history is Ken Anderson, a player they stole in the Third Round in 1971.
Geno Atkins played the first eleven seasons of his NFL career with the Cincinnati Bengals, where he has been the brightest part of their defense for most of that duration.
There are many underappreciated players, but you could argue that Ken Riley had (while he played anyway) taken being snubbed to another level. We will get there, but let’s look at his overall career first.
Ken Anderson was the Bengals Quarterback when the team drafted Boomer Esiason as his heir apparent. Esiason was a star at Maryland, and despite being drafted as late as he was, the Terrapin was the first QB chosen in 1984.
Willie Anderson was one of the most prolific Offensive Lineman in the history of the Cincinnati Bengals. He played his entire pro career with Cincy except for his last year as a Baltimore Raven.
Whether you call him Chad Johnson or Chad OchoCinco, you are talking about one of the greatest offensive weapons in the history of the Cincinnati Bengals.
A.J. Green went Fourth Overall in the 2011 Draft, making the Georgia Bulldog the highest-drafted Wide Receiver that year.
Setting records at Lincoln University of Missouri, Lemar Parrish went to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Seventh Round of the 1970 Draft. Despite being selected late and from a school that most people never heard of, Parrish wasted no time in making an impact on the professional level.
Andrew Whitworth helped LSU win the BCS Championship in 2003, and three years later he was Cincinnati's Second Round Pick.
Playing his entire career with the Cincinnati Bengals (1976-89), Reggie Williams started 196 of his 206 Games, all on right side Linebacker.
In 1983, the Cincinnati Bengals had a Running Back named Pete Johnson, who was upset with his pay. The San Diego Chargers had a Running Back called James Brooks, who was unhappy with his role. The two teams swapped the two malcontents for each other, and it worked out well for Cincinnati.
From TCU, Andy Dalton won the starting job in the pre-season of his rookie year (2011).
The Cincinnati Bengals got their value’s worth when they took UCLA’s Man Montoya with a Seventh Round Pick in 1979.
Corey Dillon was an All-Rookie (1997) after the Cincinnati Bengals took him in the Second Round from the University of Washington.
Carson Palmer was the First Overall Draft Pick in 2003, and the USC Trojan had an up-and-down career for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Isaac Curtis played his entire pro career with the Cincinnati Bengals, where the Wide Receiver would parlay his First Round selection into a four Pro Bowl career.
A Cincinnati Bengal for his entire pro career, Tim Krumrie came from the University of Wisconsin as a Tenth Round Pick in 1983, and in terms of value, is hard to beat.
Cris Collinsworth used his tall frame (6' 5") to cause physical mismatches often when he played at Florida, and the All-American was able to the same after being drafted by the Bengals with their Second Round Pick in 1981.