While the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals won’t play each other in 2025 (at least not during the regular season), Chiefs fans would probably be lying if they said they didn’t still enjoy laughing at the Bengals’ misfortunes. After all, these two teams had quite the rivalry beginning in the 2021 season when the Bengals beat K.C. twice with one of those wins coming in the AFC Championship and keeping the Chiefs out of the Super Bowl.
Well, since that game, it’s been all Kansas City in the rivalry. The Chiefs have won two Super Bowls and been to three in total while the Bengals failed to win their Super Bowl against the Rams in that 2021 season and haven’t been back since. Not only that but Cincinnati has failed to even qualify for the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.
It gets worse for the Bengals though. All offseason long they’ve been trying (and failing) to reach an agreement with star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, who wants a new contract. Before the draft, we heard all about the trade rumors but nothing happened and now, after months of back-and-forth, the Bengals are once again open to trading Hendrickson.
Hendrickson has been a highly productive player for the Bengals since he signed with them in 2021. He’s coming off back-to-back seasons with 17.5 sacks and without him, it’s hard not to think about how bad their defense would be.
That hasn’t stopped the Bengals from not giving Hendrickson what he wants. Not only are they openly shopping him but they’re asking for a ton in return, which, at this stage in the game, probably isn’t going to happen. Maybe that’s the point.
Either way, it’s entertaining for Chiefs fans. You always want to see the other teams floundering but considering the rivalry between these two in recent years, it makes the drama that much sweeter.