It’s a rather harmless comment. He might not even have realized what he just said after he said it.
It’s certainly not as incendiary, intentional and personally offensive as saying the Steelers “gave up” in a game against them like he did last year.
But, Tyler Boyd made another interesting comment ahead of Sunday’s Week 1 matchup against the Steelers in Cincinnati.
When asked about the Steelers QB situation, Boyd said, “They still have great players.
They've got the young kid. Kenny Pickett. I like him. I think they'll be ready. We're not going to overlook any team because of any guy not there now.”
That last comment refers to the absence of Ben Roethlisberger, of course. And that last comment is something, isn’t it?
Tyler Boyd, as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals, just said, “we can’t look past the Steelers.”
What kind of world are we living in where that’s the case? Well, it’s this one.
It’s reality. After just one season, the Bengals are clearly ahead of the Steelers in terms of expectations and outlook heading into the season.
With good reason. This isn’t Tyler Boyd talking out of turn. Last year, it was a 24-10 embarrassment at home for the Steelers against the Bengals followed by an even bigger beatdown in November in Cincinnati, an ugly 41-10 affair.
There haven’t been too many times in history where the Cincinnati Bengals are feeling better about themselves than the Pittsburgh Steelers heading into a season.
There haven’t been too many times in history where the Bengals have the better quarterback situation than the Steelers heading into a season. There haven’t been too many times in history where the Bengals seem to have more stability and balance throughout their roster than the Steelers.
But here we are. These aren’t the Bungles.
The obvious huge difference between now and team’s past is Joe Burrow. There is so much to like about him. From his moxie to his pinpoint accuracy to the fact that he put up monster numbers despite the fact that his offensive line was terrible and he got sacked 51 times. 51 times!
That being said, I’m not ready to say the Bengals are going to dominate the series against the Steelers for as long as Burrow is there. I still need to see the Bengals front office show the competency to keep a viable team around him for as long as he’s there. There’s a lot of talent to keep around and money they’ll have to spend to do it. It becomes that much harder once you pay Burrow his $40+ (or maybe 50+?) million per year.
And the Steelers optimist in me points out that Kenny Pickett could change this conversation as well. If he lives up to his 1st round billing, that’s giving the Steelers a chance even against the mighty Burrow. Let’s just hold off on throwing around “domination” quite yet.
But it’s a strange sign of the times. “We can’t look past them.” How many times had a Steelers player or coach said that about a sad Bengals team over the years? For now, the worm has turned.