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Cincinnati wasn’t supposed to be at Super Bowl LVI. Not in February 2022, not on the league’s biggest stage, not with a second-year quarterback who’d torn his ACL barely a year earlier taking snaps against Aaron Donald’s defensive line. But Joe Burrow marched the Bengals to a stunning Big Game appearance anyway, and in doing so, he forced the NFL to admit something it had been circling for a couple of seasons already: the AFC’s best quarterback play wasn’t spread evenly across the conference.
It belonged to four men. Patrick Mahomes had already banked two rings and appeared in three Super Bowls by then, a résumé that would eventually swell to three championships and five trips to the grandest stage, each one coming at the expense of somebody else on this list. Josh Allen had the arm and the legs to match anybody in the building, on his way to a career that would make him the most prolific rushing quarterback in NFL history at the position, an MVP season still ahead of him but the four AFC Championship Game appearances already piling up like unpaid bills.
Lamar Jackson had one MVP in his pocket already and would collect a second, building toward the highest career passer rating any quarterback has ever posted and a rushing résumé nobody at the position will likely touch again. And now here was Burrow, 25 years old, humbling grown men in January, setting himself up for a career that would eventually include the NFL’s all-time record for completion percentage.
The ‘Big Four’ Collapses in 2025
Four men, one well-deserved ‘Big-Four’ label, and for three years running, it held. Then 2025 came for all of it at once.
Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL in Week 15 and watched Kansas City finish 6-11, its first missed playoffs since 2014, having reached at least the AFC Championship game in each of his seven seasons as a starter up until that point. Jackson managed just 13 starts through hamstring and back trouble as Baltimore collapsed to 8-9. Burrow lost nine games to turf toe as Cincinnati skidded to 6-11 and missed the postseason for a third straight year.
Three of the four were shut out of January, the first time that’s happened to this group since the label existed. Only Allen made the playoffs, and even he watched his season end in a divisional-round gut-punch that cost his head coach his job. What does it say about the scale of that disruption that the sport’s most decorated quarterback class could get dismantled this thoroughly, this fast?
The bookies promptly provided the answer. For the first time in four years, none of the AFC’s heavyweights were considered the favourites to win the Super Bowl heading into the campaign. Instead, outlets such as the popular Sportaza online sportsbook gave that honour to the Los Angeles Rams, pricing them as the clear +500 Lombardi frontrunner following stunning offseason moves for Myles Garrett, Trent McDuffie, and Aaron Donald.
But as luck would have it, the Rams were duly mauled in Week 1, slumping to an embarrassing 27-7 defeat at the hands of their rival San Francisco 49ers on the NFL’s first-ever trip to Melbourne, Australia. The AFC’s Big Four, meanwhile, all answered with wins in Week 1. So, it begs the question: has order been restored?
Jackson’s Ravens
Since being drafted 32nd overall back in 2018, Lamar Jackson had only ever played for John Harbaugh. The storied head coach had spent 18 years in Baltimore, but after that disastrous 8-9 campaign last term, suddenly it was over, and the front office moved on amid reports that things between Jackson and the building had gone cold well before the record did. New voices arrived in Jesse Minter and offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, and a two-time MVP who’d never had to learn a new system was suddenly learning one at 29.
But Jackson answered the only way he knows how. He torched Indianapolis for 324 yards and a touchdown in the air, as well as a further 40 on the ground and another score in a thumping 41-23 win that left no doubt in anyone’s mind: the Ravens remain contenders. The face of the franchise remains as scintillating as ever, and with it, Baltimore’s hopes burn just as brightly as they have done for five years.
Mahomes’ Chiefs
Kansas City in December looked different — a hospital hallway, a knee that wouldn’t cooperate, Gardner Minshew inheriting an offence built around a player it no longer had. Mahomes has spent his career ending other people’s Super Bowl runs; watching from a distance while his own season came apart was new territory.
The Chiefs responded throughout the offseason by finally providing their talisman with options in the backfield. Reigning Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III arrived from Seattle, while Emmett Johnson was picked up in the draft, and Andy Reid had finally built something sturdier around the run game while his quarterback healed.
KC’s MNF clash against the reigning AFC West champion Denver Broncos was considered a genuine 50/50 by most bookmakers, and for one quarter at least, that appeared to be the case. Then, Walker took over. He pounded away on the ground, racking up a mighty 173 yards and a touchdown, while Mahomes quietly went about his business: 15-of-27 for 184 yards and two scores, adding one himself.
Mahomes certainly looked rusty. In fact, he didn’t complete one pass that managed over six yards in the air all night. But the thumping 31-10 win means that the most decorated player in the game today remains the centrepiece of a roster built to win.
Allen’s Bills
Buffalo’s version of 2025 ended the way Allen’s seasons keep ending — in heartbreaking fashion. This time it was the Denver Broncos, who took full advantage of four Allen turnovers to pick up a thrilling 33-30 overtime win that ultimately cost Sean McDermott his job after nine years and handed the offence to first-time head coach Joe Brady.
Allen is still chasing the ring that would finally silence the “best player without one” conversation. In week one, he proved that he remains as elite as ever, and he is now armed with a genuine vertical threat in the form of wideout DJ Moore. The 2024 MVP delivered 357 total yards and four touchdowns in a 36-31 win, claimed late thanks to a go-ahead strike to Josh Palmer inside the final two minutes. Vintage Allen when it mattered.
Burrow’s Bengals
And in Cincinnati, the questions were smaller in volume but louder in implication — whispers about a front office’s patience, a pointed comment from Russell Wilson about how the Bengals treat their own quarterback, three years of Burrow’s body failing to cooperate with his talent.
Much of the offseason chat has centred around Burrow’s future in the Queen City and whether he would remain a Bengal should 2026 deliver yet another disappointment. What it has delivered so far is a rebuilt offence centred around powerhouse nose tackle Dexter Lawrence, and that rebuilt defence was on full display as Cincy managed four turnovers against Tampa Bay, a stark contrast to what fans at Paycor Stadium have witnessed in recent years.
Burrow opened with 254 yards and a touchdown in a 33-27 win, undercut by a third-quarter pick-six and a quiet two-catch afternoon for Ja’Marr Chase. Nothing spectacular for Burrow’s standards. But if Joey B can remain healthy and upright throughout the whole season, then unspectacular might be more than enough for the Bengals to finally return to the playoffs after three years away.
