Dalton Risner Explains Key to Bengals Playoffs Revival

Sep 29, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Cincinnati Bengals guard Dalton Risner (66) looks on after the game against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Dalton Risner Explains Key to Bengals Playoffs Revival

Originally posted on Cincinnati Bengals on SI
By Connor Mardian | Last updated Aug 17, 2026 9:59 AM ET

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The Cincinnati Bengals have developed a bad habit.

The AFC North team hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2022 season, when they went to the AFC Championship in a 23-20 loss to the eventual Super Bowl LVII champions, the Kansas City Chiefs.

While the pressure has been on this team to make it back to the postseason since then, their work in the 2026 offseason, bringing in the likes of Dexter Lawrence II, among others, makes the playoffs in 2026 a bare minimum.

Despite making only one postseason appearance in his career, Bengals guard Dalton Risner has seen what it takes. His Minnesota Vikings fell to the Los Angeles Rams in a Wild Card game in 2025, his last game with the Vikings before signing with the Bengals the following summer.

However, Risner isn’t happy with just 75 snaps in the playoffs, and he believes he knows what it takes to get the team back where they belong.

“Let's Take It One Day At A Time”

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

“It excites me,” opened Risner when asked about getting Cincinnati back to the playoffs on Dan Hoard’s “Bengals Booth Podcast.”

“I'm trying not to be too excited about it, though, because the work that we put in now is what matters. The first game, the second game, the third game, we got to take it one day at a time, and we got to just be looking at training camp.”

The previous three seasons have ended in heartbreaking misses from the playoffs as 16 losses over that span have been decided by one score.

“… And if we can approach it that way with this roster, who knows? But if we get ahead of ourselves, and we think we're hot, and we forget that we went 6-11 last year, and we think that we got it all figured out, you'll get punched in the mouth.”

2025’s six wins were the lowest since star quarterback Joe Burrow’s rookie 2020 campaign when the team tallied just four in Zac Taylor’s second year at the helm

“So for me personally, and I know Zac Taylor's been kind of reciprocating this, let's take it one day at a time. Let's stay humble, let's put the work in now so that we can actually go and earn that respect,” Risner concluded.

Not only is this one of the best Bengals’ teams in recent memory, but for the first time in what will feel like forever, the AFC North is a crapshoot with the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers changing coaches ahead of this season, creating a realistic path to a division title.