Joe Burrow’s 2019 National Championship is one for the history books. Comparisons to this team aren’t thrown around lightly. So, when Burrow said that he felt “very similarly” about the Cincinnati Bengals‘ 2026 squad, it got people talking. In some cases, the heat got turned up by quite a few notches.

On the Speakeasy podcast, Emmanuel Acho disagreed with Burrow’s opinion, claiming that the LSU team was “light years ahead” of this Bengals team. The LSU Tigers’ offense had stars like Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Terrence Marshall, and Clyde Edwards. However, Bengals star TJ Houshmandzadeh was ticked off when Acho said the Los Angeles Rams’ defense is better than the upgraded one of Cincinnati’s.

“That’s disrespectful,” he said animatedly. “Nobody on the Rams has accomplished what Dexter Lawrence has. No D-tackle, Kobie Turner’s a monster, but [he’s] not accomplished what Dexter Lawrence [has]. Nobody. You can’t [name anybody]. Now we going to just name some people just because.”

Cincinnati sacrificed their 10th overall pick in the 2026 draft to the New York Giants just to get Dexter Lawrence. This was one of the boldest moves this offseason, as both the team and the star player placed their trust in each other to record a strong season. His presence alone changes a lot of things for the Bengals defense, which was among the worst last year.

Lawrence is known for the sheer threat he poses to offenses from the interior of the D-line. He managed to record 39 pressures last year, despite playing with an injury. Of the 772 total snaps he played last year, Lawrence was double-teamed on 236 of them, per Athlon Sports’ Doug Farrar. 17 of those pressures also came while the tackle was double-teamed. Lawrence is among the best there are in the league.

And that’s not all. Lawrence will be teaming up with fellow linemen BJ Hill and Jonathan Allen. Per ESPN Next Gen Stats, Lawrence and Allen have the fourth and fifth most QB pressure total when double-teamed, respectively. Hill had the third-most pass rush snaps while double-teamed, while Lawrence led the chart at 1,103 such snaps.

Houshmandzadeh’s annoyance was justified.

The additions of Boye Mafe and Bryan Cook are also noteworthy. Mafe may be undermined by many as he had a down year in 2025, but there is some serious upside in the young defensive end. Cincinnati desperately lacked in pass rush last season, and will need all the help they can get this year. Cook will add some much-needed experience in the secondary.

On paper, this team looks loaded, and its biggest selling point is the quarterback who orchestrated that historic 2019 season at LSU.

“The Bengals are going to be good because the leader of the team believes in everything that they’ve done this offseason,” Houshmandzadeh added. ” And we get to December 17th, Acho going to be like, ‘Oh, I wasn’t mistaken.’ I’m like, ‘I told you so.'”

Let’s see who wins this debate when the season begins.