Oh, how things have started to change in the AFC North.
The Cincinnati Bengals are off to a 2-0 start ahead of a Week 3 encounter with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Joe Burrow and Co. are relatively healthy and they’re the only AFC North team returning the same head coach, never mind returning the same starting offensive line for the first time in Burrow’s career.
The Steelers, on the other hand, enter Week 3 at 1-1 in the first post-Mike Tomlin effort and with notables like Joey Porter Jr. involved in a contract spat.
In an interesting twist, there are also major Tomlin-era names like Cam Heyward outwardly praising the Bengals on national media:
"I would say Seattle's probably the best team right now. ... I also think Cincinnati's defense has been ballin'
as of late." Steelers DT Cam Heyward breaks down who he thinks is the best team in the league on the @RichEisenShow 👀 pic.twitter.com/Kyualtjzg8
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) September 22, 2026
Heyward has always been complimentary of the Bengals. But it feels like it's usually in the press conference setting when athletes usually give the standard PR answers.
This is more of Heyward going out of his way to praise a rival on a podcast before lining up against them. That coming while there’s so much apparent drama around the sort-of-rebuilding Steelers is pretty interesting, if nothing else.
Speaking of PR answers, Porter accidentally gave Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins some bulletin-board material, too.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: A Mike Tomlin-Era Steeler praising the Bengals right now is wild
