After all but claiming the rare receiver Triple Crown Saturday night in Pittsburgh, Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase said he was still thinking about the playoffs.

On Sunday, the Broncos left as little drama as Chase did in claiming the mantle of the league's best receiver when they swept to a rout of the Junior Chiefs to take the last AFC playoff spot to end all thoughts of a Bengals' postseason.

To a man in the visitors' locker room in Pittsburgh, they had echoed head coach Zac Taylor’s belief their five-game winning streak would make them deadly in the payoffs that start next weekend.

"Absolutely," said veteran slot cornerback Mike Hilton. "Nobody wants to (play us). It's simple. Our offense is who they are. Obviously, Nine is playing like an MVP. Chase is a Triple Crown winner and defensively we found a rhythm. I would be afraid if teams let us in."

But vets like Hilton, who make up the core of a team just two years removed from back-to-back AFC title games, also seemed to sense the new season already beckoning in the Pittsburgh locker room. The sense that 2024's terrific finish with a core of emerging youth is going to impact 2025's start.

Hilton, 30, in the last year of his deal, had to laugh when he admitted when the Bengals were 4-8, he was wondering where he was headed in the offseason.

"Nine," himself, Joe Burrow, the franchise quarterback who said championships were the standard in the Super Bowl run of 2021, already seemed to be looking ahead.

"Anytime you don't make the playoffs, it's a failure," Burrow said. "That's what you're aiming for every year. That's why you work so hard is to be at your best in the end. These last five weeks we have been. We just weren't able to find an extra win there early in the season that would put us in a better spot."

Most teams would like to be in the Bengals' spot heading into the offseason. Less than a month removed from turning 28, Burrow is at the peak of his powers.

As he extolled the greatness of Aaron Rodgers in Saturday night's presser which seemed to will the Jets' elimination of Miami that wasn't enough to get the Bengals in, Burrow had just done what even Rodgers had never done.

Or Joe Montana. Or Steve Young. Or Sammy Baugh. Or anybody who played in the 20^th century.

Or Ken Anderson, the Bengals all-time passing leader.

After Burrow heated up the 19 degrees of Pittsburgh for 80% passing (37 of 46), he jacked his season completion percentage to 70.6%, tying Anderson's club record set 42 years ago. It also marked the second time he had hit 70%.

Only his idol Drew Brees has had multiple 70% seasons.

It came in a season he set his own NFL record of eight straight games with 250 yards and three touchdown passes. That ended Saturday night, but he also won the NFL titles for passing yards and touchdowns.

And the man himself said Saturday, he's getting better. Remember, he was still fiddling with his right wrist before this season's first cold game on Dec. 1 against these Steelers. Just a year removed from wrist surgery, Burrow admitted he was still feeling it out.

Five games later after he smoked through the frost as accurately as ever, he's not fiddling anymore.

"I thought I'd have my best year. I think I did. I don't think the year after a ligament injury like that is always better I threw it well this year. I still think I can throw it way better," Burrow said. "Early in the season, you're still getting a feel for how that wrist is feeling. You're breaking up scar tissue. You're doing a lot of different things to help it, and it gets better as the season goes. So I expect next year to be better."

So the Bengals are in a great spot there for 2025, but there was also a sense in Pittsburgh's afterglow that his teammates need to help him more.

Like the defense did. After the Bengals lost four of those eight games despite scoring 33 or more points, the defense gave up 24 points or less four times in the winning streak.

"We had to help the offense out. They've always been superheroes," said cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt. "As well as take all that crap off Joe's head."

Left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., a textbook composite of the locker room Bengal Zac Taylor seeks, just finished playing the two biggest games of the year with two broken bones in his leg. The culture is good, he said, "You saw it."

But he's also got a Super Bowl ring and Pro Bowl berths, and he knows offseasons are a time of transition.

If anyone knows how good the Bengals are in December and January, it is Brown. He lost an AFC title to them in late January. In his two regular-seasons here, the Bengals are 8-3 in regular-season games in December and January .

Since Burrow commandeered a win in Mile High on Dec. 19, 2021, he is 13-1 in December and January regular-season games, 7-10-1 in September games.

Brown gave a shutout to head Bengals strength and conditioning coach Joey Boese, Taylor's aide de camp when it comes to weathering the grueling 18 weeks on top of training camp and spring ball. While other teams are gassed, Boese's got the Bengals hitting the gas pedal.

"Ultimately, the Bengals have always peaked at the right time since I guess Coach Taylor and Joey Boese," Brown said. "As we move forward, peaking at the right time is great. But starting fast is important, too. We just have to have an understanding moving forward, we have to show up when we need to early on."

Burrow acknowledged there are things that are going to eat at him.

"If we don't get in, then after that you don't really think about the last game, you think about the entirety of the season," he said.

But it sounds like he's already been talking about how to get better next year with the guy he remains firmly on the same page with as the calendar flips to '25.

"Our relationship is as good as it's been," said Burrow of Taylor, his partner in the greatest offense the Bengals have ever had.

"We've had some tough conversations. We've had good conversations and everything in between. That's what playing football in the NFL is all about is having conversations to try to improve your team, yourself and everything. It's been positive."