​After reaching Super Bowl LVI in 2021 and the AFC Championship Game in 2022, the Bengals have missed the postseason in each of the last three years.It’s not a surprise that Joe Burrow would believe that needs to change in 2026. The quarterback has talked a lot this offseason about championship aspirations.But he made that even more explicit during his Thursday press conference after the Bengals’ joint practice with the Bears.When asked if he’s treating 2026 as a “now or never” season, Burrow replied, “That’s how I’m treating it, for sure. That’s how I’m treating it.”Why is Burrow so comfortable talking about having championship aspirations in mid-August?“I’m trying to put it out into the world. I’m trying to manifest it,” Burrow said. “I’m trying to show our guys the urgency that I have and that I want us to have as an organization to go and make it happen.“You can keep pushing it down the road, or you can talk about it now and say, ‘This is the year.’ And I’m tired of saying, ‘Next year, next year, next year.’ This is it. Life is too short to keep pushing things down the road. I’m trying to instill some urgency and some intensity in everybody to go and be great every day and try to go make it happen.”Burrow at first said he wasn’t sure if his teammates were feeling that urgency, though he mentioned veteran teammates have spoken in front of the team about it. He somewhat changed his tune at the end of his own answer.“I more so do it with my actions and individual conversations,” Burrow said. “But, everybody feels it — all the veterans that have come in and have been here feel it and want to go and do it.”So what will it take for the Bengals to truly be a championship-level club?“You’ve got to have a really close-knit team,” Burrow said. “You’ve got to have at team that trusts each other. You’ve got to have a team that wants to go to war for each other and fight for each other — wants to hang out off the field, wants to play games in the locker room, wants to sit with each other at lunch and have deep conversations. And you have to have great players and great coaches, obviously. But that’s not necessarily — a lot of teams have great players and great coaches, that’s not necessarily what does it.“We’re working really hard for it,” Burrow added. “The urgency is very high in the locker room. You can feel it. It’s palpable. We have to be more consistent on offense. We have to — our standard is so high, but it’s so high because of what we’ve done and what we can do. So, I’m going to continue to push that and we’re going to keep getting better and see where we’re at Week 1. But I’m so excited for it.”