The Broncos and Bengals were forced to answer the same question this offseason, and not surprisingly, both answered it differently. The question is this: How much success is enough?

Denver and Cincinnati have both been to the playoffs each of the last four years. The Broncos have gone 3-4 in the postseason during that stretch, while the Bengals have gone 0-4. Yet Bengals owner Mike Brown will bring back head coach Marvin Lewis, who is 0-6 in the playoffs as Cincinnati’s head coach, while Broncos executive VP John Elway opted to “mutually part ways” with his head man, John Fox, who led Denver to four straight AFC West titles.

Said Elway: “I sat down here last year in front of you and told the fans how we’re just as disappointed this year as we were last year and the fact that we didn’t play better at the end of the year. I think if there is one thing that you would like to have and you want to feel, at least in the last game you want to feel like you go out kicking and screaming. When you’re right there, and I think two years in a row it didn’t feel like we went out kicking and screaming because of the fact the way we played the last game.”

Why did these franchises choose to handle similar situations so differently?

The goal for the Bengals, as it is for many other teams, is to win their division, get into the tournament and “see what happens.” You hear coaches say variations of this mantra all the time. The reason is the NFL’s single-elimination tournament, which goes a long way towards leveling the field. With every playoff team just three or four wins away from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, it is no stretch to say the best team doesn’t always come out on top.

Several teams, the Bengals apparently among them, believe the key is to get into the tournament consistently just to give your franchise as many rolls of the dice as possible. That theory worked well for the Colts back when Peyton Manning was still in Indianapolis. It wasn’t until Manning’s seventh trip to the playoffs that he finally broke through and led his team to a Super Bowl victory, due in large part to a hugely favorable bracket that saw the AFC’s top seed (a LaDainain Tomlinson-led Chargers squad) upset in the Divisional Round. The Colts went on beat a Rex Grossman-led Bears team in the Super Bowl, proof that if you get into the tournament enough times, the field will eventually break your way.

The Broncos do not have the luxury of employing that same strategy. Not only is Denver built around a quarterback who will be 39 years old next season, but the team has aging and expense veterans littered across the roster (DeMarcus Ware, Ryan Clady, Aqib Talib, etc.). The Broncos only have one roll of the dice left before they enter rebuilding mode, which is exactly what’s going to happen when Manning retires, no matter how much the organization leaks about its confidence in Brock Osweiler.

Anyone who believes this is about the Broncos chasing Super Bowls and the Bengals being content with playoff appearances is missing the point. If anything, after this offseason’s coaching carousel is done spinning, the Bengals will be in better position to capture a Lombardi Trophy than the Broncos.

Eventually, the Bengals will catch a favorable bracket like the one Manning capitalized on in 2006.

Hypothetically, Cincy could face the proverbial “happy to be here” team in the Wild Card round, which could be the Bills next season. Then, perhaps, the Bengals will move on to face a Ravens team they have beaten in three of the last four meetings. If Cincinnati is really lucky, it could move on to the AFC Championship Game and face a team whose quarterback is an ever bigger spotlight choker than Andy Dalton (Manning hasn’t retired yet, so anything is possible).

Back in Denver, the talk is still all about the Super Bowl. In the press conference to announce his decision to part ways with Coach Fox, Elways mentioned the words “Super Bowl” or “World Championship” about two dozen times. The hope, of course, is that a new coach can come in and push Denver over the top before Manning rides off into the sunset, similar to what Jon Gruden did in Tampa Bay after taking over for Tony Dungy.

The problem is it’s no longer “Super Bowl or bust” for the Broncos … it’s one-and-done no matter how you slice it, as in one more crack at the Lombardi Trophy and then this team is done. Luckily for Elway, no one does one-and-done better than Peyton Manning.