New York football feels as if it is in an abyss. You keep waiting to hit bottom, but it never comes.

The Bengals are one playoff team that provides hope for the locals, but with a big caveat.

Cincinnati showed this year how quickly a team can turn it around in the NFL. Not long ago, the Bengals felt as if they were never going to contend again. They had five straight losing seasons before this season, when they went 10-7 and won the AFC North.

On Saturday, they ended a 31-year stretch without a playoff victory by beating the Raiders 26-19 at Paul Brown Stadium. It was a reminder that a team’s fortunes can change rapidly … especially if that team has a great quarterback.

Joe Burrow provided that reminder by picking up what feels like the first of many playoff wins for him.

Watching Burrow, you couldn’t help but think this guy is going to be one of the league’s best for the next decade-plus. And it looks natural for him.

The Giants and Jets always make it feel as if we are waiting for the quarterbacks here to make a jump and develop into the players we thought they’d be because of their draft status. The excuses have flowed for Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones and, to a lesser degree, Zach Wilson. We blame the coaching. We blame the weapons. But watch Burrow and you realize what a young superstar looks like.

He just looks different.

That is not to say the Bengals have not done a good job surrounding Burrow with talent. Ja’Marr Chase is the favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year next month. Tyler Boyd, Tee Higgins, C.J. Uzomah and Joe Mixon all are weapons who have pushed the Bengals into contention.

But Burrow has a blend of moxie and talent we have not seen from our locals. Take a look at some of the throws that Burrow made Saturday against the Raiders: The 29-yard pass down the middle of the field to a well-covered Uzomah. The touchdown pass to Boyd on which Burrow he was 0.1 yards from the sideline when he threw the pass (fooling an official into blowing his whistle). The third-and-7 back-shoulder throw to Chase in the fourth quarter. All of them were perfect throws.

The Raiders looked as if they might pull off the comeback in the second half. They cut the score to 23-16 with 14:17 left in the game. Burrow then led a 13-play, 65-yard drive that chewed 7:31 off the clock and ended with a field goal to push the lead back to 10 points. That and a frantic last-minute goal-line stand gave the Bengals their first playoff win since the 1990 season.

When the Bengals were trying to close out the regular season with an AFC North crown, Burrow pushed them there. He threw for 525 yards against the Ravens in Week 16 and 446 yards against the Chiefs in Week 17, both Bengals victories. Over his last 12 quarters, Burrow is 91-for-119 (77.1 percent) for 1,215 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and no interceptions.

You think the Jets and Giants could use some of that?

Burrow has made Zac Taylor a better head coach. It’s funny how that works. Taylor was 6-25-1 in his first two seasons with the Bengals. That would have gotten him fired by most teams. Here, our teams have made firing coaches after two seasons as routine as traffic on Route 3 used to be heading into games. Adam Gase was hired during the same cycle as Taylor. He won three more games than Taylor did in his first two seasons, but was fired by the Jets. The Giants have fired each of their last three head coaches after no more than two seasons. Joe Judge, Pat Shurmur and Ben McAdoo each had more wins during their time with the Giants than Taylor did in his first two seasons.

The question for Jets head coach Robert Saleh and the new Giants head coach is: Can they find their Burrow? Wilson had some promising moments as a rookie for the Jets, but he does not compare to Burrow yet. Jones is 38 games into his career and it is safe to say he is not the answer for the Giants.

As the Jets and Giants search for ways to climb back into relevancy and the playoffs, the Bengals are proof that it can turn quickly. Now the Jets and Giants just have to find their version of Joe Burrow.