MOBILE, Ala. — Connecting the dots only goes so far, of course, but new Giants general manager Joe Schoen believes there is something to take out of seeing the Bengals go from years of failure to preparing to face the Rams in Super Bowl 56.

That something, for the Giants, is hope.

“I think this is an unbelievable experience for the Bengals that their young core group of players are going this far already,’’ Schoen said Wednesday at the Senior Bowl. “I think just winning a playoff game is tremendous success. To do what they’re doing and play at the level they’re doing, obviously it gives everybody hope. If we can draft like they did and hit on a free-agency class like that, it gives everybody hope.’’

The Bengals went five consecutive years without making the postseason before going 10-7 this season and then defeating the Raiders, Titans and Chiefs in an upset-laden power trip through the AFC playoffs. Heck, the Bengals won four games in 2020 and now are one game away from capturing their first Lombardi Trophy.

The Giants are coming off a four-win season. Hmmm.

Schoen, new on the job, won’t go there. He is staring up at a mountain to climb, knowing the Giants are set to be $40 million over the salary cap and that there are holes aplenty on the roster. He also knows the Giants do not have Joe Burrow as their franchise quarterback. Schoen is eager to get to know Daniel Jones and hopes he can improve the offensive line enough to allow for a legitimate evaluation of what Jones can be. Jones’ ceiling does not have to reach where Burrow now stands for Schoen to be convinced Jones can be a winning quarterback.

Schoen said he is familiar with how the Bengals built themselves into contenders. He spent four years with Zac Taylor, the Bengals’ 38-year-old head coach, when Taylor was an assistant with the Dolphins and Schoen was a national scout and later Miami’s assistant director of college scouting. And Schoen and the Giants recently conducted a head-coach interview with Lou Anarumo, the Bengals’ defensive coordinator.

The Bengals built through the draft, with Burrow, receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, linebacker Logan Wilson and, yes, kicker Evan McPherson. They augmented their defense in free agency with defensive end Trey Hendrickson and cornerbacks Chidobe Awuzie and Mike Hilton. That is how a franchise that went 2-14 two years ago has reached the Super Bowl.

“They’ve had a lot of draft picks and they’ve had high draft picks,’’ Schoen said. “They’ve got a young core of players. They had their foundation and they kind of did a big splash in free agency this year on defense, they did a really good job of identifying players who are all really key contributors to their Super Bowl run. There’s hope. Being in this long enough, I’ve seen Super Bowl teams built multiple different ways and turn around and have success.’’

Yes, he has. Winning has usually been part of the immediate plan for teams Schoen has joined. He went to the Panthers in 2001, and two years later, with head coach John Fox, they were in the Super Bowl. The Dolphins were 1-15 in 2007; Schoen arrived in 2008 as a national scout and Miami, with new head coach Tony Sparano, went 11-5 and made the playoffs. The Bills went 17 consecutive seasons without a playoff berth, Schoen arrived in 2017, along with general manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott, and the Bills went 9-7 and made the playoffs.

The Giants are coming off a 4-13 season and Schoen was hired to stop the losing. He is quite familiar with fast turnarounds.

“I’m not saying we’re going to, but wherever I’ve been there’s been a history of the first year, new coach going to the playoffs,’’ Schoen said. “The second year with John Fox we went to the Super Bowl. The only one that didn’t work out for me was Joe Philbin [in 2012 with Miami].’’

There will not be much money to spend in free agency and the Giants will need $17 million to $18 million in cap space to sign the nine picks they have in the draft this year. The heavy lifting, as far as building up the roster, will have to start with this draft, as the Giants have the No. 5 and No. 7 overall picks.

“We’ve got two high draft picks and we just got to make sure moving forward we get those right,’’ Schoen said. “You got to hit on those high picks, they’re cheap players for four or five years. It’s cost control, it’s gonna cost you a lot more on the open market when these guys hit free agency.

“It’s gonna be important for us to hit on as many as we can. You’re not gonna bat a thousand, I wish you could but you got to do the best job you can evaluating these guys as players and as people and eliminating the margin for error as best we can.’’