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Offseason Thoughts


cincyhokie

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Prepare for the underdog theme all offseason. This team will be pegged as "lucky" and "overachieving". That plays in our favor. Obviously, key additions need to be made on the OL. I'd rather see them focus on FA to get the most crucial positions upgraded. Draft some skill players to make the offense even better. Improve the pass rush and CB depth.

Lastly, while there might be a hangover effect to some extent and we may not get some of the balls to bounce our way in 2022, is there any doubt this team will be focused? They are going to assert their will next year on teams. I am confident.

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6 minutes ago, membengal said:

I'm not remotely in same old Bengals. I reject that shit out of hand.

Pouring significant resources into FA o-line is job 1. Everything runs off of that. 

I’m mostly talking about the general sentiment. Not this board. Listening to call ins today and other stuff. This board is the most objective and grounded place I know of.

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Well, we’re going to finding out. If they retreat into “build through the draft” mode and cry poverty in FA because “we have to save money to extend Joe and Ja’Marr” then yeah, same old same old.

If they attack the oline with real money in FA, different story.

My prediction is that they will try to do the latter. But I have little confidence they’ll be able to get the necessary deals done. Hope I’m wrong.

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47 minutes ago, cincyhokie said:

I’m mostly talking about the general sentiment. Not this board. Listening to call ins today and other stuff. This board is the most objective and grounded place I know of.

It’s because those people became “fans” of the Bengals about 4 weeks ago and the loss allows them to retreat into their typical bullshit without any thought. No worries, they be back this time next year.

You know, the time of the year when the team does well and you can’t find jerseys in the shelves and $10 t-shirt stands show up in the strip club parking lots.

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I think the Bengals will be adding talent to the roster.    I think their "system" however it is described gets them to the playoff table at a higher rate than what the NFL parity system should allow. 

They've earned a lot of street cred, IMO.   If the national media don't want to recognize too bad, lazy take.   I can understand rival fans refusing the reality because for the Bengals to eat more they'll have to eat less and that's are hard thing for Steeler, Brown, and Raven fans to cope with.

 

 

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Hate losing, ... HATE IT, ... but comforted by two important things: (1) very fixable problems (from both an obvious and economic perspective), and (2) they entertained us longer than any others for a generation. Proud to be a Bengals fan today. Proud as ever.

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I would consider everything there is when it comes to upgrading at least 2-3 positions on the o-line, including moving Jonah if needed to another position , and replacing Spain/Sua or ewen Hopkins if an upgrade exists.   I certainly wouldn't bank on Carman.

It'll be interesting to see if Brown allows that stuff to happen, as well as re-signing key guys on D.

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https://twitter.com/jamespalmertv/status/1489277701533814791?s=21

“Burrow with a strong statement about being involved in the process of acquiring talent. Being asked his opinion on players coming in for visits, or watch film on draft prospects. Said you don’t have to use my opinion, but it’s nice to have it heard. Said he’s seen QBs frustrated.”

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Many super bowl teams suffer a hangover the following year, so Dilfer is making a safe prediction.  It happens.  We’ll see.  
 

If the Bengals continue their free agent signings, if they do for the o-line this off season what they did for the defense last off season, we’ll contend for sure.  

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9 hours ago, HoosierCat said:

Not bothering to click but clearly Trent hasn’t looked at the schedule yet. Bengals play the AFCE and NFCS, which collectively have one good team, Buffalo. Burrow owns Baltimore and Pitt has no QB. Contending is about as locked as I can imagine.*

* Provided the key pieces of this team remain relatively healthy, a couple of key injuries could torpedo this team next year

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11 hours ago, cincyhokie said:

https://youtu.be/P94JAXqUQ7Y
 

Trent Dilfer says Bengals won’t content next year.

Burrow has been wonderful.   Lazy hot takes will mention "luck" or heap a majority of credit on Burrow alone.   Trent happens to do both.

This is par for the course.   When the Bengals went to 5 straight playoffs and were a 4th qtr AJ Green fumble away from winning the division 3 years in a row.  The majority of talking heads had them not returning each and every year.   Meanwhile NFL people including a couple Head Coaches had them with the best roster during that span.

But yes,  this division will be competitive.  That part he got right.   The division was competitive when the Bengals won it 2 out of 3 years too.   Hopefully the Steelers go into late 80s mode and play the role of Jacksonville for us.

Anyone that wants to look.   19 seasons.  8 playoff season.  5 division title.  1 conference champ.   Not a dynasty but certainly not a franchise that depends on luck.

Tobin simply has been good at adding talent.   What maybe happening is they might of refined their system with a franchise QB and Head Coach that isn't going to squander best in the league rosters and merely enter the playoffs as 3rd/4th seed and seemingly go home after wild card weekend.

 

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The team may or may not go down in flames if/when the injury bug bites.
However, we do not have the market cornered on that occurrence.

Additionally, this is also why they have to look at other positions in the draft and bolster the depth of the roster.
YES, they need to take a WR earlier than round 7.  YES, they could use LB help.  YES, the CB group needs at least one upgrade.
YES, if CJ doesn't come back TE needs to be hit.  YES, they need to address special teams.

FIRST and foremost is o-line, but lets not diminish other areas of need/upgrade.
This is another way of working through injuries that every team deals with.

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6 hours ago, COB said:

Many super bowl teams suffer a hangover the following year, so Dilfer is making a safe prediction.  It happens.  We’ll see.  
 

If the Bengals continue their free agent signings, if they do for the o-line this off season what they did for the defense last off season, we’ll contend for sure.  

Just eyeballing things but it looks like 7 of the last 10 super bowl losers have made the playoffs the following year, and one of those that didn't was the Niners a couple years back when Jimmy G. only played 6 games. So seems like a pretty safe bet that they'll be in the mix.

2 hours ago, Wraith said:

* Provided the key pieces of this team remain relatively healthy, a couple of key injuries could torpedo this team next year

Well of course. If Brandon Allen is starting in anything other than garbage time we're screwed.

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There were a few games where I felt Burrow should absolutely have come out, Allen in

I know the fire in his belly makes Burrow want to stay in regardless, but this is perhaps the one behavior of his aside from holding the ball too long at times that I want to see reined in during 2022 and beyond

Sorry New Guy, but having you healthy for the next game and the one after and so forth is more important than padding your stats or tying to win a regular-season game that is completely out of hand....particularly in situations where the oppositions pass rush is strong and ergo your chance of injury is higher

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The fact that Chase and Higgins are so young and are doing what they do along with Burrow, is astounding. That fact alone puts them directly in the mix.

Addressing the O-line is the #1 priority. They are in a great spot concerning cap space with FA and the draft. Anyone saying they'll regress simply does not want to look objectively at this team and is flat out lazy with a lazy take.

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If it's an upgrade TJ, put me in the camp of being ALL IN.

I've documented Huber's consistency to this point, but if there's someone better, go for it.
I don't want to give up on upper half of the league consistency for the sake of change however.

Long snappers ??  Sure why not.  Can't say as I even could begin to understand how that success is measured.
No botched snaps = good I suppose.  I don't think that's a problem at least that I'm aware of, but again.
Upgrades work for me.

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well......yes and no

there's upgrades and then there is an older player unexpectedly declining, perhaps in midseason when you really cant get a replacement adequately ready

both players played at a high level this year - but will they next year?  the year after that?  etc etc.....

neither will play forever and it is important to identify the right time to replace them, even if the replacement is a (hopefully slight) downgrade in the short term

also: Ted Nugent University F O R E V E R ! ! !

https://www.wcpo.com/sports/football/bengals/clark-harris-bengals-long-snapper-now-an-internet-star

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Just for reference, here's the offseason calendar through the draft:

https://operations.nfl.com/gameday/nfl-schedule/2022-important-nfl-dates/

Key dates:

Jan 10 - May 3: period to exercise the fifth-year option for a 2019 first round pick (in the Bengals' case, Jonah Williams). They can also sign him to a second contract starting on the 10th if they prefer.

March 1 - 7: combine

March 8: deadline to use the tag.

March 14 - 16: legal tampering period

March 16: new league year, trading period & free agency start at 4 pm eastern

April 18: Bengals can start offseason workouts

April 22: deadline for RFAs to sign offer sheets

April 28 - 30: draft

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