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Looking forward to taking care of the Trey Hendrickson extension so we can shift focus to next year’s Trey Hendrickson contract dispute.

So it’s the Bengals or nothing for Trey. Good luck sitting out a year and thinking you might cash in next year.

From my bookface group: Another update between the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson. This time from Jordan Schultz. Link for the video: https://x.com/Schultz_Report/status/1904648022874615848?t=o8WdiWwUoL318F8f-lidOg&s=19 TL;DR: The Bengals Ownership/Front Office want to move forward with negotiations for Trey. The trade idea is dead, and they want to keep him on the Roster. Only issue is finding a number both sides can agree on money-wise.

Here's to hoping he earns a starting role.

Chido signs with Baltimore.

My dad used to say this country is great at making veterans, not all that great at taking care of them.

Cam and Sanders will definitely go well before 17, and now Dart is flying up the boards. If he isn't gone before 17, middle of the first is about where I would expect the phone to start ringing with offers from some QB-needy team looking to jump up and grab him. But in any event I would say three QBs going ahead of us is the best-case scenario.

Yeah, I would be shocked if the Titans didn't take Ward. Not that I just love Cam Ward mind you, but the old saying of if you don't have a franchise QB, you try to find one. Honestly, I think this QB draft class is pretty weak, but that's just me. In a year that would help having at least 4-5 go in the first 15 picks, we have maybe 2. I'm holding out hope that a team or two get desperate and reach, but I'm not thinking so. This is a back end of the first, top of the second, or later QB class.

No real surprise, but it looks like the first pick is pretty much decided. Callahan gets another first overall QB to work with in Cam Ward. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/44392310/qb-cam-ward-throws-miami-pro-day-told-titans-solidifying-top-pick

Right now there are two players that may be there at #17 I would love to see drafted: 1. Nick Emmanwori, S, South Carolina- He might truly be my #1 hope to get player in the draft. 2. Jihaad Campbell, LB, Alabama- Yes, of course I'd like a linebacker, but in my defense, he's really good. 3. James Pearce, DE, Tennessee- He's an iffy one for me. Are the stories questioning about much he really wants to play ball true? If not, he's an athletic freak at a position of need. Now don't get me wrong, there are others I would love but simply don't expect them to be there at #17. Will Campbell, OT Armand Membou, OT Players no longer on my want list at #17: 1. Tyler Booker, OG, Alabama- He's about as athletic as a turd and while a people mover, is not what we need. 2. Jalon Walker, LB/DE, Georgia- What is he? Does he excel at either? Will it take creativity to make him work? 3. Malaki Starks, S, Georgia- The only safety I want in round one is Emmanwori. If not him, wait. 4. Mike Green, DE, Marshall- I don't care if he wasn't charged with the sexual assaults. Just say no.

No, no, I didn't take it that way at all. What federal agencies still exist come end of the year remains to be seen. Clearly, I'm an advocate for Veterans and always will be.

MemBou also wouldn't bother me in the least. Have to love the big, athletic linemen like him. Not sure he sniffs anything close to #17. Him outside the top 10 would be shocking. Don't let me rain on your parade though TJ. Keep hope alive.

My absolute dream pick at 17 would be OT Armand Membou, whose short-ish arms means he will probably play OG in he NFL 9.82 RAS https://ras.football/ras-information/?PlayerID=27170&ovl=Combine

No to DE MIke Green, period. No more sexual assault guys, please.

I dont think Hoosier was saying he wishes the VA would cease to exist, rather it is how our Monarch-for-Life is firing all federal employees

If Dax and Myles Murphy were linchpins for the defense, this whole scenario would look different. Dax would be entering the year before his club option decision was looming and the team trying to figure out how to pay him. Myles Murphy would make the Trey situation look much different and have the team to looking for his replacement in the draft, without thought of paying him market money. Even if the light goes on for Myles this year, they have him locked up for three seasons including the option year. Since that is not the case, they could afford to pay both Chase and Tee, because, well… who else are you going to pay?

Trey complained two years ago, “give me a raise and an extension.” We did it. The next year, again he said “give me a raise and an extension,” again we did it. Dude never wants to play on his existing deal.

I read two different sources say the following while we were waiting for the chase and Higgins deals: I’m paraphrasing, but it was essentially “of course the bengals are going to pay these guys, they have no one else they can throw this kind of money at, and they need to get up to the cap.” Which begs the question, why save all this cap room for down the road when this family of farmers trying to run this thing won’t keep their good players to even pay up on a second or third deal? The hopeful answer to my rhetorical question is that by then there will be guys worthy of good deals, we’ve just whiffed on a bunch of draft picks lately. I’m glad we kept our skill players together. When you think about qb, our receivers, and our (very underrated) young RB, we might have the best set of skill players in the league. BUT - we’ve done very little personnel-wise to fix our nearly league worst defense, and our o-line still looks a lot like it did last year. It almost feels like the team is putting all the responsibility on the coaches they replaced, and putting a ton of pressure on new guys Golden and Peters. I hope it works, but we should have done more.

Anyhow, on to the other subject of excessive interest, Trey Hendrickson, the latest is news is that there's really no news. Just speculation built on random comments from various media types. Though the general bent is still towards the team and Hendrickson getting something done. https://www.cincyjungle.com/2025/3/24/24393007/trey-hendrickson-contract-talks-bengals-colts-trade-rumors-nfl

Rapien is a doofus. Liscow is kind of a dick, but he is definitely not a clickbait artist (that criticism is pure laziness).

Ok, there you go. I wasn't aware of his knowledge base. That being said, I still think it's hard to apply one's particular knowledge of a situation to what actually happened with a player and their agent when in negotiations they were not a part of. Rapien may think "All they had to do was this" and they could have saved "X" amount of money. However, they have no idea if the players and/or the agent would have wanted it that way. If they didn't, maybe the deal doesn't get done. It's speculation at best.

Please do not draft an injured player til r4 or later

the other guy (Jake Liscow) is particularly knowledgeable of how the cap works, fwiw

Vikings had $70m of dead cap when they did JJ deal. Mainly dealing with Kirk Cousins. That was about 27% or 28% of the cap. In that year. That forced them to push more cap in the back years with JJ. Which could present a problem for them in 2027/2028 Where as the Bengals got two WRs under contract and probably only have 1 problematic year with Chase (but also $40m of potential cap savings). That's the advantage of dead cap elimination. Rapien or whoever's rants are idiotic because 1st they need drama to get views 2nd you have to pay attention and reconcile numbers which they probably don't have the skills to do so to recognize multi year cap strategy. Finally the Bengals could sign a handful of FAs with the cap room they have now without cap gymnastics. Cap room isn't an issue. Its probably most likely the guys available are only going to become options as the price goes down OR they don't get the guys they wanted in the draft. Its a little clearer when you realize the the franchise is trying to win instead of buying into the cheap narrative.

Yes, putting more money into the SB (like Jefferson) instead of option bonuses means more space in the early years, since you can amortize signing bonuses, but not option bonuses, over the lifetime of the deal. And yes that also means higher hits later on. For example, both Chase and Justin could be cut by their respective teams as soon as 2027, but the Vikings would only gain $10 million in cap space versus $20 million for Cincy. It's definitely the more conservative choice but it's not indefensible. The other thing to note is that they have just a skosh under $24 million in cap space now. Cap space continues to be not really an issue.