Stripes

I’m not concerned with losing Perine, and I think they should still move on from Mixon. The Running Back Store is never out of stock.

I sure hope Rooke E. Poole can rush the passer consistently.

Just gonna put my preliminary groan here for when the Jets grab Aaron Rodgers and make the AFC QB warzone even more ridiculous.

I'd like to see them improve the facilities for players' families. Whatever biases are inherently introduced by an NFLPA survey, this still gives an impression of player perspective. Ignoring it outright would be foolish for any organization. That doesn't necessarily mean they have to care about having charging outlets in lockers.

If they could somehow get him at a reasonable price, sure. I have always found him a bit overrated though, and he kind of smells like a FA bust to me. I have no good evidence to base that on, it's just a scent I am catching in the breeze. I think he could be a good #2 next to Awuzie.

Sample size of four games. Gonna be difficult to get me to treat that as a pervasive issue. The 2021 offensive line had bad players. They allowed early sacks. The 2022 offensive line had better players with no experience together. They allowed early sacks. That’s about it for me. No need to dig deeper.

I don’t think playing in Arrowhead matters, honestly. It’s preferable to be at home “spiritually”, but I don’t think the AFCCG was a loss because of its location.

I think that poop start to the season was part of the team’s natural progression (clearly augmented by the appendectomy and fluke longsnapper things). They needed to be reminded that they weren’t going to just walk over teams. The 2022 Bengals had a ton in common with the 2021 Chiefs.

I don't think that necessarily means "it's time to leave the Bengals". The whole "I'm HIM" thing suggests separating from the pack among linebackers, i.e., becoming elite. He could still end up gone regardless. We'll see.

Even before Burrow showed up, Zac showed a real talent for free agency recruiting. It was remarkable how he was able to attract players like Vonn Bell and DJ Reader to a 2-14 team. Now, with Burrow and the organizational culture of Katie and Elizabeth Blackburn, I expect the Bengals to be able to bring people aboard as long as the cap space exists.

Not this year. Still, two finalist nods in a row should bode well moving forward.

And so, after their 55th year of existence, the three-time AFC champion and ten-time AFC North/Central champion Bengals have two (2) Hall of Fame inductees.

Perhaps Joe smells a decade of uninterrupted Super Bowl contention and knows what it'll take. I'll temper my expectations though. He's justified to ask for a bag if he wants to.

That truly would not concern me. I appreciate what Mixon has provided here, but he is showing signs of the usual short RB shelf life, as we all kind of expected, and it'd be a good time for fresh legs anyway. If I felt that the RB position is hard to replace I might be less nonchalant about it all, but I tend to believe that it's the single most disposable position among the starting 22. Now I'll grant that I wasn't thinking about it at all until the "warrant for an arrest" appeared on my screen. But I don't consider Mixon an essential piece.

Highlighted the key term of contention

Well that’s… weird. I guess we’ll see.

Gone. We could use an upgrade anyway.

I guess that means we’ll just have to bring back Bobby Hart!

I think that, beyond the obvious core extensions and defensive FAs, the top priority has to be OL depth. I think they can legitimately go into next season with the same starting five and be fine, including La'el Collins. But we need better contingencies for the inevitability that at least one of them will get hurt. It's such a bummer to drop in two straight postseasons because of bad OL play. I don't blame the front office at all -- they did everything we could reasonably ask to deal with the problem last year. But the work isn't done. Draft 'em or sign 'em or both, but the status quo from 6-10 in that unit cannot continue.

I wouldn't have thought a second tag for Bates is likely, but there's no denying that Dax Hill had a bit of a rough go of things in his limited opportunities. Perhaps a second tag is more feasible of the staff feels Dax needs more time to develop.

Paul Alexander has never sniffed an AFC Championship Game and has no idea what he's talking about. He certainly knows the Burfict/Pacman incident well, and that's because he was a part of a losing tradition. So he can fuck right off back to whatever he was doing before. Joseph Ossai had an excellent game and committed a basic human error in a split second situation.

I expect to lose Bates and Pratt. Someone out there will offer stupid money to each of them, and the Bengals won't be able to match that with Burrowgeddon looming. It'd be a bummer, but also manageable from a team-building standpoint. I care more about corner and the DL than LB or S anyway.

They don’t call the obvious hold against Hendrickson and do call the hit out of bounds. Sucks to have a season left in the hands of the officials.

That’s about as pissed as I have ever been about football, save the 2015-16 playoff stuff. Fantastic work for the defense to overcome it.

It’s there for the taking. Need the defense at its best.