COB

Yep. Then, as now, the bengals are just outgunned when it comes to identifying, evaluating, and selecting, players. Their results in recent drafts tell the tale. Depression sets in.

Arvell Reese looked great at his pro day today. Bengals should trade up to get him, but they won’t even consider it. Hopefully he’ll go to an NFC team.

Mike certainly values quarterbacks and qb play. I think Browning falling on his face last year shocked the organization. This signing is the reaction.

I’m with you. Shitcan Burrow and we ride Flacco to a couple Super Bowls!

Who’s phone? I’m being glib, but potential trade partners have in the past stated no one even knows who to call within the organization. No one knows who has the authority to implement a trade. I still want to trade up to get Arvell Reese, trading down puts us even further away from, you guessed it, Arvell Reese.

I won’t be overjoyed if it ends up being Delane. Nothing against the player, but no one can cover forever and that’s what he’ll have to do if we don’t get a pass rush going.

Dude’s a straight up player. He’s Joe Namath.

Once Mike signed the big three, it appears the plan is just start as many guys on their price controlled rookie deals as possible. Not re-signing a non starter, a special teams ace, is just penny pinching to the nth degree.

6th round safety (teamer) incoming.

Logan Wilson retires? Amazing the difference a year or two can make in an nfl career. He was such a good player and leader. Dude got robbed on that PI call in the Super Bowl. I went back and looked at it a few months ago. Egregious. His play really fell off a cliff there at the end. Andy Dalton has found his niche. Bearded sage who shows up, brings positive vibes, is the definition of a great teammate and pro, then gets on the field and eventually breaks your heart.

The refusal to restructure deals is kind of the last straw for me. Teams do it all the time, every year. And not only does it free up cap space for you in the current year, thus allowing you to pursue good free agents or sign your high achievers (Bates), but it effectively reduces the total cap hit. Example so Mike’s granddaughters can read this: player A has a big dollar cap hit this year. You convert 20 million of it to a signing bonus that then gets spread over the life of his deal. So instead of 20 million this year, his cap hit is 5 every year for the next four years. But the salary cap goes up every year, so the 5 million per year becomes less and less significant every year. And oh yeah you got to resign Jessie Bates or whoever AND that high level free agent d lineman or edge. But you couldn’t sign either without restructuring the large deal. With everyone else using modern cap management, the Bengals are effectively operating under a different salary cap than everyone else. I’ve seen it in other areas of life several times - stubborn, self righteous behavior is ultimately self-defeating behavior. If Mike and family can’t afford to operate their franchise using industry standard practices, the NFL should step in.

We could upgrade from Yoshi pretty easily.

You aren’t kidding. Coaches basically don’t want to work, sign this dude he teaches himself the playbook, knows every defensive scheme, etc.

You guys are pretty hard on Geno. You act like you’ve never seen a safety who can’t tackle.

I see Reese as a versatile game wrecker who can line up at edge or linebacker. His body just looks to me like he’ll put more weight on. The best comparison I’ve read for him is Micah Parsons. Styles is described as a sideline to sideline guy who can do it all at linebacker including cover, and is a sure tackler. A little perplexing to me that I read some draft people saying don’t expect him to cover. I do expect him to cover! I watched all his games in college but I don’t see him developing into any sort of dominant player. He’s really good though. Reese can make a defense great with splash plays. Styles can be the pillar, the center of a defense, can lead in tackles, can be that rock, that super solid player. He can make a bad offense good. I know Styles is what we need, but Reese is what I want.

We could not stop the inside running game. Between Reese and Styles I see Reese as the better run stopper, and big enough to be an effective edge. I think he’s like a lot of nba players. There were better guys in college, but when they get to the nba certain guys bodies and skill sets fit that league better than others, and I think Reese’s physicality is on another level. Brown Family Terrorist Organization probably won’t make any move up now that they signed Jonathon Allen, but I can dream.

Teams were ready to give up high picks for Crosby on an expensive deal. I am certain Arvell Reese is a Maxx Crosby level player. He plays the run well, he can rush the passer, he has a high motor, and he’s a football first personality. And you get him for 4 price controlled years. He fits exactly what we need. I’d absolutely pursue trading up, the fit for what we need right now is just about perfect. Finally, the fall off after our 4 defensive targets are gone is pretty steep. It’s so worth it, I hope they’re thinking about it, contacting teams, laying the groundwork, etc.

Reese would be amazing, probably gone but you never know. Workout hero Sonny Styles has bengal written all over him, Mike will probably have some kind of old person break down when he gets picked before us. Underwear Olympian AND an Ohio State player, be still Mike’s barely beating heart. Downs could possibly fall to us. What a year to not have a bunch of QBs for the bottom feeder franchises to waste their top ten picks on. Totally sucks. Reese would be the dream pick, worth a trade up for sure. They whiff on half their picks anyway.

This kind of cynicism is unbecoming of fan of a team that goes all in every year. Your penance - listen to one Up With People record and then contemplate how dull the tri-state area would be if Saint Mike hadn’t hand picked Cincinnati back in the 1960s to have this family Dairy Queen operation that cosplays as an NFL Franchise.

This is the Bengal front office MO. They want to start guys on their rookie deals and they’ll do almost anything to make that happen. We’ve got a list of guards and centers who started their whole rookie contracts with performances that were alarming. I didn’t see some of the negatives in our rookie LBs that some guys saw. Hopefully their play improves but our defensive line needs to improve. I really believed they’d sign a good d tackle. Maybe we’ll get Reader back. I really believe the Sheldon Rankins experience threw the FO for a loop. They were counting on him in ‘24 and ‘25. Then the mystery illness kept him out all 24 season, and instead of embracing him, they cut him. And they never replaced him with a similar level guy. They played the draft picks and just paid a huge price. The FO didn’t know what to do, and they ended up doing nothing. Our rookie linebackers would have been better last year with a healthy Rankins or a similar level replacement.

Won’t miss Browning, but maybe we can pick up Bodysuit and stash her on the practice squad.

I was hoping for Logan Hall. Once they signed the safety and the edge on day one, seems like they saddled up their horse, Pivot, and rode him right to day 3, aka Palookaville.

Just read Hendrickson wants 30 million a year. Not many takers at that price.

Njoku’s play never lived up to his frame and his potential physicality. I was always surprised he wasn’t better than he was.

I wonder why the Lions aren’t interested in keeping Reader. Or maybe they are and he wants to use us as leverage. If cheap, I can see bringing him in as a rotation guy to mentor Bain, assuming he falls to us. Unrelated to our quest, but I’m curious what Hendrickson ends up getting.