COB

Just saw a thing Rapien and another guy put on YouTube. They’re completely pissed about the Dark Triad putting Chase’s and Higgins’ bonus money this year in the form of roster bonus instead of signing bonus. They said it cost us a shitload in cap room this year. And they kept saying, “the money’s the same, it makes no sense, why did they do this?” I suspect if there were 11 million more in cap space they’d feel compelled to sign some more good vets. That’s 11 million more out of the brown coffers this year. This way, they’ve spent up to the cap, end of story.

Russel Bodine, Billy Price, and Eric Ghiaciuc. Names that will live in infamy. I throw those names out there not to trigger PTSD in your heads, not to bring up the CTE in their quarterbacks heads, but to illustrate what may be a major philosophical shift in the handling of the inside offensive linemen by Bengals management. The old way - draft a guy then you just play him almost no matter what. All three of those guys struggled at times, were overmatched at times, and were just asked to do more than they could. Didn’t matter to the bengals. It was kind of like hey, “we’re not worrying about center or left guard or whatever, we got this guy on a 4 year deal and we’re good there.” Meanwhile the poor guy is out there getting the living shit kicked out of him. No help, no reinforcements, no free agent starters brought in. The new way, which I will call the “Rental Tight End” model: bring in an inexpensive vet with a lot of experience who is desperate to extend his career. It has certainly worked with the TE spot. We know Burrow has a lot to do with that. But it now looks like our new IOL, Lucas Patrick, could be this year’s rental tight end, but he’s a guard. I’m all for it. The old way didn’t work. At least with this method we aren’t married to the guy and if he falters we can try again. Scherff looms.

Winston signing with then Giants. So that leaves who for the Steelers to sign? Rogers? Cousins is there but he’ll want real money and probably some years, unlikely for the Steelers. They have screwed it up. Bring Russ back!

I just saw Lucas Patrick unloading trucks at the Family Dollar store on East Main Street in Newark.

Jenkins is a run blocking specialist. We want Scherff, who is allegedly a pass blocking specialist.

Assuming he’s healthy, they need to get Brandon Scherff in here and sign him. No idea what they’re waiting for.

We look at these guys as depth, but they’re super important. Half of them end up with significant playing time in the second half of the season.

One possibility: they felt free to cut him because they have a plan to fill his spot with someone already on the roster. They could have a plan to move guys around, have a tentative starter already decided upon, then just see how low the FA guard market drops. If it drops into “they’ll take half their deal in Fashion Bug discount coupons from Mike’s wife’s dresser” territory, then they bring one in for the sake of competition. PS - don’t tell Scherff, but Fashion Bug went belly up in 2013.

Mike Brown reads the above: “Heh, she damn sure is.”

They better do something. If the plan is move someone to guard from the existing roster, they need to think again. Cappa was bottom 10% in the league and he was still better than anyone else on the roster. Scherff’s up!

Reports out of Paycor Stadium say the Brown family would like to redefine the word “imminent.”

Mike is such a good American it appears he has modeled our free agency strategy on the sonnet inscribed at Ellis Island, The New Colossus: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me”

If they get these receivers signed it will be a bit of a departure for the bengals’ front office. So many times in the past, if a draft pick really excelled on that rookie deal they just wouldn’t sign him to a second contract. And it hurt them. Zeitler and Jessie Bates come to mind. Signing both these guys is a step forward and I don’t care if the media points out Burrow pressured them into it, etc. The fact is they did it. We’ve got a great offense. (Assuming we find a guard in FA, they already cut Alex Cappa so we’ve got to do something).

I agree. Possibly their resources, ie front office negotiators, cap evaluators, have been devoted to the Chase and Tee deals, while trying to simultaneously evaluate and sign free agents. Which would spread our limited FO resources very thin. Brandon Scherff looms.

Bears spent a 2026 4th round pick to get Thuney, and a 2025 6th round pick to get Jackson.

The bears had a similar problem regarding guards. As in, their guards struggled. Their IOL struggled as a whole. so what did they do? I’ll paste a paragraph description from the Athletic article detailing what they did: “Trades for Jonah Jackson and Joe Thuney, a back-to-back first-team All-Pro with the Chiefs, immediately solidified the two guard spots. A big-money deal for former Falcons center Drew Dalman rounded out the interior, suddenly turning one of the league's worst position groups into a strength.”

I hear you. I wasn’t that interested in Zeitler so seeing him get signed is not a big deal. If the Lions get Scherff I’m getting outraged.

Ross Tucker is a straight up Hater. Dude has had it in for bengals since day 1.

From their agent, no doubt.

I’m completely irate now. Just read that the Lions are pursuing Brandon Scherff. Mike can’t compete with that F-150 money. Odd bengal connections: 1. The lions want Scherff to replace none other than Kevin Zeitler. 2. Scherff was drafted by the redskins and went to 5 pro bowls there. His o-line coach at Washington? Bill Callahan.

Brandon Scherff is an Outland Trophy winner who graduated from Iowa in three and a half years. Has a genius level intellect, but majored in Leisure Studies probably to show he’s just a regular guy.

I’m on a hunger strike until they sign Scherff. (Drinking coffee is ok though)

Stockholm Syndrome. Get outraged. Duke said they weren’t paying more money for the same team. We’re probably underestimating the Perine signing. Burrow is likely thrilled to have him back. Everyone else is like, “meh,” but Burrow loves that pass blocking and throwing to him on tough 3rd downs. Perine really knows where the sticks are and got us a lot of important first downs.

I can’t tell if they’re targeting Scherff, and the negotiations are just taking a long time, or if they’re using the time-honored Bengal tactic of waiting until most of the FA money is spent league wide, then taking their pick of the remaining players when they’re bidding against only themselves. If they're doing that, our FA linebacker will likely show up in a neck brace with a note from his doctor. Our guard will retire a week into camp. And our camp arm will make the practice squad, then end up starting a playoff game for us after Burrow succumbs to multiple instances of trampling after o-line neglect forces us to pull Ghiaciuc off the couch and start him.

Sample tore his Achilles and missed all or almost all of ‘24. Kind of a prove it deal to see if he can play after that injury. The Brown family seems to have suffered the football management version of a torn Achilles as well. They certainly can’t find free agents to fill these holes in our roster.