COB

Someone call 911, NFL draft congnoscenti is currently in a short arm hysteria over Reuben Bain.

Honestly, that last paragraph is shocking. Consider who your competition hires to evaluate talent and contribute on draft picks. Basically, it’s football lifers. And we hire Mike’s granddaughters. Nothing against them, they’re probably nice young people who are making the best of an opportunity in front of them. But the experience and knowledge gap they are facing vs their competition is considerable. Some might say insurmountable. And Mike. You’ve truly lost your mind to still be trying to run this NFL franchise at 90 years of age. It’s an incredibly selfish thing to do. And it’s working well for one person and one person only, Mike Brown. Glad you get to cosplay as an NFL GM. Try not to fall out of your golf cart this summer you egotistical old bastard.

Kelsey Conway was asked about bengals decision makers. If you were worried that Mike’s granddaughters weren’t involved in evaluating players and drafting, you’ll be relieved. she said something along the lines of, Here’s what I know about the dynamics of the Bengals’ family ownership group. Team owner and president Mike Brown is still very involved. He sits in draft meetings; he certainly still has influence on the high-level football decisions. The football aspect of the business is still important to him and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. The Blackburn family is in lockstep with Brown about all of the big decisions internally. They’ve watched Mike run the show for a long time. With that being said, executive vice president Katie Blackburn has taken on a more front facing role in the organization. When the Bengals released a statement about a new lease at Paycor Stadium, the official quotes came from Katie. She’s in charge of the business side and she’s the lead negotiator for the Bengals on contracts. She also is in charge of managing the salary cap. In my opinion, based on what I know about her involvement, she has the most responsibility of anyone in the organization at this point. “Since her daughters, Caroline and Elizabeth, started working for the team, they’ve taken on major roles with football and business aspects. The changes you’ve seen the Bengals make at Paycor Stadium on gameday and the Ring of Honor are all because of Elizabeth’s influence behind the scenes. The Bengals also recently remodeled their locker and training room and Elizabeth was a key reason for it. The Blackburn girls are also involved in football. They also sit in draft meetings, attend the Senior Bowl, Combine and NFL owners meetings. They have their hands in everything. It's truly a collaborative approach with the family ownership group.”

Shemar Stewart found a Little Giant collapsible ladder at a garage sale for thirty bucks. Just kind of a kismet thing.

“Struggling with the dynamic of how best to go about this.” They need to modernize their whole operation. They can’t figure anything out and these last 2 or 3 off seasons have demonstrated that in spades. And if anyone thinks there is a grand plan to kill it in FA to bolster the defense, my advice - wake up. Everything Duke is saying is revealing the status quo is the standard. “All in but we’re always all in”, etc. Just my opinion, but having a 90 year old guy as your final decision maker does not lead to effective management. People that old don’t do anything fast, and they certainly are not open to changing their ways. This whole shit show leads back to Mike.

Typical bengals speak: “He’s got decisions to make, and we’ve got decisions to make” I seriously think they lowballed him. They take years to get an o-line that works, then they can’t even sign an inexpensive vet to play guard.

That’s what we think. Mike has been known to flout convention when trying to maximize whatever advantage he thinks he has. Would they again just tag him and say go find your own trade deal? Then sit on their asses and just harrumph at every offer. (Not good enough!). I sure hope not.

Trust - first time I’ve seen it phrased like that, but that is exactly it. I just do not trust this front office to get anything done correctly.

I assume, at least I hope, that the only scenario in which they ask him to sign the tag is as follows: they go to the team meetings, shop the idea of a tag and trade around. If a team bites, AND they are able to come to an agreement with Trey and his agent on a long term deal, then and only then do they tag Trey and ask him to sign. In other words the whole deal is agreed upon and in place before they tag him. If, on the other hand, they just tag him and ask him to sign so they can replay last year’s fiasco, they are in for a surprise.

Rumors are flying that the Bengals will attempt to tag and trade Trey Hendrickson. Good idea. Get something other than a faraway comp pick for him. Reality: They’ll completely blow the trade negotiations by slow playing them, hardball tactics, and as usual asking for unreasonable compensation. Once they do get it done, they’ll have spent their limited personnel resources evaluating trade offers, and free agents that we need will already be snapped up. And the intangible effect will be to once again begin the season on a negative note, having alienated the players (again). This isn’t me guessing, this is just how they do business and it’s completely predictable.

Non bengal free agent news: I just read about Cleveland’s starting 5 O-linemen last year. All 5 were on the last years of their deals, and all 5 are unrestricted free agents. And the Browns are currently $19.5 million over the cap. That’s without any of their starting linemen from last year signed. All 3 non-Cleveland AFC North teams should induct Deshaun Watson’s agent into their respective Halls of Fame.

Subsidizing one of the most profitable industries in the US with public money? Insane, but it’s a reflection of how much money influences politics now. And you don’t even have to pay that much to buy a state rep or senator. I recall looking at Haslam’s contribution amounts to get his billion or whatever Ohio game him. Dude’s ROI was out of this world. Seize NFL franchises through eminent domain, sell shares ala the Green Bay model, turn NFL ownership over to the fans, and make the world a better place.

Gosh, I hope the Bengals can gather enough information at the combine to figure out “where things stand on the Hendrickson front.” If they really don’t grasp where they are right now with Hendrickson, after all these several years of contract re-dos and hold outs and tags, I don’t have any idea what to say. Hendrickson’s agent should be reading “The Delicate Art of Hostage Negotiation.”

They won’t trade up because it’s too much work. They seriously don’t know what they’re doing anymore. The league has passed them by. Remember the tackled debacle? Two in one year. The useless local idiot from Clemson. First rounder Murphy who took 4 years to develop into anything. Now our most recent first rounder, from A&M? Dude got hurt and could barely contribute. The rest of the league has focused heavily on scouting and evaluating talent, both draft and FA. The Bengals still do it the old way, and they do it with the fewest people and resources. Mike can’t fall out of the Rascal and break his hip fast enough.

Not even using them anymore anyway.

I hacked into MikeAI and the latest search was: “How completely unfair was it that Percival Rothschild was named ‘Sock Garter Collector of the Millennium’ by Sock Garter Collector Digest when everyone knows there’s a prolific sock garter collector in Indian Hill, Ohio, who has a great collection and has an incredible eye for a bargain.?”

He took forever to develop. It was startling how long it took him to develop. Standard Wisdom- He’s just that type of cat, needs to play a lot to get it going. Once everyone’s favorite interview, our underpaid and under appreciated prima donna DE, tore his hip apart or whatever he did, Myles came alive! Pick up the option, await further development.

Great defenses are fun to watch. Specifically I really enjoyed watching Seattle and Houston play defense this year. I watched the bengals play defense this year.

I’m prepping for the Super Bowl /receives service of trademark lawsuit from the NFL/ by eating a pound of ground turkey, a baked potato, and a can of beets.

Prince did put on a transcendent show. Loved it.

Agreed, this was a unique chance to get in based on the number of candidates and the negative consideration some of the other candidates received. He’ll never get in. Some of this is just the fact he played for the bengals.

Reporter: “Mike, your thoughts on this year’s Super Bowl?” Mike Brown: “We owners just got the memo from the league on how much it’s going to cost us to have Bugs Bunny do the halftime show. It’s an outrage! For half that we could have everyone’s favorite, Up With People, back to do a good old family variety show.” /Shakes liver spotted fist at an uncaring universe/

I’d take one of those tables but I doubt they’ll go for a reasonable price.

Yep. Trades? Sounds like an awful lot of work.

If it’s possible for Peko to do a great job and for Pittsburgh to lose every game, that’s what I’d like to see happen.