COB

Rudy Purdy throws a pick 6 to the bears on the first play of the game on Sunday Night Football.

Browns handle the Steelers in what should be Aaron Rodger’s legacy game.

For the second year in a row we will be the best non-playoff team in the league. Too many holes in our roster to play a 17 game season.

5-12 team vs 3-12 team should be a close game. This is not close. No changes needed!

The Red Receiver.

Merry Xmas to everyone here at Bengalszone. Don’t forget that many older people get depressed over the holidays, mainly when they realize that a 1000 year old business, Santa’s workshop, uses more modern recruitment and accounting strategies than our Bengals front office. Enjoy the holidays everyone!

OU fired Temu Sherrone Moore and went out and won that bowl game. They wanted badly to win for the interim coach, known popularly as Whatshisname.

Sorry Volcom, Duke is like a family member. Unfortunately, that’s not quite the justification for unlimited mediocrity that the Brown’s think it is.

Zac really lit a fire under these guys.

Uh, Myles setting the edge is not a good situation.

Oxcart Pull - Just about every year that darned ol’ oxcart gets stuck in the ditch. Teams try to free the Oxcart. There is a twist - no oxcarts ever get unstuck!

Ok then if this happens, the Bengals and Bears must play each other at the end of every season in their shared stadium. Taking submissions now to name the annual game. I’m going with “The Three Ring Binder Bowl.”

Why do you want to inflict this franchise on the good people of Chicago? They’d have to learn a lesson, they don’t know how hard it is to run an nfl franchise (when you try to do it with half the workforce other franchises employ).

They care about running a successful and profitable business. Revenue sharing basically guarantees their success.

Pretty heavy weekend of tv sports. Tonight we get a CFP game, Oklahoma vs Alabama, and that strange fight between a YouTuber and Anthony Joshua. Tomorrow, Saturday, we get a noon CFP game, Miami vs. Texas A&M, should be good. Irrelevant and can be ignored - Tulane and James Madison find themselves in the deep end of the pool. NFL on Saturday to save us from CFP blowouts! Eagles versus Commanders, and the Packers play the Bears. Sunday a full slate of nfl games including our beloved Bengals. Mike and family have taken a beating in the press this week, so they’ll welcome a weekend in sunny Miami. Of particular interest: Steelers play the Lions and the Patriots play the Ravens. Of local interest: for the first time in a long time, the bengals game will not be aired in the central Ohio market. We’re getting the Browns/Bills instead. It’s a sign of the times, I guess. I’ll likely head over to Columbus to a particular Bengals bar, they always show the games. I haven’t had to go there in quite some time, a pretty good run by the networks. Enjoy this pretty great weekend of football, and remember, you think about a lot of things. Finally - life long boxing fan here. This Joshua fight is perplexing. The YouTube guy, Jake Paul, weighed in at 216, AJ weighed 243. So Paul is fighting a heavyweight. Why? AJ is a bit of a last minute replacement for the original opponent. Paul was supposed to be fighting Tank Davis, a damn good fighter, BUT, Tank Davis fights at lightweight, 135 lbs, and is 5’5”. Unfortunately Tank is a violent maniac and is getting sued over various violent acts he has perpetrated, and his agent pulled him out of the fight to avoid (allegedly) the bad publicity. More likely, in my opinion, Tank had time to contemplate the terms of what was being sanctioned not as a true bout but as an exhibition, and decided he couldn’t throw a fight. So they somehow were able to get AJ, who normally fights at 250-255 lbs. This YouTuber goes from fighting a 5 foot 5 inch lightweight who fights at 135, to fighting a 6 foot 6 inch heavyweight who fights at 250. Also trivia of some note: the Tank Davis exhibition fight was originally set to be in Atlanta, but the Georgia boxing commissioner refused to sanction it, calling it, “the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard.” The whole card got moved to a Florida, where they not only sanctioned the AJ fight, it’s not an exhibition, it’s an actual boxing match, though in a nod to Jake Paul’s status the fight is not the 12 rounds Joshua (two time world heavyweight champion, and Olympic gold medalist at super heavyweight) normally would fight. It is 8 rounds. More trivia: Anthony Joshua is 36. In 2017, he was in a great fight (fight of the year) with Wladimir Klitschko, the Ukrainian world champ. Joshua beat him. Klitschko has been serving in the Ukrainian army since the war started, and his brother who was also a world champion heavyweight, Vitali Klitschko, is mayor of the capital city Kiev.

I don’t think Burrow believe he CAN force his way out of town. He’s smart, he understands the history of this busted down general store masquerading as an nfl franchise. He’s been making some veiled, sort of cryptic remarks in interviews. In my opinion, and I’ve discussed this extensively with a ten year old cat who sleeps 21 hours a day, Burrow is putting pressure on the organization to change. Ie: he was asked, do you think about playing for another organization, he came back with “you think about a lot of things.”

Fan Duel doesn’t have any numbers up on Ewers yet, so all the Cincy fans who are rushing in their to put their whole account on the over for his yards or tds or whatever, will just have to be patient!

Mike definitely knows best. When he does his annual interview or whatever it is, if he gets pressed by questions about football operations, coaching, scouting, etc, he’ll answer the question. But he always kind of smirks. Sort of a wry smile. I always interpret that as “what do I care what fans, who don’t understand the nfl, think?” His answer is usually that the fans have in a misguided way fallen for an untrue narrative, and he knows better.

I can’t tell for sure, since the family hides everyone’s duties and responsibilities. But I think she stays out of football operations and negotiates contracts, deals with stadium issues with the county and vendors, and just generally runs the money. Zac has a weekly meeting not with Katie or Troy, but with Mike. Seems like he’ll never relinquish control of the football side of things. He’s the majority owner, and he really likes to be ultra patient with coaches and players.

Dehner just posted a story in the athletic. What changes are coming in the offseason? His belief is that there are no changes coming in the off season. Highlights from his story: “Taylor and team president and owner Mike Brown speak every week during the season about the state of things. So, there wouldn’t be surprises come Black Monday. ” Basically, 4 factors point to keeping Taylor. 1. He actually had two years left on his deal, not one, as has been misreported. 2. Staunch support from Burrow. 3. He’s responsible in large part for the offense, and it’s been a top ten offense for 4 years. 4. Just the general stay the course method Mike employs in all matters. Tobin? Dehner said he’s looked upon as part of the Brown family and there’s no chance he’s going. The summation by Dehner: “Tobin is viewed as family in nearly the same regard as the actual Browns and Blackburns. There is zero thought that his job is in jeopardy. He will have to lead the Bengals out of this drought, and ownership trusts him to do so.” Golden? Although the defense is last, 32nd out of 32, in nearly every category for the season, let’s look on the bright side: “The positive turn on that side of the ball since the bye has been very much noted internally, and has built a belief that throwing the coordinator under the bus yet again is not the answer.” On top of the improvement since the bye, Dehner also notes it’ll be a difficult sell to scapegoat the coordinator two years in a row. Dehner kind of sums it up as follows: “The Bengals have nearly the entire offense signed and returning next season. They rank eighth in cap space for 2026. Aggressively attacking free agency to solidify defensive spots manned by struggling or inexperienced players, plus another infusion of draft picks, could build on the uptick in the second half.” There you have it. Running it all back in 2026 baby. I’m not sure what aggressively attacking free agency on the defensive side will look like. I’ve said this before: Depending on the experience, judgement, and business acumen of a 90 year old man when your competition is using the most modern technology and information analysis to inform their decision making, is absolute folly. You are handicapping yourself. Oh wait, we have his daughter waiting in the wings when he finally relinquishes control! Guess what, the fresh-faced protégé is 60 years old. The antiquated way the Brown family runs this business is fatally flawed.

Steelers are beating the dolphins. What a year. We crater. Our hated rival wins the division. Burrow gets smashed up then suffers an existential crisis. Mike just goes on and on.

H.A.L.T. Hoarding All Legal Tender

This insight into the Bengals Front Office mindset may replace “P.H.A.T.” on the locker room wall next season.

You sound like a great candidate to join the bengals front office.

Holy shit, just read that both Mahomes and Micah Parsons suffered ACL tears today. This sport really does wreck guys.