HoosierCat

Burrow will be better. I mean, he can't be worse. Question is, how long does it take for him to get back to being himself. Sunday? The next week? October? Longer? Sooooo tired of the "WR can't get open" stuff. What do Taylor and Callahan do all week, play World of Warships? Scheme some guys open if they can't do it themselves. Oline is what it is. Hopefully they can tighten up. Mixon was actually running through arm/ankle tackles against Cleveland. That was refreshing to see. How about using him more? Sample > Smith. Just sayin'. Re the D, are they really as good as the showed in the first half...or was Watson that bad? I fear it was the latter but we'll see. Bengals 72, Ravens 0

Linderbaum, Stanley and Williams all no-shows for Baltimore at practice today. Williams definitely out, the other two described as day-to-day. https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/ravens-nfl/baltimore-ravens-injury-report-VIWA26XVCRCXLEWFZ43VKSCUJ4/

At a guess, I’d say it was wholly financial. They just emptied their bank account for Joe and, even if they can’t keep Tee, have a bunch more FAs next year in addition to him, as Army’s pointed out. This move gives them back $12 million in cash that they won’t spend on Collins this year and next, and $13 million in extra cap space next year, assuming they don’t use any this year and carry it all over. If Collins was healthy it would have been different but he was reported to be at least 4-6 weeks away. That’s a lot of money going to a guy on the bench and the Bengals are feeling especially poor right now. Always the chance they could re-sign him down the road, I don’t think he will have any immediate interest given the condition of his knee.

Bummer, was hoping he could make it back. Odd timing. Does save then $6 million against the cap and almost $7 million in actual cash this year (tho there may be an injury settlement involved, dunno) and another $7 million against the cap next season.

Some nuggets from the espn draft guys' post CFB week 2 roundup. -- Matt Miller was a big fan of TE Ja'Tavion Sanders in Texas' win over Bama. He had 114 yards on 5 catches. -- Miller also has Jer'Zhan Newton, DT, Illinois, climbing up his board. Had 2 sacks and 5 pressures v. Kansas. Kiper adds for the upcoming week: -- Jordan Reid likes T'Vondre Sweat, DT, Texas. Thinks he breaks into the top 100. Also eyeing this guy as sleeper: Troy Franklin, WR, Oregon

With Williams tearing his pec, Ravens are signing vet S Duron Harmon. https://ravenswire.usatoday.com/2023/09/12/baltimore-ravens-duron-harmon-nfl-free-agency-practice-squad-marcus-williams/

It’s official. Achilles torn. Season over. Possibly career over.

I was listening to the radio broadcast so I can’t say, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Dbs start erring on the side of caution because of the stricter helmet rule. Basically now if your helmet touches a guy you are screwed, intentional or not. From espn: Established in 2018 to reduce the type of contact that frequently causes concussions, this rule has proved nearly impossible to officiate. As a result, the league has relied largely on warning letters and fines issued after the game to enforce the rule, which originally prohibited a player from lowering his helmet to initiate contact with an opponent. And in the rare instances where it is penalized in a game, the NFL has instructed officials to refer to the infraction generically as "unnecessary roughness." Over the ensuing five years, the league has issued an average of 191.4 warning letters and fines per season. In a sign of the difficulty in changing this particular behavior, it set a record of 229 in 2022. But even postgame discipline has proved problematic, as players have successfully appealed roughly one-third of the fines by arguing the helmet contact was incidental rather than an overt attempt to initiate. So in 2023, the league has tweaked the rule to make successful appeals less likely, removing the requirement to "initiate" contact and adding specific examples of impermissible contact.

My condolences to Jets fans. Their franchise might be even more snakebit than ours.

Details are up: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/joe-burrow-47594/ Looks like speculation they would copy the rolling guarantee structure the Chiefs used for Mahomes were right. Cap hits: 2023 19.5 2024 29.7 2025 46.3 2027 52.3 2028 53.5 2029 68.6 Then there are 3, count 'em, 3 void years with another 9 million in cap hits.

Yeah, the tag seems inevitable. I know mem's high on tag-and-trade idea, but that idea rarely if ever works. Having to give him a mega-contract is one thing, and then to have to give up draft picks, too? I like Higgins a lot but he's not Megatron in his prime or something. I just don't see it. $64k question is whether the Bengals are willing to eat the cap hit next year? Projected WR tag for 2024 is just under $23 million. Hope they don't have anyone else to sign! Oh, crap, wait...

2024 free agency note: as expected, there will not be any in-season extension for Higgins.

While we wait for next Sunday, I'd like to make a public service announcement: charge your phone before you leave home, or you might end up arrested like Pacman.

Some good stuff from Barnwell over on E$PN+

They had a top-5 run game in 2014 with Hill and Gio. Hill was a rookie and ran for a career-high 1,124 yards while Gio, in his second year, added 680. When they went to Cleveland that December, Andy played like Burrow did yesterday: 14/24, 117, 0 TD, 1 INT, 53.6 rating. The D also got two turnovers that day. The difference between then and now? Hill, Gio and Rex Burkhead laid a combined 241 rushing yards on the Clowns and the Bengals walked out with a 30-0 victory.

"It's a passing league" has really become the mindset. RB has been devalued both financially and as part of the game. Marvin at least used to make mouth noises about pounding the rock, even though he only followed through once (2009) when he had no other choice. Nowadays coaches don't even bother with the lip service any more.

As stripes noted in the Brawns gameday thread, JK Dobbins is gone fore the year with an Achilles tear. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38370396/ravens-safety-marcus-williams-shoulder-injury Some other guys could also miss time, depending on test results.

Well, we will see if the offense getting publicly pantsed over and over and over again Sunday fires anyone up. The most alarming thing to me was Burrow's performance. I know everyone has bad days but he was flat-out awful yesterday. Being rusty from a lack of practice and preseason snaps is one thing, looking like you're playing football for the first time in your life, and failing badly, is another. That said it wasn't all him. According to all the press clippings, we have one of the best receiving units in the league. If so, you wouldn't know it from yesterday, when they couldn't get open to save their lives. As usual, the line was inconsistent and when Mixon had a few good runs, Taylor went into Classic Marvin Mode: The run game is working? Well, let's start throwing the ball, they'll never expect that! Beyond the offense, we got "special" (in the short bus sense) teams. JFC what a crapfest. I will actually give McMoney a pass on the missed FG, it was a long shot in crappy weather. But punting? Meet the New Punter, Sucks Like the Old Punter. And the return guys? Quit catching the ball inside the five!!!! Let it go into the end zone. Dumb mental mistakes. Where the hell is Simmons? At least the defense showed up. But what should have been a dominant performance was utterly, totally, completely wasted by the rest of the squad and coaches. And they finally ran out of gas. All right. I'm done bitching. Just fix it. You got a week.

Stick this one in the bin, get back to work Monday, got Baltimore coming to town.

Game

Now they go for it? Ok whatever

Yeah, playcalling has been completely uninspired today.

Another crap punt tho more on the protection

Gassed