HoosierCat

Some Scott highlights: https://youtu.be/N5egUplFm-E (Embedding appears to be borked atm so watch the copy/pasted tweets and vids lest we overtax the hamsters running the servers again.)

From what I can tell, Scott is a downgrade from Bell, though how much of the difference is due to system/how they were used I can’t say. But they needed to sign a vet and they did, and I still have hope for Tycen Anderson turning into something. Important thing imo is that it continues to free up the draft. No need to reach for guys in a desperate attempt to fill holes.

The way Brown has been talking and his TV appearances don’t give me the impression of someone trying to leverage this into a bigger deal. What I’m more fearful of is either Mikey getting cold feet, or the Bengals trying to do some funky financial gymnastics in the contract that get vetoed by the league office.

I know. When it falls apart you can all blame me.

So…do we actually have pen meeting paper on this yet? I’m sure it’s just the long decades making me paranoid, but, uh, could we make this official, Bengals?

Cool I guess. Don’t know anything about him other than his pff numbers, which kind of suck, but I suppose we needed a guy to replace that guy from Houston whose name I’ve already forgotten.

Mixon’s sister and her boyfriend indicted in the shooting. No charges for Joe. https://www.wlwt.com/article/joe-mixon-shooting-shalonda-mixon-lamonte-brewer-anderson/43338927#

Trent Taylor back on a 1-year deal per Rapoport.

I suspect you were on the right track with the “hug” comment. It would be totally unsurprising if the accident and the death of his teammate messed with his head. In fact it would be disturbing if it didn’t. If I am his agent, I am getting the kid into therapy yesterday.

Trayvon Williams official: https://www.bengals.com/news/bengals-roster-moves-trayveon-williams-re-signed-2023-free-agency 1 year deal. No details but he was on a 1 year deal for vet minimum ($965k, no guarantees) last season so I assume this is the same, just now $1.08m (vet minimum for a 4-year player).

Well, that's resolved. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35871548/jalen-carter-pleads-no-contest-charges-reckless-driving-racing

Yeah, I would guess corner tops the list in the draft room, too. Thing is that 28 seems to be kind a CB void. Then ones worth the pick will almost certainly be gone and the ones left are mid- to upper-second round value. I think trading down to somewhere in the top 12 or so of round 2 is a much more real possibility now.

S Nick Scott in town. https://bengalswire.usatoday.com/2023/03/16/bengals-host-free-agent-nick-scott/

Worth revisiting this Sheeran piece from 2020: https://www.cincyjungle.com/2020/5/7/21248162/bengals-jonah-williams-right-tackle-fred-johnson-left-tackle

ESPN+ insta-grade:

By all reports Jonah should be good to go by this fall. Collins is a much bigger question. Conventional wisdom is that he won’t be ready to start the season and might not make it back on the field at all. If they were going to cut either of them LC is probably the one. Would free up $6 million against the cap. OTOH we saw what happened late last year when injuries killed the line. If LC can return by, say, December, he’d be valuable insurance against that happening again.

Insert Mandolorian “this is the way” gif here.

Collins isn’t going anywhere so I think we are going with him/Jonah/Adenji this year. They may draft a prospect but now probably not until the third earliest imo.

Apparently the Bengals were only offering Hurst and Bell short-term deals, 1-2 years. Other teams were offering longer deals with more money. Championships are great but I of you are an older player and this might be you last payday (and a bigger one than you might have expected because of your production in 2022 that might never come again) you take the money.

We have screamed at them for years to stop mortgaging the present in fear of the future and go all in. This is what all in looks like. So strap in, here we go!

Well, they got the bigger SB part right at least! I remain stunned at how…reasonable the deal is. The bonus and guarantees are departures for the Cincy FO but league-wide this is pretty par for the course. Is this how fans of normal teams feel? It’s weird…

Like I’ve always said, I’m fine with the Bengals letting guys walk in FA if they DO SOMETHING with the money, aside from invest it in vintage Lumina parts. Tonight they very definitely did something with it and I am 100% down with it.

Look at it this way: the odds of DL at 28 just went up!

First guess, Jonah moves there to cover if Collins isn’t ready in September.

Two pages in I have to say that clearly, Amphar picked the wrong night to go to bed early.