HoosierCat

Given their tradition of slow starts, I’ll wake you up when September ends.

No I meant Tee. Pay him and Chase. They won’t of course, but with Burton apparently a turd then they will have to spend money or (more likely, and) a premium pick on the position. So given the choice of picking between poisons (sign Tee or go down the Housh/Bates road again), I vote for retaining a known talent. YMMV.

From da site: Looks like Irwin is on his way out. No real surprise. May as well get a look at Heyward.

Oh, the UFAs are easy. on defense: bye. No one on this d is worth one penny. Only good player is Trey and since he’s 31 and in the last year of his deal, I’m trading him while I can get some value. on offense: sign Tee. Don’t care about anyone else.

I know, I know, quoting myself. But I wanted to follow this line of thought to its logical conclusion (and thanks to Army for the prompt!). That conclusion is that this will be a make or break offseason for the Taylor/Burrow era in Cincinnati. Burrow is 27 (28 in 8 days!). Taylor reportedly has 2 years left on his deal. If they let Zac stay and play out his contract and some miracle turnaround doesn't take place (and that seems unlikely at the moment), then they would be looking for a new head coach in January 2027, just weeks after Burrow turned 30. I am wondering how any new head coach is going to look at a 30 year old QB with (in 2027) a $52 million cap hit versus $28 million in dead money, compared to the chance to start fresh. Especially if you could trade said QB. This is all speculative because we don't know where Joe is at after two more years of getting beaten up behind our excuse for an oline. But it seems to me there's a good chance that 2025 is the last opportunity to change course while Joe is in his prime.

Anyone want some easy money? Bengals are 6.5-point favorites next Monday night. Take the Cowboys and the points.

No, of course not. But I have time to kill between now and death, so... Oh, he'll start. Dunno if he'll be any good, but he'll definitely start. Well, if they stumble into a stud defender, he's here for 4 on his rookie deal, the 5th year option and the tag in year 6 minimum. By then Joe will be 33. If they haven't won a Lombardi by then it's probably time to blow everything up again anyhow.

I keep refreshing bengals.com looking for the announcement that Lou has been canned, and I keep not seeing it. What's the delay? Everyone knows it's coming. Even if you believe (and I do) that he's been screwed over by the FO and doesn't have the horses, what he does have out there is going backward in development, can't tackle and is constantly out of position. Honestly, I think that firing Lou now is about the only possible thing that might wake this pathetic squad up. Send the message that the top guy is out and everyone else is under the microscope. You want to keep playing here, you got five games to show us why. But I guess I shouldn't complain. The more they do nothing, the better the chance of a higher draft pick, at least.

With the loss to Pitt, the Bengals inched up to the 10th pick in the 2025 draft. At 5-7 the boys are hard on their heels at pick 13. But that's not why we can't afford a victory here, or frankly for the rest of the year, imho. At all costs, the front office must not be given a Dead Cat Bounce of any size to wave around in January as an excuse not to make major changes like firing Taylor and a bunch of the staff. Fortunately, a bounce appears unlikely because the D is just that freaking bad. Just lose, baby!

Per pff, our best player on defense today, with a 79.4 grade? Joe Bachie Joe. Fucking. Bachie. Burn it down. Burn it ALL down.

Burrow’s contract has nothing to do with it. Teams can pay their star QB and still pay other players. KC does it. Baltimore does it. Cincinnati uses it as an excuse because they don’t want to play by the same financial rules as the rest of the league. The Brown family’s no. 1 goal is not to win a championship, it’s to pile up as much money as possible in their bank accounts.

Were they blacked out in cincy today?

Kid’s a rookie fifth rounder. I can’t be too hard on him. He’s gotta learn somehow and it’s not like this team was going anywhere.

Eh, that austerity culture goes back to Paul and the founding of the team, if only because the league screwed the bengals on revenue sharing for the first couple years because so many of the owners hated PB. But yeah their refusal to play by modern financial rules is a fundamental reason for why things are what they are.

Josh Newton

Even the announcers know what play is coming and the bengals d still can’t stop it. Lou has to go now.

Nice throw and catch there tho.

Gotta get that garbage time score.

Hope Battle is ok.

Lmao pour it on Pitt, get Zac canned!

Technically the o has only scored 24, but yeah, bengals need to put up a 50 burger every week to have a chance.

3 fouls on one play that’s new

JFC Joe enough with the turnovers

Picked him up three weeks or so ago. College QB turned WR. https://www.nfl.com/prospects/isaiah-williams/32005749-4c31-9263-c2fd-331ed4ebd1b7

Wow forced a punt