HoosierCat

No he had been out for a while, had his old job back. Was just his time.

So half my Facebook feed is that insta of Joe tossing a football, with endless OMG comments and gifs. This is going to be the theme until camp, isn’t it. Wow, did you see that? Burrow opened a door! Look: Burrow drinks beverage! Source: Joe takes dump, flushes afterwards!

Jenkins is...fine. Heaven knows the Bengals can use any and all help against the run, and between Jenkins and McKinnley they should be better. That said, they clearly had Murphy and Newton ranked ahead of Jenkins. Likely Sweat too. My take is that this was a rerun of round 1, just on the d-line. In the first they were locked in on OT and whoever the best tackle left on their board was when 18 rolled around, that was the pick. Same in the second, they were just locked in on DT.

My gutters are the color of an angels robe and my walk and driveway gleam like alabaster. My back is a twisted wreck that might allow me to walk again in a few weeks. Worth it.

Began power washing 10 am Finished power washing 525 pm That is all.

And so the draft is over and the long slog toward camp begins. Dates for activities, such as they are, between now and then: Rookie Minicamp: May 10 OTA Offseason Workouts: May 28-30, June 3-6 Mandatory Minicamp: June 11-13

As long as it isn’t Pitt. Solid guy, made a few memorable catches… (bet you can guess that one before you click)

I understand that in order to free up cash for the stadium the BBM has an idea to reduce public safety costs.

Yeah, PBS definitely should have been a covered field. I remember arguing for that decades ago. But no way an all-new dome gets done now, the cost would be, well, look at the Bears.

So a bit of news from my neck of the woods on the Bears' ongoing efforts to get a new stadium. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40066053/bears-new-stadium-proposal-nonstarter The proposed stadium would need (at least) $900 million in public funds. Allegedly this would come from an existing hotel tax and not require new taxes. But what caught my attention was that the Bears are offering up more than $2 billion of their own money for the facility. Now, I get that the Bengals are not the Bears. Per Forbes last valuation numbers, Chicago was the fifth-most-valuable franchise, versus the Bengals at No. 32. But that chasm looks a lot closer in raw numbers: $556 million in revenue and $203 in operating income for Chicago versus $498 million/$104 million for Cincinnati. https://www.forbes.com/lists/nfl-valuations/?sh=5de79f6d1738 Looking at that, it's tough to argue that the Bengals couldn't handle every cent of the necessary stadium work themselves.

So they are keeping the B on the 50 yard line because it looks good on tv from a distance. https://www.bengals.com/news/updates-on-2024-paycor-stadium-renovation-projects

Looks like they liked RB Elijah Collins enough to throw in an $8k signing bonus to land him. https://www.cincyjungle.com/2024/4/30/24145762/elijah-collins-signing-bonus-bengals-udfa-oklahoma-state-rb-michigan-state

Interesting nugget out of KC. https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/report-kansas-city-chiefs-wanted-to-trade-up-for-cincinnati-bengals-amarius-mims

Well, first thing to remember is that all this is coming from Tee’s camp, so of course they are as pure as the driven snow, never made any outrageous demands, etc. Also this report refers to the original conversations, which would have been in 2023. That said it just confirms for me that the Bengals never had any intention of resigning Higgins and that “tag and release” was always the plan. No surprise there, we’ve seen it multiple times before.

Dehner's early thoughts on the OL roster battle: https://theathletic.com/5455756/2024/04/29/bengals-post-draft-roster-reset-offense/

Boomer, Sims booted from The NFL Today show in favor of Matt Ryan. https://www.local12.com/sports/bengals/former-bengals-quarterback-boomer-esiason-leaving-cbs-tv-gig-22-years-nfl-today-cincinnati-phil-simms-bill-cowher-nate-burleson-matt-ryan-watt

Hendrickson is signed through 2025. That’s what he’s beefing about now.

Yeah, at this point I would say that barring some unpleasant surprise, the Browns, Trent and Orlando, Volson, Karras, Cappa and Mims are locks for the final roster. After that we got: C: Trey Hill, Nate Gilliam, Matt Lee G: Cody Ford, Jason Kirkland T: Jackson Carmen, Devon Cochran, D'Ante Smith Ford and Smith get you to 8. Does Carmen stick? I think they see him more of a guard and none of the centers seem like potential backups there, so having a swing guy would be useful. How many do they keep? Especially since they are now going RB by committee and have like 57 TEs in the house now. Going to be a very interesting group to watch this spring and summer.

The two main objections appear to be the aforementioned weight issue and that he was viewed as a pure center. Most of the centers who went higher like JPJ were also seen as potential guards. I think Lee could surprise in camp but most likely ends up ticketed for the taxi squad, at least to start the year.

The stupid is strong with this one. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2024-nfl-draft-miles-sanders-bailey-zappe-james-bradberry-among-potential-post-draft-cut-candidates/

From Hobson’s reporting on the .com, which for once is pretty revealing, a couple things are clear. One, they were dialed in on DT in the second, and their board with Murphy gone was 2. Newton 3. Jenkins. Or at the very least Jenkins was the last DT they were willing to grab at 49. Two, they were not willing to trade up if it cost them one of the thirds. So if they tried to find a partner, it does not seem like they tried very hard. Personally I don’t think they tried at all. I would have been more aggressive, we will just have to see how it goes.

I refuse to believe this is an actual person and not the name of a football-themed G.I. Joe character from the 80s cartoon.

Here’s pff…

I’ll give it A, for whatever grades the day after the draft are worth. Mims will be first off the bench at either tackle spot, and heir apparent to Trent Brown. Jenkins and Jackson will both be immediate contributors on a d line that could not stop the run to save its life last season. Burton is an immediate upgrade in the slot. All is the second-best TE in this draft when healthy and McLaughlin’s hands are made of glue. And they may have stolen their center of the future in the seventh. The rest all have great upside. Yup, good freakin’ draft.