HoosierCat

I don’t know what Knight’s issue is, but per Florio, Stewart’s holdup is with the percent of the deal that’s in roster bonuses. Last year’s 17th pick, Christian Gonzalez, got $1.7 million of his cash in roster bonuses, or about 11% of his $15.1 million deal. Stewart wants 11% or more of his deal in roster bonuses, too, and the FO is apparently balking. Given that the whole deal is going to be fully guaranteed, this seems to me a dumb thing for either side to dig in on, but hey it’s the Bengals. Heaven forfend that anything go smoothly.

Nope you are correct. And just for the record Mims got a fully guaranteed deal, so I don’t expect that to be an issue for a Stewart. Knight, could be.

Stewart and knight both on site for rookie minicamp but not participating since they aren’t under contract yet. Taylor wouldn’t say if he thought they would be done by Monday. FO did a good job getting everyone else signed before rookie minicamp, but still would be nice if they stepped up and got these done too.

Colts have inked Tyler Warren, who went at 14. $20.9m fully guaranteed deal, including an $11.9m signing bonus.

Essentially Cody Ford’s replacement, or at least that’s the plan, I think.

Because he's washed. That's why there's been no trade interest, either.

Another day, another non-update update on Trey, this time from Rapoport. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/nfl/bengals/2025/05/08/bengals-trey-hendrickson-have-communicated-since-nfl-draft-ian-rapoport/83526324007/ tl;dr a deal will get done eventually. Which, again, we already knew.

UDFAs signed. https://www.bengals.com/news/bengals-sign-13-rookies-2025

Space in the LB room seems pretty tight. If they keep 6 like last year, then 4 spots are already claimed by Wilson, Burks, Knight and Barrett. And they seem to like both Heyward and Njongmeta. I suppose you could sneak one of those guys through to the PS, but even then who does Pratt play over? Given his paycheck you can’t relegate him to teams. I think the die has been cast here.

Also I see the media is fussing over Trey again. https://www.cincyjungle.com/2025/5/7/24425786/trey-hendrickson-bengals-update-contract-standoff All of this is based on Jeremy Fowler saying that Hendrickson has "no interest in playing on his scheduled $16 million salary in 2025." Which we already knew, right? I mean, that's the whole reason this saga is saga-ing. But it's an excuses to freak out about a holdout (which will never happen) and get some clicks, I guess.

Morrison wonders why Pratt is still on the roster. https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/what-is-going-on-with-the-cincinnati-bengals-and-linebacker-germaine-pratt-01jtp19t8p30 I agree with his conclusion, that the Bengals are holding on to him in hopes of some event that makes a team come offer a pick or something. But if nothing materializes, he will get cut.

Bachie signs on with Lou in Indy. https://www.stampedeblue.com/2025/5/7/24425463/colts-announce-signing-of-former-bengals-linebacker-who-reunites-with-lou-anarumo

No real surprise. I think it's his job to lose.

Steelers shipping Pickens off to Dallas. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45036163/sources-cowboys-nearing-trade-steelers-wr-george-pickens Fine by me.

Eh, all those replacement Lumina parts are made in China these days. Someone’s gotta pay the tariffs and it ain’t gonna be Mike.

Report from the first voluntary workout yesterday. https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/allbengals-insiders-plus/look-bengals-gather-for-first-on-field-workout-of-2025-offseason-01jtk24hyn46 BJ Hill in a boot Dax on the rehab field Charlie Jones present but not working. Same with Moss and All. Jamarr and Tee present, but Joe had places to be and suits to model… https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/joe-burrow-at-the-2025-met-gala-bengals-qb-info-pics/ar-AA1Ef4DB

Stone takes a haircut. https://overthecap.com/geno-stone-agrees-to-pay-cut-with-bengals Bengals team cap space now up to $26.6 million.

Ravens cut Justin Tucker.

Looks like the league bumped the schedule release up a day to the 14th. https://www.bengals.com/news/bengals-2025-schedule-released-may-14

Tom feels your pain…

Yeah, I was wondering about Pratt this morning. There was a little flurry of bookface posts last night about them getting ready to release him. Dehner at least seems to think it’s coming. I guess we will see.

Good read from Dehner. https://archive.ph/aJTOm Not a whole we didn’t know or expect, but does make it crystal clear that Stewart, Knight and Barrett are Al’s picks 100% and he was locked in on taking them long before Cam Newton’s name got called. He believes they are what he needs to make his defense go. Also sneaks in confirmation that the LBs will be running the show on the field, versus the safeties under Lou. Hopefully frees Stone up to just play ball.

This is a good read. https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/bengals-moaning-season-is-upon-us-again/ Some nice bits: Also:

Based on this it sounds like he might get some snaps there (“chess piece” etc.) but it seems clear they see him mainly at corner. https://www.bengals.com/news/dax-hill-bengals-believe-in-his-many-skills