AMPHAR

IMO, tagging Tee was the first and best move that could be made to having a great off season. The summer extensions always get lost in the March FA period too. Next March Karras and hopefully a couple other Bengals won't be hitting anyone's top 50 FA lists.

The 90s were so dumb for the Bengals. First, the first 4 draft picks of any given draft class seemed like they would walk into starting jobs almost automatically and be trumpeted as franchise saviors. Of course the Brown family would fight tooth and nail to prevent contract language they thought would end the world no matter what the other rookies were getting. What a nightmare approach to building a team and promoting your new up and coming season. They weren't the only ones with holdouts but thank god those days are over.

Sweet. See if they can knock a couple more off the pile needed extensions.

Tomlin is always going to have them playing hard and prepared to be a thorn in the side of any AFC North contending team. How ever he will always prevent them from choking and screwing their draft position and will he ever rally the team far enough to get back to a Superbowl?

Yeah. People can go back and forth all day long about whether or not Higgins is elite/No. 1 or not. Bottomline whatever Higgins is or isn't on his own don't matter. You know Higgins with Burrow/Chase is elite. I never view it as positional thing. Its a matter of having something that works very well so keep it. Its a zero sum game, IMO. At somepoint they'll have to find a diamond in the rough to fill a number of spots once the franchise talents get their market contracts.

Another counter point will be the Chiefs traded Hill and won 2 superbowls. However, that was not a function of the Chiefs thinking the best way to build a team was not paying WR. It was influenced by the amount of money and Hill being sort of a loose cannon. Secondly - KC has been on the ropes. The Bengals don't drop 3 linemen by the AFC Champ game then the narrative is flipped by what a colossal mistake it was to trade Hill. Ravens choking same story.

I will always go back to the Atkins, Dunlap, MJ days. There were countless posts from Bengals fans proclaiming they could only keep 1 or 2. Then tons of hot-air downgrading the 2 they thought wouldn't or couldn't be retained. Long story short. MJ played 1 season with Tampa but other than that all 3 played their prime years together. They never won a Superbowl or even a playoff game but they formed some the best Defenses we've ever had and the function of not winning a Superbowl/playoff game can be laid at the feet of lady luck and Dalton/Marvin choking, IMO.

The counter point to keeping Chase/Higgins will always be the "draft class". The draft classes for the forseeable future will fill the top 150 picks with plenty of WR prospects that look good running around in T-shirt and shorts at considerable cheaper prices. However, that doesn't necessarily translate into NFL production because I did a rough count posted it on here that less than 40% of the WR taken in the top 35/40 (can't remember) produce a singular 1,000 yard season. But fans will always talk themselves into saving that cap room to go sign a Center for goodness sake. I will always look at it as Burrow is the best back shoulder thrower in the NFL and Higgins excels at that. Then Chase is just elite as elite gets. So, in my mind the best way to knock over the Superbowl target is keeping both. Not to say that's the only way it can happen.

When I think of potential next Bengal HOFer. It goes like this 1. Ken Anderson - I think he's criminally overlooked and have lost hope it will ever happend - Already Ring of Honor inducted. 2. Willie Anderson - I hope this happens. Completely deserving - Already Ring of Honor inducted. 3. Geno Atkins - All Decade Team. He's deserving and when he comes up he'll at least get to the finals round which is a lot further than some of the 80s Bengals will get. 4. Andrew Whitworth - Deserving. When he comes up he'll at least get as far as Willie Anderson has gotten. Long story short. Bengals will need to figure out a way to have Atkins and Whit cut the line AT the same time their critical HOF voting is going on.

1. With Lions giving a mega deal to Sewell that was the alternate popular choice from that draft. It just won't play well and it shouldn't play well if the Bengals/Chase hit a rough patch that somehow leads Burrow playing games without Chase for an extended period of time. 2. Chase/Higgins together forever. Yes, I still think its feasible and makes perfect roster building sense. The NFL just got $75m a piece for 2 games from Netflix. The salary cap is going to continue to grow AND there is cap flexibility considering all of Tee's franchise tag is hitting now and Chase's option year will hit in full. Burrow's deal is not and won't hit full rate for a few seasons.

The Bengals and Chase know he's under control for 3 years. Contract year, Option Year, Tag Year. Which combined would pay him somewhere in the range of $50m. He reasonably can say $27m of that is 100% his. Tag year is questionable if he were to suffer a decline in performance in the next two years. Sign a long term deal before the season and he can more than double that amount of money in the same time period without beating JJs deal. That's the leverage point Bengals have. Chase sitting out this year is a major leverage point for him. There's no way this team would will want to suffer an public nightmare not appearing to do all they can to win with Burrow after the last few years of image change and at a time they'll probably be asking for $300-$400m of Hamilton county money. Makes sense for both sides to get it done.

Tupou and Scharping are just getting ahead of the "turk". They probably wisely looking at the numbers crunch and realizing they aren't making it. 3 interior DL added that are all making it. Zac Carter a former 3rd but I think played more than Tupou is probably on his way out as a result. With the OL. Brown, Brown, Ford, and Mims. Seem like a good bet for the 4 tackles. So guard spots are going to get squeezed by former tackles trying to hang on (Carman, Smith). Plus they'll have Lee or Hill trying to fit in there which ever one doesn't win back up Center job. All 3 interior OL starting spots are locks. There really is no excuse for Lou or Pollack to not have a top half unit this year. Other than the injury factor.

With JJ deal done and about this time of year we'll start getting some rumblings from the local scribes hinting at what the extension forecast looks like. At $24m under it would be a negative not to lock up some future players in the summer like they typically do.

That JJ deal is great news as it concerns the Bengals and Chase. Chase is worth every bit of a similar slightly worse or better contract. Got a couple a months to work on it. There's no way I'd step on the practice field without significant positives contract talks if I were Chase.

Just NFL business. Burrow did a similar thing. The NFL got $75m per game from Netflix. The cap has skyrocketed and will continue to do so. A player is smart to wait but when the on field stuff resumes and injury goes up it starts tilting towards a gamble. AJ Green took a hit. Higgins ending still needs to be written but he's in a situation he must perform to get the prospective long term contract demands and most of his "bad" year was his doing but it was also heavily influenced by what happened at the QB spot. Personally IF Justin Jefferson signs before camp. I'd seriously would consider a hold out IF I were Chase assuming a deal has seriously been discussed and maybe 60% along the way. Its just way too much money. Burrow got lucky it was his calf. If that injury had longer recovery or more complicated rehab at time when $250m or whatever was on the table good lord what mistake that would have been on his part.

Chase camp is waiting. They aren't signing until Justin Jefferson signs.

I think Dillon for sure. Lap is a good idea. There has always been stories from people that covered the team and former players that suggest Parrish was better than Ken Riley. I think they refer to him as Deon Sanders before Deon. Its hard to say no to any 80s Superbowl era pro bowler, IMO. Those are some of my favorite players.

If Trent Brown can replicate his Patriots level pass pro stats its the steal of the century. However, somehow someway a Pollack coached line with a Zac Taylor called game with Burrow making calls finds a way to give up near 50 sacks a season. The no. 1 choke hold on this offense is Burrow finding a way to miss Training Camp via non contact injuries. The biggest non-Burrow factor is the negative plays given up by the line. To get a an offense humming for 380+ near 27 points a game. Burrow needs his training camp reps and stay healthy and directly related to that there needs to be a drastic reduction of pressures and negative plays given up by the line. That will be the key to Burrow getting in the hunt for a MVP and also a return to the Superbowl. To this day no QB, OC, HC, or OL coach has approached the offensive dominance displayed by Wyche and Boomer. That was a run first, play action based team playing under the old NFL passing rules. Kinda amazing really.

Supposedly Falcons and Steelers are Week 1 matchup.

From the other thread. Stripes reporting Week 2 @ KC. This probably locks them in with a home opener. They can't afford to be in preseason mode to start the season again. KC gets a semi bye week heading into week 2.

Probably KC. Ravens getting a win in KC would be a big boost for them and at some point the Bengals will play in KC possibly meaning the Bengals would need to match assuming the AFC North lives up to its projections.

Could be some truth to that or could be pure crap. Nerd Doctor gets his chance to be part of the cool crowd of course its time to get clicks. There was some doctor preachin gloom and doom after the knee injury.

Other than injury LB isn't a top concern. Wilson and Pratt are equally capable of being game changers at any point. Not strong against the run but both have flipped games with TOs. Wilson already has two 4 ints seasons. Pratt has several huge TOs.

Burrow speaks today so there will be plenty of "OMG Burrow" moments today.

I think they had Jenkins on their board fairly high. They've taken 3 Michigan players with significant picks 3 years in a row. I think Jenkins will prove to be a better pass rusher than his draft profile indicates. The ability to pursue from the down lineman position reminds of Tim Krumrie and J. Smith. Just relentless pursuit of the ball carrier.