AMPHAR

Bills will have to suffer through some dead cap and replacement pains this year.

The grass on Joe Robbie Superbowl 23 was the worse. I'm not sure it was factor in Krumrie's leg or not. Then Cleveland was actually painting dirt "green" once it got past mid-October back in the muni days.

I'm mostly concerned with the mid field logo. Hope the "B" is gone.

Exactly. I looked at some old kick offs. Most of the time the return team and coverage team were contacting each other around the 30/25 yard line. Then there was some sort of "wedge" set in side the 20 most of the time. This rule essentially removed the run up and the wedges. They'll be contacting each other about the same part of the field without the run up. I'd imagine the common strategy would be to have a coverage guy or two get as deep as possible to steer the runner into pursuit.

I think the new kick off rule will be a success like the moving of the PAT. However, it will be based on a minority of teams having success at returns and defense. The PAT movement would not have been successful if everyone started missing or still making them 99% of the time. Also the option of going for 2 has turned that into must see TV instead of an after thought. I'm assuming injury will be a factor in determining the longevity of the rule change. I don't think fans want to see a high degree of success or failure with the new kick off rules. They'll want the average starting spot to be 30-25 yard line with a rare chance of a game changing return or momentum swinging coverage play.

The best way to stop football injuries is to stop playing football. The issue to be concerned over is the NFL now owning the XFL/USFL spring league. The manifestation of this new kick off rule was formed out of a league trying to gather eyeballs to TV. Supposedly tested the rules at junior colleges and the 400 kickoffs they monitored produced 0 concussions. Which "IF TRUE" is drastically lower than the old NFL kickoff format which was very concussion friendly. I'd imagine that's why its only approved for a year, to really test data at the NFL level. But with the lack of an independent spring league there goes motive for innovation. I would guess the Running Backs should be happy because this might revive their value a little. Also it will be interesting how the kickers react. Considering all defenders must line up at the 40 there is no 2nd line of defense in the formation so ball placement will be critical to allow for adjustments once the ball hits.

I would be happy with this. Without knowing who's on the board in the 1st/2nd rounds. Fuaga is my top OT hope IF they go that route. Wilson has serious speed and that would be a plus getting that in the 2nd. His numbers are probably reduced playing in Michigan's system. Melton the same with speed. Then two chances to get younger on the DT. Boyd seems like a better need fit right now.

I don't mind them shipping off rando games to foreign nations or even placing them on a 1 time streaming event. Browns vs. Eagles or Packers vs. Eagles I could give 2 shits about. However, I don't like the thought of them shipping off an opening day game for anyone. Hip drop tackle rule is stupid. Add that to the list of things they won't get right consistently. New kick off rules are 100 times better than the past seasons of kick offs. It was becoming, why the hell do we even do this?

I say hold out for top 15 value for Higgins. Him having to perform this year is a great situation for the Bengals, unless there's a big urgent push to use that cap room for extensions or something. No sense taking what the Chiefs got for Sneed but the Chiefs are in need of cash and cap room.

I like the sound of the new kick off rules. Puts strategy and ball placement back in play or at least it sounds like it will. Very much against the hip drop tackle. Just another way to penalize the defender in doing their job and another rule the vast majority of watching fans won't understand. Gives more air time to the all knowing rule expert and more non-entertaining banter between the booth and the rule czar. With the owners meeting in full flight this is probably the last decent push for getting ground work to trade Tee. If they don't parameters they are comfortable with now, its probably dead.

My post FA thinking is....IF the Bengals thought 5,6,7 OTs were worthy of the 18th pick. They wouldn't have signed a FA tackle. There might be a couple OT names they'll consider at 18 but no way they are taking the 4th or 5th tackle off the board come draft day. Just some worthless thinking.

This mock will be fun to look at 5 years from now. That's a haul right there. Send it in.

Unfortunately for Boyd and every other Bengal pass catcher their production was stunted badly in the first 5 games of 2023. The Bengals simply did not run a lot of plays during that stretch. Then were wasn't a late season BOOM because Burrow got hurt. Higgins doesn't have a whole lot of market right now. Boyd doesn't either.

The pass blocking on an Island is the most impressive thing. If that translates to the Bengals this year then its going to be a huge pick up even over an average Jonah Williams. Run blocking should be improved although that's a distant concern. For the Bengals its Joe Burrow spreading things out and having more confidence they'll hold a second longer. Hopefully the guy comes in decent shape and get reps in July/August. A big weakness along the line is handling twisting stunts.

I hope Trent Brown's Patriot produced PFF translate to the Bengals. I'm real skeptical of his recent PFF scores earned with a bad offense. All the PFF score is telling is their opinion on how he executed what they thought the Patriots asked him to do. Given the Patriots QB situation and lack of offensive threats, its a lot easier to accumulate better scores with "play for punt offense". Zac and Burrow are throwing on 3rd and 8s. Burrow isn't checking down either. So that can screw with OL stats. Given what and how fans use PFF. They should work in some degree of difficulty variable. Fans want PFF to tell them who's better. That's not really what the score is based on. Its we think this guy executed what he was asked to do X amount of the time. That's it.

People can say what they want. Its simply wrong. A lot of Alexander bashers had no fucking clue what they were watching. The Bengals could have rolled out Cody Ford and still would not have been an impossible ask to give up less than 50 sacks or hell 40. Hell Melvin Rootin Tuten and Kevin Sargent even produced seasons less than 50. That's back when you had Klingler starring into headlights and Blake throwing moon balls and couldn't run worth a crap. A 4th quarter lead was rare. Pollack needs to step his game up or get the fuck out. Its hard to imagine a world in which people tried to confuse Dalton with an All-PRO, giving up less than 30 sacks and somehow the o-line coach sucks. WTF? Now its 50 sacks a year is alright.

Its been long time since I rocked and rolled.... been a long time been a long time Whit and Smith circa 2014 era were better than this crew. It'd be awesome if this combo could give up 2 or less sacks per game like Levi and Willie or Whit and Smith. That's 1 big like I have with Trent Brown and hopefully it plays true. He pass protects on an island and isn't credited with a lot of sacks given up. Orlando Brown while a upper tier tackle is not a lock down pass protector. However, Burrow is the biggest play extending QB they've had since Blake. So you are going to get pegged with some sacks. I would imagine New England with the youth and struggles at QB they were trying to get the ball out. Brown with Brady, you know that ball is coming out.

Biggest tackle duo in the NFL! 4 out of 5 projected Bengal starters have started and won Superbowls. Impressive. Now for the love of quality offensive line play. Can they please get them playing good football early and some how cut down the negative plays and QB hits? Please.

Finding an up tier starting tackle in the draft certainly would help a lot with filling out next year's roster.

They could take 2 OTs in this draft. Everyone except Orlando Brown is a free agent after the season right now.

After seeing contract breakdown. Bengals passed on Reader. They could have easily paid the Rankins money to him IF they wanted to. Reader is on a prove it deal in Detriot. 1yr $9m up to $11m pending incentives. If he proves it he can earn another $11m in 2025. Rankins on the other hand gets $14m this year. The Bengals could elect to cut him after 1 year ($10.5m cap savings) but they can take it all the way up to start of 2025. His 2025 cap hit is mostly salary and game time incentives. Reader simply is not worth all the hand wringing from Bengal Nation.

Unless you favored them paying Jonah Williams $30m there really wasn't any sure fire Free Agent solution. RT was always going to be a focus when TC came open. They were always going to be looking at some kind of RT Derby in training camp. No one knows the participants yet. Trent Brown has been available before. I don't think they ever bit on his availability. Took a look back and he was the 40th ranked NFL Free Agent in 2022. A lot of ifs. Also fans are doing the classic PFF comparison which is fundamentally flawed. You can't compare 1 guy's PFF with a different team doing different things against different opponents to another. Its pointless. PFF is silo system that's only determining how a particular player played in a particular game, evaluation done with 0 knowledge of game plan, play call, scheme. Yeah, hopefully they draft a couple tackles and hit on them. I would say Brown is a better option than Becton if you are looking at 2024 opening day starter.

They have to close the gap to Burrow and Lamar Jackson somehow.

The problem the Steelers face is they have to pick up the option May 2nd or nothing. They won't know jack about their QB options by then. I'm not sure they'll even have OTA before then. So its commit $25m of 2025's cap blindly or face your entire QB room from 2024 becoming UFA in 2025.

Teair Tart - I wouldn't say the door closed, but its looking unlikely according to reports. This is a miss from the Bengals pending on what he eventually signs for. Adding him and Rankins to the D-line although not getting younger in all aspects and short term deals. Tart would add a little more pass rush over Reader. Unfortunately doesn't look likely. Becton - I think people lost their mind on this one jumping to conclusions he's the starter (if signed) at RT. I even saw someone suggest a $15m deal. I'm for the signing but it (looks unlikely) but this I would hope be a reclamation project and a contract that reflects that. No way do you take RT off your board or pencil him in at any starting spot. You have to think back to Levi Jones. As some may remember Levi had a promising rookie season, better 2003. Then tried to play through a knee injury in Baltimore since the division was on the line. Injured it worse. He was horrible in 2004. Then rebounded back to be one of the best LTs in 2005. But the knee issue kept coming back along with other lower leg stuff. He was a shell of himself in 2008. Becton you just can't invest much hope IF his knees cost him that bad. Ronnie Staley over in Baltimore is another sad story. Becton hasn't put anything on film consistently since his injury that suggests he beyond that. I don't know what the Bengals will do but I do think they try to find some sort of NT and RT in FA.