AMPHAR

I do like the draft shirt. I think its a standard theme across the NFL so I'm not hopeful that it replaces the "B". They are allowed to do a 3rd helmet. I think they should use the opportunity to do a completely new helmet concept away from the stripes. Please no "70s" block bengals either. Those are ugly and boring. I would love a script "Bengals" along the side or something like that.

Eli Apple played a ton of quality snaps on a flyer type contract. I could live with CB. Always need guys that can run and cover.

The way the talking heads were talking last night Latu is the best defender, period. That came out of no where but multiple guys were echoing it so there's some smoke there. As far as mocks go that's a major upset because Turner has been the first DE to go for a LONG time. Then someone added on they think Verse is the higher rated DE over Turner. Is any of this true? Who knows? But it would be kinda weird to only have 1 DL taken in the first 17 picks.

Bengals have selected 67 players in the first round all time. Any decent stats person will tell that is a far cry from a decent sample size to make predictive conclusions. WR - 9 times (3 all time great Bengals) J'mar, AJ, Curtis OT - 8 times (2 all time greats) Munoz, and Willie DT/NT - 4 times ( just solid players) DE - 11 ( a lot of solid players) DB - 8 (surprisingly some solid players) J. Joe, Hall, Darly Williams, C/G - 5 times Zietler and blah. Blair Bush was good for a couple years. Remington played a while but was never up to hype LB - 9 times (ugly list, Takeo Spikes and Brian Simmons save the group) QB - 6 time (ugly except Burrow and I guess Palmer. RB - 4 times (ugly) TE - 3 times (ugly) save Eifert's one awesome year Downtown Eddie Brown and Tim McGee - 2nd tier probably made a couple pro bowls.

NFL network is doing cross promotions with ESPN on draft coverage. Last night they had the guru Mel Kiper on. Showed some of his old draft day clips. It just doesn't see like draft coverage until you here Mel's voice. Draft day was so much better to watch when it was up in New York. I don't mind Thursday but its such a kiss ass event right now. Too many "super fans" that love every single pick.

Lou has to be accountable for Dax and the fall off, IMO. Dax in the first 6 games looked like a potential pro bowler. He dropped something like 6 ints(entire season). If he holds on to 4 of those fans would be pimping him for pro bowl. I have no idea how they are going to use him or if at all. They have alot of potential in the secondary. Up to Lou to figure it out, I guess.

Mims and Guyton are a hard pass in the first round for me. Great measurables, bad tech, inexperience....screams their typical tackle bust. There's no way the Bengals scouting staff has determined 6/7 college OTs are among the best 18 non QB players. I would guess maybe 4 or less.

I hope they get robbed shipping out a team's home opener is BS. Do week 2 or whatever.

Never. Its not their money. As soon as they feel they won't lose their job over it they'll jump at the chance of playing power broker. As far as Hamilton County. "Making Sense" is in the eye of the beholder since its a Public venture and there's not Return On Investment to measure for share holders. Look at the riverfront today vs. 1995. What they did made a lot of sense. The riverfront is a huge draw. Building that new riverfront was a headache in the early days but its something that ended up on the right side. Its not even completed. Hamilton County can't afford to not go forward with a major draw. Same with the Reds.

Simple. It is not their money, period. When the winds of positive political momentum come about they'll jump at the chance to play power broker of a large pot of money and play city planner. Create some bullshit "stadium authority" with several well paid government jobs that produce nothing. Well NO shit. That is the case in everything. Wealth is not created or destroyed it is transferred, period. In the case of Cincinnati, its always easy to create the regional financial impact because mostly the Reds draw from several "other" pools of money outside of Hamilton county.

Yeah. 100%

From Bengals.com Geoff convo with Bengals Director of Pro Scouting Steven Radicevic.

I would much rather have Tee on a 1 year $22m deal and lose him the next than settle for what Buffalo got.

Buffalo needs to get those rookie deals. Allen is only $30m against the cap this year and balloons to $60m next. Yikes. Their cap situation is hard to follow but they were looking at a tough situation going into the year. They cut and then resigned some. But are carrying $54m in dead money this year so to me that's a sign they'll suffer through this year and try to get right the next few. But it seems the East kind of always have at least 2 teams shit can a season every single year. Where as the North every team is hoping to win it. Its even worse in the AFC West were 3 teams are crappy all the time no matter what they do.

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.