AMPHAR

Sounds like the Raven injuries to their OL are week to week. DB injury will be longer. Dobbins - out.

That was my favorite "Battle of Ohio" the day Johnny Football died. Prior to that game he was supposed to come in and lead them to a playoff spot. Hill, Hewitt, and Gresh were just nasty on the edge that year.

2014. Bengals extended Dalton after a horrible playoff melt down in 2013. Mistake. Bunch of skill position injuries throughout the year. Dalton bad year. They got blown out on Thursday Night vs. Cleveland. Then leaned on the run game the rest of the way and earned a wild card birth. Along the way ending Johnny Football's career. 2018 would count. Mixon's best year or 2nd best year but a lost year overall. Although not running per say. Last year they turned the offense struggles around by throwing underneath to Mixon, Perine, and Hurst.

Ravens like the last 3 meetings are going to try to make this ugly. Going to be chippy for sure. Probably a lot of echo of the whistle hits too. WRs are going to have to fight through hand checking and get open.

Bengals don't hit enough int TC along the line to lean on a running game early in the year. They also have no desire to do so either. Quite frankly, pointing out no running game when the QB is getting $55m a year, I think they ran it plenty of times yesterday and effectively enough to have Joe carve out something. Protection wasn't a shit show (not great or good either) but we've seen Joe make plays with worse performances. They put the game in his hands and he failed. Simple as that. That defense was playing good enough that if you show some sort of offense ability its taking a few carries away from Chubb and put it into Watson who was also horrible. Then maybe you escape with an ugly close loss or ugly close win. Joe isn't super human and needs reps. He tried to throw them out of the game week 1 last year. This time on the road in shitty weather made a comeback hard to do. Its just going to be annoying not hitting at top performance early in the year and hopefully it doesn't cost them in the playoff run.

Watched a little of Alt. Looked the part of top draft pick.

Highest paid QB. Soon to be among the top paid WR (Higgins, Chase). Pro Bowl LT, Tom Brady's Center and RG, First Round RT. Can't score a TD? Failure of those players and the off season program and game prep week. Unfortunately it looks like we are spending Weeks 2-6 once again over analyzing the offense and wondering if it will ever kick into high gear.

Annoying as shit watching Cleveland Browns players and fans celebrating. Not even competitive.

I would guess that's a Zac decision.

Preseason game 1. They just don't grind in camp and it shows early on. The problem is now you are looking at a possible 0-2 division start again. No surprise the unit that played in the preseason looked competent. No excuse not to have the starting line at least get a series or two during preseason. They can't get any push what so ever and the timing in the run game is just off. Then the coaching staff should have expect passing game struggles with Burrow not practicing all summer.

Glad to see the Sonny Crockett look coming back.

Alas rival fan bases relishing the demise of the Bengals after this deal because Mike Brown is cheap. Weird thought process. Mike Brown was a cheap ass in the 90s before PBS became a reality. I don't know what you would describe him as post Marvin Lewis. However they are still a 0 championship front office but they have moved up in the top half of franchise post Marvin. Yesterday more proof. 1. Palmer (Hobson reminded me) was the highest paid player at one point - 2 division champs 2. Dalton - signed a big but team friendly deal with incentives - 2 division champs 3. Burrow - highest paid 2 division champs, 1 AFC Champ, 1 AFC runner up. I don't know if Mike Brown ever sees the top of the mountain, however it won't be because of cheapness. The rest of AFC North is simply going to have to deal with a very competitive Bengals franchise for the next decade like the previous decade before. The Bengals will probably win the North more times than any other AFC North team the next 10 years. Just the way it is now.

I say it absolutely worth trying to keep Tee no matter cap costs. People always run out current Superbowl Champ didn't have............ That shit changes like the wind. IMO, it really comes down to whoever gets the money bag will have to play at a championship level. Then up to front office to back fill quality. If they don't pay Tee, fine. Pay Chase but FO will need to find a replacement for Tee. Then whoever or whatever combo of players that gets Tee's money will need to deliver. Unfortunately recent History once they dump money into Dalton. They were horrible at drafting replacement O-line. Then defense got old, fat, and self absorbed.

I'd slow your roll on losing Tee. I'm confident Bengals will put an offer on the table that will be tough to pass up. 1st - they view WR as impact/franchise position. 2nd - they view Tee as an elite player at that position. It will come down to whether or not Tee wants to try to beat it, in offseason 2025 because he's gonna get the tag. I'd wait for the structure of the Burrow deal. I don't see the Tee situation like Bates were the basically say they don't want to sink that much money into that position. I think they value WR position and Tee to use the tag AND to put a top market offer out there. Then as the Bengals operate. If Tee don't want to play ball then that money will go to some other Bengals willing to deal.

It seems to me the last few Burrow led Bengal teams that lost to the Browns have a good/decent opening drive going then a turnover happens. Then the rest of the day the offensive mojo doesn't work for whatever reason. Then Browns D-line tee offs, the defense pursues very well to the ball. They get in that comfort zone and then aren't afraid to ride Chubb behind that line. Be nice to set them back on their heals early in the game. But it will be tight game all day long probably. Make the Browns play caller go away from Chubb. But allow the Browns to get comfortable they could win by 10+

Media is going to media. You get the Burrow deal done to avoid a Lamar Jackson monster distraction. Just better to get it done so they'll move on to the next superstar about to expire. I believe the Bengals will attempt to resign Higgins but its up to him to agree.

I don't have any inside sources on the contract itself. Just reading tea leaves of what I was told and the contract was largely done last week. I hope my speculation is true.

Obvious key to the game. OL line play. Past 3 JB starts vs. the Browns - 12 sacks. Garrett has had huge days against Brown and Williams. I would hope some professional pride would kick in because they have not played great against the Browns and even worse up in Cleveland. I'll take a 1 point win and be happy.

This offense has been good. It hasn't been great. There's plenty of room to add 20/30 yards per game and about 3 points per game. I'd be disappointed if Brown doesn't have a significant role without another back stepping up.

That's what I'm thinking about. Since Ossi got hurt in camp/preseason he'd have to clear waivers before they could put him on IR to return. I guess. Another factor might be they may think he can beat the estimated healing time.

I'm just going to guess and say: The lack of practice reps for Burrow was related to contract status and the contract IS DONE. Again, just a guess no insider info.

Was he eligible for PUP? Once you are cleared medically and practice it used to be you could not be PUP'd. Then I thought in order to use IR designation out of TC you had to cut them first then if they made it back put on IR or something.

Hopeful an extension is coming soon.

Nah. Adeniji was the one on a free pass the past couple years and Carman has been better since day 1. Pollack should eat crow on this.

Correct. That and Adeniji has never been better than him. Carman catches more grief because they didn't take Sewell and he hasn't lived up to his 2nd round selection.