AMPHAR

Meanwhile in KC, Buffalo and AFC North they don't have "Cap Hell" as it existed in the 1990 but they have some tough roster management issues ahead. 1. KC has 2 elite FAs. 1 Tag and probably enough cap room to cover that tag. So they'll have to reshuffle some stuff 2. Buffalo is ($50m) over. I have no idea 3. Miami is ($50m) over. Again no idea 4. Houston - $65 cap room. Dangerous team to make waves in AFC 5. Baltimore - ($1m) over. Bunch of key players as FAs. Right now can't tag anyone. 6. Browns - ($20m) over. No clue but they got issues because they still have Qb concerns 7. Pittsburgh - ($4) over. Issues. Namely how do they grab a QB? Other AFC team will splash and win the media darling offseason award. Houston is a real threat. Cincinnati can actually win it by just tagging and then extending another elite talent.

Just remove the emotion. NFL fans/media allow emotion to sway logical thinking. Below is a summary of the elite free agents prior to tags and in no particular order. I would take ANY of these players on a 1 year deal at their market rate. Might be a couple more players but the NFL Top free agent lists generally have these names on top. 1. Chris Jones 2. L'Jarius Sneed 3. Jaylon Johnson 4. Josh Allen (the pass rusher) 5. Madubuike 6. Antonie Winfield 7. Tee Higgins But since Tee Higgins is already a Bengal for some reason that wouldn't count as an elite signing. Stupid. Its always been stupid to look at it that way. Now, reality is these guys are not making it to the market (via tags) OR signing huge multi year deals if they do reach UFA. The Bengals have a lay up here. Instantly procure an elite Free Agent by simply playing by the rules. If Higgins busts in 2024 like he did in 2023. They can move on easily. The fact some fans/media would even think this situation as a negative is mind boggling. Take the lay up. You then control 1 of the elite players in FA. Once that is done. The Bengals will rearrange some deck chairs on Lido Deck. Hopefully match the succes they've done the past couple years. The most important piece of the entire offseason is Chase. Get him locked away this summer and they've done a lot of what the media fear mongered for two years over the pending Burrow deal. Then the biggest question marks in Training Camp will be QB health, Young safeties and right tackle.

I wouldn't mind burning another late rounder on a punter. However, there has to be a upside with the one they just drafted and/or a solid Undrafted punter that would be an improvement. Just word to the wise there are some Fanboys in the Bengal twitterverse. They loved them some Volson and they loved them some Robbins. Go back and look at some of those OTA, Training Camp tweets for both these guys. Superhuman they where.

Wide Outs

Defensive Line

Interior OL

Tackles -

More Senior Bowl Updates: A couple of these guys are landing to the Bengals in mock drafts. CB chatter:

I would not want Fields in Pittsburgh. Too much upside and they'd have a cheap 2024 and I'm assuming they'd have an optional 5th year somewhere around $20m. Hopefully his struggles in Chicago aren't easily fixed if he does land in Pitt.

Steelers will be in the QB market. The other QB is saying he wants a fresh start. Then Pickett is a large unknown. It will be interesting to see what they do. Hopefully it cost them cap room, draft picks and it flops bigger than shit.

Pass. Call it my Senior Bowl bias. There's a few players taken after each pick I'd rather have at this point. My desire for a big investment at TE is going to change pending the status of Higgins. IMO, if they lock in Higgins with a tag or contract there's no room for a big investment in TE, unless comit to an every down TE. With Higgins, Chase, Burrow, 5 OL, RB - That leaves you 2 spots to work in every other utility player and sometimes with a slot WR they have blocking dedicated TE.

Dan Quinn was a very good D-Coordinator. Zimmer will do fine. Cowboys are a better version of the problem the Bengals had with Marvin Lewis. Good regular season team, poor playoff performers. The history of the NFL is filled with these type of teams. Since I loved the old AFC Central in the late 80s. These type of regular season champs/playoff chump teams remind me of the Warren Moon Oilers. Just could never get to the Conference Championship game.

Eh, if its a forgone conclusion they'll suck in September and I don't see why they wouldn't. Give me the toughest non-divisional road games in weeks 1 and 2. If they suck, then at least get those games are out of the way. If you land on opening Thursday, at least you'll have a quasi-bye week to lick your wounds. I don't want to see division home games or heavy favorite home games in weeks 1 or 2. Would really like to avoid any division games week 1 or 2. However, the Reds are out of town those weekends so they'll probably be home.

Also with a Chiefs win and the Bengals scheduled to visit Arrowhead again, this puts them in the running for Thursday Night opening game.

Romo and Nantz are horrible. Romo is horrible. In retrospect Phil Sims was a ton better. If CBS was bold they poach Greg Olsen from Fox since he's getting demoted to make way for Tom Brady.

Willie will probably have to pass away and then have the NFL forget his name in a tribute in order to be elected to Hall of Fame. Bengals shouldn't have a bunch of Hall of Famers but come on. 2 guys? One had to be top 5 in career interceptions, die, be forgotten and then elected. In another clear case of disrespect. Bengal player 17.5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles not even a mention for DPOY.

Pollack blows. There's two unexplainable and inexcusable games on film from last year. @Titans; Home vs. Bengals. Just a cluster of mistakes and baffoonery.

There's been a lot of rumblings over on the Ravens board before the AFC Championship game about Zay Flowers. Some bad rumors and now more heat is coming down. If you want to snoop around and get details its over there. Raven's fans on message boards are all about to start studying criminal law real quick.

Higgins is the biggest priority right now. 1. Tags are due by end of February. So they will have to commit cap room to him that soon. They won't know enough about DJ by the end of this month. Don't tag Tee, he's gone. 2. Boyd is probably gone. 3. Chase should be the overall off season priority. If he's not expect a hold out. He's set to make less than $5m. An extension could put $30m in his pocket this season and guarantee him $70+ the next 3 seasons. So No Tee, No Boyd they basically fuck themselves on the draft board and in negotiations with Chase.

Nah. Burrow was cleared, Burrow played, Burrow wasn't the same for several weeks. If some team wants to sign DJ Reader in March, more power to them. I'd say prove it deal in July and would not worry about losing him.

Already explained this several times above. A 2nd round pick will count somewhere around $1.4m. A UDFA that makes the roster $0.7m. Irv at $1.7 fits and his potential does too. That's it. He's got the talent that fits in that range. He's got a little more cap cost but not much. There's no loss if he's not active the entire year. He also will not preclude them from drafting any TE they may like. Irv Smith could match Hurst's 2022 if the position group suffered those same injuries they did in 2022. If he don't play, then they are literally out nothing.

I would put it more on Lou. Big plays is the issue they admit to. The secondary as a whole screams youth and potential. Figure out the best roles adapt the scheme as necessary.

The projections of DJ Reader's contract makes him a hard pass for me at this point. The D-line run defense was problem most of the year followed strongly by Dax, Scott, and Battle taking bad angles, followed by the unit as a whole tackling the ball. He's the wrong side of 30 and major injury. He could prove to come back from all that but I'd pass at anything over a prove it deal at this point.

lol. In the first 6 games, 4 games the offense ran less than 55 plays. Burrow's calf effected EVERY offensive stat. Bad point. Depth chart? What does that matter? Irv was paid slightly more than UDFA. So your saying a guy with 2nd round talent shouldn't be considered anywhere on the roster for an extra $1m of cap space. Who runs around screaming about Mike Brown being cheap all the time? Injury pad, lol.

lol. This pissed off over a guy that made a notch over league min. Alrighty then. Fuck him, lol. I'm going to say it'd be a good move to sign him up again for about the same level. Ahhhh panic.