AMPHAR

I'm going to say no.

Yep. Preseason worries came to haunt the Bengals. 1. Burrow being dumb with the ball taking a bad play and making it worse while also getting himself twisted into a pretzel basically what he did against Jacksonville that resulted in several missed games. 2. Defense soft no pride during preseason washed away as "no game plan" or whatever. Basically same crap that has shown up regular season. I have no idea. But its the 2nd summer of defense looking good against what most everyone would say is one of the best collections of offensive talent. Based on regular season might want to take a deeper dive into this: A. How much Summer Camp success was when Jake Browning taking snaps? B. Zac with Burrow wants the offense completely on the QBs shoulders. So that requires a lot of reps/communication. Is the defense really getting what it needs out of practice basically being the scout team so the offense gets what it needs? Pad level, pursuit basic shit that was a problem under Lou is a problem under Golden. Which is always a problem under Zac.

Nerds

Bengals defense competes all off season to what amounts to extensive 7v7 flag football. This is what the offense needs as they value winning football through the air and run so much through the QB. The defense on the other hand is horrible in pursuit. Horrible at pad level. Horrible in 3rd and long. Horrible in run gap and down the line fundamental mistakes when they go against an independent offense designed to beat their scheme's not work on their base line offense for the season. 2 summers in a row. The defense competes with the best offense skill in the league. Doesn't and hasn't translated into winning defensive football.

Its the same pattern as the Dalton era. Once they started winning the draft success declined sharply as the draft position lowered. Then as they paid the very good guys they drafted the success in the FA market also declined. It most likely they shift more to filling a "need" and projecting roster openings outward as they try to manage a tighter cap vs. just taking the BPA. For example. Mims looks like a guy they will want to extend and could be a high level player. However he was the 6th,7th tackle off the board and passed on the draft's best CB. Then this year they went DE as assumed Trey leaving a future hole over a very good set of safeties. Myles Murphy taken to replenish projected aging DL in a DE draft class thats been blah over a Sam La Porta. In both cases of Murphy and Stewart there has been rumors that they weren't the top target. There's been several rumors suggesting Walter Nolen was the top of board. So that suggest they are trying to fill an overall roster gap at position group.

The no trade of Trey probably sets them on the path of franchise tagging Trey. Given the fact no team has been able to bring enough of a package to complete a trade despite multiple opportunities. Trey after some public moaning and groaning probably takes it and completes the deal he could have had sometime last off season. So that sets the stage of rebuilding a defense (again) with 1 piece taking up $36m in cap (????). Worth it? Right now no other DE or DL can sniff the QB unless they hold on to the ball. Have no idea but Bengals aren't going to let Trey walk into UFA and realistically if he doesn't bounce back 2nd half of the season making $36m is probably his best opportunity. BJ Hill is probably on the fringe. He essentially signed a 1 year deal. Surprised there were no trade rumors surrounding him. They probably got to upgrade/replace 5 bodies factoring young players they won't give up on. DJ Turner/Dax Hill are probably the only ones worth consideration of extension right now. Maybe Battle.

Isn't this the bye week? My personal opinion. Zac/Tobin et al achieved good things here, BUT its an exclusive club with plenty of people deserving of a chance. I'd be shock with they cut that deep but it would be warranted. Don't make the same mistake that was made with Marvin trying to band aid it.

Who fucking cares? This is the worse case scenario for everyone at Paycor. Fans think Golden wanted to bench Wilson? No. He wanted/needed him to be awesome again. Same with a bunch of other players/coaches. Its a bunch of wasted draft picks and wasted finger pointing. About 85-100% overhaul of anything related to defense needs to be gone, period. Blaming Lou? False. Worse case scenario and so now you can't have golden cows or whatever you want to call it. Now the only question is how deep ownership will cut. Probably won't be deep enough. They've blown 3 4th quarter leads in a row. 2 resulting in unthinkable losses. That's on top of all the other shit defense played under Lou the previous years.

I think Wilson is washed. Golden was the OG Wilson pimp. If he's benching him AND the defense has been shit for 3 straight seasons with him in a major role at LB. Well? Pratt/Wilson made a ton of good plays but are probably at the end of their useful NFL lives, I guess. Did Lou bite on either Pratt or Wilson to acquire?

Keeping Trey next year cost them $33m? Cash/Cap. They realistically need a bunch of body on that side of the ball AND massive improvement from the young players they decide to build around. Sure getting rid of your best player on the worse unit is a risk but they can't realistically draft a new defense next year. If you get anything more than what you could expect in a comp pick then trade him. $33 mil in cap is multiple players

I don't recall very many IF anyone projecting the Bengals becoming an AFC contender IF they drafted Joe Burrow or once they did draft Joe Burrow. I remember a lot of doubts and national media trying to persuade him to refuse to play for Bengals. We know the results today, thus the pick was "easy". Now there will be goal post moving to degrade the success the Bengals have had with him. Fine. In fact there weren't whole lot of people projecting success even if they paired Burrow with Chase.

Have no idea, but Manning over Leaf seems obvious today. Wonder why? On draft day the Bengals were tied to the Dolphins. The Bengals took their path and have had more success than that franchise. For that they deserve a lot of credit, period. Nobody prior to the drafting of Burrow or even after drafting of Burrow was screaming "automatic success" for the Cincinnati Bengals. Most as I recall nationally were rooting for it to fail and still do. Its weird because fans/media that follow the NFL always fail to recognize the difficulty of the NFL.

I would take Zimmer in a heart beat. But I think he'd go secondary first because he was always flush with highly drafted guys in his DB room. Newman, Nelson, Roy W, Pac, J.Joe, Hall, Clements, Mays, Doss It was a parade of former 1st rounders at times and he could always get something out of them.

100% disagree. Its never as easy as it appears. Fans are simply hindsight.

Last part is a reach. Any GM that isn't a majority owner faces the same issue and there's plenty of examples. Owners can and do pick and choose when they listen to "football people" and when they don't. Shit Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson still piss and moan over who's idea it was to trade Herschel Walker. Doesn't matter it was obviously Jerry because he owns the team, doesn't matter what the facts/truth were. Jerry says it was his idea, If you want to coach the Dallas Cowboys you better agree.

Bengals deserve huge credit for drafting Burrow. Same with Palmer and Dalton. Its never a given. People that say that forget theTim Tebow's of the world and the countless 100 other guys that were can't miss.

Major changes were made to the Bengal way in 2003, 2010, and 2020. All done in the dark without much fan fare. My guess is to protect the ego of Brown family. But positive changes none the less although mysterious and slow. However, the overall quality of football and results have improved. Right now. You are seeing a possible repeat of the last Dalton years. When they paid the QB, when they had success and lower draft picks as a result. They couldn't replenish the talent fast enough or plug holes to continue. They currently have spend a bunch of draft capital on defense without any results. Pending how the season ends they need to avoid the last years of Marvin hanging on chasing that 1 playoff victory. Bad draft decisions were made during that period. Just rip off the band aid and make another round of sweeping changes don't try to band aid this or that. The biggest issue will be the Burrow issue. He's injury prone. Seems locked into the way he wants to play. So if the chance arises do you attempt to replace?

Burrow was tossing lightly on the sideline without a Boot. Other reports vs. Steelers had him out of the boot but wore it on the sidelines for protection. My guess his return will be based on: 1. Playoff standings 2. Mobility,flexibility, strength return I think IF they are in the hunt a week 12 or 13 return could happen IF they want it to.

Agenda Item 1: Tackling. Motion to table the discussion recognized. All in favor say "i".

I still say let it play out but there's a stark contrast between playing hero ball with Burrow and going into a game thinking they can't put the whole game on Flacco. Flacco is in the launch point. Won't try to extend plays endlessly and throws it away quicker. Clearly support better by stronger commitment to running game. Burrow has been a leader and very productive but you can see it in their personalities as well. Burrow often gets up and talks trash after being hit, scrambling, throwing a TD. Flacco kinds just moves on. Not intended to be a negative but 1 QB clearly wants it on his shoulders all the time. Flacco so far is just about taking what's there.

OBJ has looked better with Risner by his side? Small sample? Maybe. I would start him at LG until its warranted to replace. He was horrible at RG. Patrick used a IR return spot so I would expect a return to starting line up for him at some point. Although Rivers has looked competent at the spot. Patrick in his short sample looked nastier in the run game. Although Risner's turn around and everyone's turn around could be Flacco. Ball has been out or in the dirt and he's typically in the spot he should be. Real test for the O-line will be when Chase and Co. aren't coming open quickly and there will be a time the running game will need to carry Flacco.

Just need to handle business. Jets don't look like a pass rushing force AND opposing QBs have decent ratings against them. This needs to be a coming out party for the defense or forget about anything else.

Also remember the opposite is true. Bengals pass rush was horrible vs. Steelers. However, Steelers did a great job throwing 0-2 yard passes and getting YAC to keep chains moving. It was the long conversions the Steelers had with 0 pressure the biggest issue but down to down soft coverage/big cushion and poor pursuit destroyed a lot of quality pass rush opportunities.

I'd give it more time as far as determining judgement on O-line. The pressure metrics over that last 8 quarters have dropped significantly. But vs. Pittsburgh the ball was out most of the time on time or in the dirt. Flacco isn't playing hero ball. But at some point he'll be forced too as teams will adjust to him in the Bengals offense. I think going under center and making attempts at running had a big effect, then of course Chase breaking some of his longest runs was a huge benefit.

This is just pitiful on Golden's part: Steeler 4 TD drives: 1. 3 and 11 - First Down! leading to: 1. 3 and 6 - TD in the Redzone 2. 3 and 18 - TD in the Redzone 3. 3 and 4 - First in the Redzone, eventual TD 4. 2 and 20 - TD. All these were QB finding coverage breakdowns or all day to throw. That is a bad defense coaching clinic. If you got talent to get them that many challenging conversions you got talent to get at least 2 stops. Pick any 2 from above. Get 2 and all of sudden a pitiful defense effort becomes just bad even with poor tackling.