AMPHAR

What I find perplexing is the mocking of Shemar Stewart in the first round. Owner of 1.5 sacks. His profile reminds me of what they are going through now with Myles Murphy. What I find depressing is when you look at Myles Murphy draft profile on NFL.com it has Zierlien's top available highlighted at the time Myles was putting on his cap. One edge listed has 13.5 career sacks. The other edge listed just had a 8 sack year.

Supposedly Herbert got MVP votes over Burrow from some voters. Crazy. I think Burrow threw more TDs in Nov and Dec than Herbert did all year.

You tell me what that means. AJ Brown for the Eagles signed a reported 3yr $96m deal. Simple math says $32m a year. OK. Structure of the deal shows AJ Brown COULD BE cut saving Eagles cap money in 2027. Effectively turning that into a 3yr $80m deal. $16m of the reported deal goes poof or they don't cut and he earns more and more of the reported deal each year. Jefferson deal will get him $125mil before the Vikings COULD cut. Effectively making his deal $31m a year. That's $45m more than AJ. The important question is: Would Chase ever consider such a risk in his contract like AJ Brown? I'm guessing no, since he all but admitted last summer the value was there but the structure wasn't. He'll probably be going the JJ route. More power to him. The Eagles have gotten team friendly structure's across the board for Hurts, Brown, Smith, and Barkley. The Eagles were able to push off payments to QB1 and WR1 the Bengals will probably have QB1and WR1 commanding $80m more than what the Eagles paid out early and the Bengals will have stronger guarantee language. Somehow that's spun into being cheap. Bengals probably tried to get Chase to bite on a friendly structure last year and the award is to be drug through the mud.

Burrow can voice whatever he wants. No one said otherwise. Its being spun into this great showdown and maybe it is. Or maybe its people trying to get clicks. The opposite side is Burrow will get $40m more than Hurts in the first 3 years. Hurts has major money in the form of option bonus that are due until right before each season. The Eagles also have 3 other key offensive members that took deals that put at risk a portion of the stated contractual amount as early as year 2. Those are facts and that's free info. Having a willingness to be informed doesn't put someone up the front office's ass. As for your question. I would consider an off season getting all Trey, Tee, Chase extended to at least to 2027 as A+++. I would consider no extension for Chase, Trey traded at the Garrett rumored trade comp and Tee traded a the compensatory trade comp as a F without knowing the resulting moves. I would confidently say even with the F scenario they'll be right among the AFC favorites. Its been this way since Warren Sapp. They got spurned; people freaked. Then in the aftermath they added 3/4 key players from other teams that were key in the Division Champ. They struck out with the Whitworth/Zeitler o-line rebuild. Striking out currently in the secondary rebuild post Bates. However they hit homeruns back filling once J.Joe chased free Gatorade. Hit a major home run when Lawson and Jackson III went good bye. Mixon to Chase? Even? There's others each way. I'm not predicting success or failure if the F scenario happens. The relevant history with Tobin shows there will be a plan. You can view under a lense of the 90s. Or what I think is most relevant a team that has revamped a ton of stuff and is a winning franchise. At the end of the day I think in August there will be ton of objective opinion outside the Bengal fandom that will have them right there in the AFC. How you go about surfing the ups and downs is up to you. I enjoy researching data so that's how I'm going to approach it, I guess.

Pissed off Burrow? Who fucking cares? Fact: He got $40/50 million dollars more than Jalen Hurts in the first few years of the deal. Same bunch of Bengal fans buying into Burrow's mad mantra that still applaud Palmer when in fact he walked out of a loaded team that drug Dalton to the playoffs 5 straight years. Idiot. So anybody is free to enjoy the Bengals how they see fit. No problem, go with what you like. You can easily credit the Bengals front office for not holding Burrow to the Hurts structure and getting a deal done. Again, feel how you want to feel about it, but know the facts. Any media member COULD ask a follow up question to Burrow does he regret taking max money in the first of his contract after seeing a QB that didn't in the Superbowl? Guess what? Devonta Smith also shoulders more risk in his extension. Guess what? So did AJ Brown; his 3 year $96m deal could easily become 3 year $80m. And guess what again? Saquon Barkley has a big option bonus that isn't due until the start of the season in the last year of his deal. This is what Tobin was probably talking about. You can't have everyone wanting max money. Burrow took his and the most comparable team to them is the Eagles personnel wise has 4 major offensive pieces that have given the team an out after a couple years IF they choose to do it. Credit another board for the Eagles comparison, but all this contract info is out there. Intelligent media would be making these follow up questions. At some point one of their stars is going to have shoulder risk. It appears none of them want to do it.

Joe can say what he wants. I think media and fans are taking liberties with "unhappy Joe" but whatever people like to wring their hands over a winning football team, enjoy it how you like. At the end of the day this team is going to be good enough to win a AFC. I would argue the Tanner Hudson show boating into the endzone fumble had more to do with losing to New England along with the Jones fumble. But whatever, fans seem to be happy with the chicken little theme. Go with it. If you look at the Hurts vs. Burrow deal there's big differences in the cash out lay. Was Joe going to sign that structure when he was up? Nope. Hurts had less cash up front, relies on option bonus which don't guarantee until right up to the season start. Burrow's guarantee's kick in league year start. Huge difference. Projections have Tee getting elite money average year but are silent on structure. My guess is he'll have to be agreeable to a Pittman/Smith type structure in which the total value of the deal says "Elite" but functions as option years as they get past year 2. Both Pittman/Smith deals see the teams with minimal cap implications or savings from cutting them after year 2. Portions of the $$$ in the stated amount are at risk if they don't perform as guarantees don't kick in until after they complete a year and into the league year. I'm guessing that type of structure is what Chase balked at last year. His will be more Burrow like, I'm guessing. Have no guess about Trey but he is an elite player but has age and is under contract. He's got risk if it turns ugly because a hold out doesn't help him that much. Hurts the Bengals for sure. He probably is going to push for Burrow type structure. Tee isn't elite and to make it work he's going to have to shoulder more risk. Something Burrow wasn't willing to do at his contract signing. Something Chase probably won't do either or Trey. But Hurts did. Devonta Smith did.

Willie will have to die AND the NFL get called out for leaving him off the remembrance portion of the program in order to reach HOF. 0 votes for Chase is typical of what a lot of former Bengals have had to go through. Its really unbelievable but typical. It will be interesting to see how Whitworth and Atkins are treated once up for HOF. It always seems like a Tim Krumrie or whoever would be playing at a Pro Bowl level in 1986 but not get recognized until 1988. There's always a lag. Chase will probably have to be a two time Triple Crown winner to get a vote. Allen I could see as MVP. The Bills in the preseason were supposed to take a step back and they got 2nd seed. Nice year really. The only hiccup is Allen wasn't first team all pro. Jackson was.

Also legalized sports betting also seems to be an avenue for the illegal bookie to manage risk. From what I've seen there's guys that occupy the kiosk and the phone for long periods of time.

There's a bunch of rumors about high end edge rushers being cut/traded/restructured/extended. I'd be a little shocked if they reached a deal prior to FA. If Myles gets traded its likely he resets the top end. There's rumors about Maxx Crosby. Bosa, Mack. Quite a few actually. Also Micah Parson's is on his 4th year and wanting an extension. Seems like a situation were an agent would want to drag things out because with all the cap room around if these edge rusher start to change teams their market value won't go down.

Seems a little unlikely but that would be an A+ scenario in the event Tee signs elsewhere.

Smart tax really. Most gamblers don't shop around based on the juice they pay. If they shop around its in regards to the line/spread. 20% tax moving to 40% probably means the Sportsbook juice will be raised some percentage to cover it in Ohio. Some will notice and flock over to a neighboring state.

There's a strong likelyhood that Devante Adams will be out on the market either cut/trade. I doubt anyone trades for his $35m a year salary and I doubt Jets pay it. So guessing he'll be available at some point and if Aaron Rodgers is playing whoever that team might be probably leads as the favorite.

Any trade partner for Kupp would have to be OK with a 2 year $40m contract for his age and recent injury situation plus whatever trade compensation. There might be some team out there that wants to redo the deal and trade peanuts for him. If the Rams will take peanuts and Kupp willing to redo a contract. At that price range, its likely he's a cut candidate. Rams are working against a 3/17 deadline because that's when his next bonus is due.

Assuming they continue to use NT in a similar fashion as Lou, I think they got the guys currently to play over the Center the 45%-50% of snaps. Maybe they think they do or don't. I think they were attempting to last year with Rankins get back to more DT pass rush. His injuries/illness aside obviously didn't work out. Impossible to say at this point, but I believe Goodberry makes a good point. IF they using 17 on interior line or DL overall, you've got to get pass rush first. Given the list of potential cuts/FAs there will be snaps available along the DL. Right now, just a guess but 2 DL could be on the menu in the top 4 picks.

21 teams have failed to win a Superbowl since 2003. 66% of the league. Are the other front offices Archaic in your view point? That wouldn't make sense either because the real expectation of seeing your team win a Superbowl still ranks as a rarity.

How much will Golden utilize NT? Is Grant a pure NT only or can he demonstrate DT pass rush ability? Goodberry probably is right about a soft 17. Now if they are going to have a NT 90% of the time and you need two solid NTs, 17 would make more sense.

A lot of those eye popping WR deals have turned into 2/3 year deals. Kupp trade will be interesting because he has a roster bonus at the start of the FA year. So the Rams are up against it.

I think that mindset has been proven wrong. They experience the playoffs at rate that puts them in the top half of the league since 2003.

Whatever way they've done it since 2003 has them top half of the league in winning percentage. So how is that Archaic? 35 years? What they did in the 90s has no bearing on today. Tee Higgins deal whatever may become of his free agency is not an issue related to 1991. They'll take that cap room and offer it up somewhere else if Tee don't want it. Its a zero sum game, period. Its has proven to have better success.

I don't think the Browns can trade Garrett without additional roster moves. They are projected ($27m) over already. Pre June 1st trade would add to that overage about ($16m). If they trade him post June 1st they kick the can down the road and save $5m this year and have about $21m dead cap against 2026. I guess the question is can the back date the trade post June 1st in order to get picks for 2025 draft? Either way trade or no trade Browns will have to cut/restructure some players.

Yes, the Bengals have had success. They can draft QBs better than some franchises. They can also win with QBs better than some franchises. The term used was Archaic. How is finding QB talent and surrounding that QB talent with enough to win an example of Archaic?

Why not just use the scoreboard to determine what is effective in NFL business? Bengals are top half in winning percentage and playoff appearances since 2003. When you factor their on the field turn around since 2003 it seems like a group of Bengal fans might misrepresenting the reality.

I could be wrong, but there was a whole lot opinion about how the Bengals would ruin Burrow. People don't like to own those hot takes today. Fact is Bengals got Burrow to a Superbowl faster than the Ravens did Lamar and no one ever dare said it was possible until it happened. Andrew Luck and Trevor Lawerence were rated higher draft prospects than Burrow. One quit. The other is on the 3rd Head Coach or 2nd? Mayfield? I guess its solid logic to not credit the front office for winning with a No. 1 overall QB and extending that QB. Its just a given 1st round QBs win Superbowls no effort needed.

Franchise has winning record since 2003 and is in the top half of playoff appearances since that time. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case before 2003. Great accomplishment for 7 year old Burrow. So the Bengals front office should be downgraded because they drafted and extended a franchise QB? WTF? Simple facts. CD and JJ had to wait til year 4 to get their deal. They approached Chase before year 3. The Ravens had to franchise tag their QB to get a deal. Is any of the above untrue? The those are a few and easy examples to refute the narrative of archaic front office certainly not meant to be a complete list because an honest viewpoint knows there have been several extensions of key players and this isn't some new revelation. Nope not gonna believe....Mike Brown blah blah blah. Its like some Bengal fans don't realize they are mad at the front office because their expectations have risen BECAUSE they got a whole lot better at building football teams. Lou's defenses sucked with Jessie Bates. Blinders.

I think fans get the August extensions and when February/March come around they forget or somehow don't count them on their scorecard when wanting to find fault with the front office. They approached Chase a year earlier than JJ and CD. There was strong indication that Chase had the highest WR deal on the table and didn't like the way it was structured. Money Mac isn't a free agent now. Wilson isn't a free agent now. Like they were supposed to be. Trey isn't a free agent because in 2023 they extended him through 2025 before they had too. Now he wants and deserves a raise. There a substantial list of players they dealt with early and took off the market. Fans forget those and only focus on the issue at hand and form a bad opinion. Bengals are in a pretty good spot because they got the QB deal done early which hasn't been 100% across the league. Lamar Jackson had to be tagged. Dak saga drew out over and over. IMO, the deserve way more credit that what's been given. Bengals can once again set the path of a decent offseason by simply applying the tag to Higgins. If they choose to do so. Then that doesn't even screw them because they ample cap room and marginal FAs to resign or replace.