Bad feeling about this upcoming season

[Dan2330]

Did anyone inform the Bengals head office that the lockout is over, i mean jezzus they are getting their asses handed to them already just days after the lockout ended. Let's see in just under 3-4 days Mike 'Cheap Ass' Brown has managed to nuke any possible long term contracts or marquee FA's from ever coming to town with this whole Carson thing. Is it a 'win' or a 'lose' to tell a guy your going to hold him to his contract? I get it Mike and I think we all do about wanting to hold Carson to his contract but just how bad is it when a guy will give up $11.5 mill versus play for this team?? And come on Mike, if you trade him maybe you get something of value, so far which is lacking in this FA sweepstakes which is not looking good, so far see you Chad, see you Joseph, hello two Raider players... come again, some 'I had one or two good games as a QB for the Raiders' and another 'throw in the mix' linebacker.

I like Dalton as much as the next guy but do we really think he is going to be able to do a lot right out of the gates? Ravens are a powerhouse, Steelers even when bad seem to scatch out 7 or 8 wins, and the Browns seem to be going upwards. I hate to say it but I could seriously see ZERO wins coming this season... ouch

And one more thing Mike, when you look out of your skybox you hide in on game day Sunday's you won't see me in attendance anymore. After 20 straight years of trecking down from Chicago for a Bengals game, no more- your going to be cheap then so am I. Those upper levels at PBS are going to be awfully empty this year, except for when the Steelers and Colts come to town since their fans will fill the seats.

[BengalPimp]

Don't worry guys, Mike Brown will spend the money by extending the contracts of all the great players that helped the Bengals go 4-12 last year and probably 2-14 this year. Why bring in new talent via Free Agency when you're already loaded (as evidenced by their great record)

F*ck yeah, get rid of the garbage like JJoe and keep the "good players" that helped you go 4-12.......Genius !!! This just frees up more cash to extend the "impact players" like Kyle Cook, Nate Livings, Robert Geathers, and Andre Smith.......Whatever you do Mikey.....Don't let those guys get away.....

[membengal]

Didn't J-Joe also help them go 4-12 last year Pimp?

[BengalPimp]

Didn't J-Joe also help them go 4-12 last year Pimp?

That he did, but he was a good player and helped them even get to 4 wins. Instead of extending HIM, they let him go and will downgrade the position, and most likely extend mediocre talent. My point is, they let the good players go, never get anything in Free Agency, keep the crap and you get 4-12 ,3-13, 2-14, basically the 1990's all over again..

[walzav29]

Just wait until we spend 20 mill a season on Cromartie and his 46 kids. That will be another brilliant PR move. Any capologists know how under the Bengals are now? Must be 50 million.

[membengal]

Oh. If they leave the Bengals they are good, and if they stay they are bad? Is that the new working theory?

As for Joseph...how good a player was he, really, though? I am now officially challenging the crying chorus on that point. He was hurt, a LOT. He made, in my mind's eye, some unreal awful effort plays over this time here...in fact, wasn't one against Houston where he simply refused to tackle a guy? He spent years not being able to hold onto interceptions. And he did all that opposite a really good cover corner in Leon Hall so he was never really on an island. I have never been comfortable with the thought of paying him like he's a shutdown corner because, well, he never has been. Maybe he will all of a sudden be one now, but Houston is gambling that he will. And they are gambling a ton with that contract.

[membengal]

Just wait until we spend 20 mill a season on Cromartie and his 46 kids. That will be another brilliant PR move. Any capologists know how under the Bengals are now? Must be 50 million.

I will now go on the record to say...I don't care how many kids Cromartie has. If he is here, I only care how well he can cover compared to Jonathan Joseph. I suspect pretty well, actually.

[walzav29]

"in fact, wasn't one against Houston where he simply refused to tackle a guy?"

Man. I forgot all about that. I think the signing of a big name for once would be a ray of sunshine in the worst 6 months in Bengal history.

[Dan2330]

Speaking of 'not tackling' a guy- Crummatrie or whatever his name is did the same in that pivotal playoff game a few years back when the Jets toasted the Chargers in S.D.

[membengal]

Speaking of 'not tackling' a guy- Crummatrie or whatever his name is did the same in that pivotal playoff game a few years back when the Jets toasted the Chargers in S.D.

Good point. So if we get him, we will be used to it.

[membengal]

In fact, the knock on carlos rogers is that he has stone hands. Doesn't hold ints. So if we get him, we will be used to that too.

[ArmyBengal]

Well, in regards to this upcoming season, I think most expect the worst.

Do I expect them to go winless ?? No, but somewhere between 4-6 wins is where i'm guessing.

That schedule isn't brutal.

[BengalPimp]

Just wait until we spend 20 mill a season on Cromartie and his 46 kids. That will be another brilliant PR move. Any capologists know how under the Bengals are now? Must be 50 million.

I will now go on the record to say...I don't care how many kids Cromartie has. If he is here, I only care how well he can cover compared to Jonathan Joseph. I suspect pretty well, actually.

Cromartie can't cover Sh*t........The guy gets beat more than damn near any CB in the league. He is the very definition of a Gambler. He made a name for himself because of INT's (mostly in San Diego) but also is known by coaches for getting burned, and guessing wrong too many times. Cromartie is Garbage, why else would the Jets be looking at Asomugha?

Look Mem, I agree for the most part about Joseph. He wasn't a "Shutdown" CB, and he has had injury problems. Like I said in other posts, in most years, I would say "let him go, he's not worth the money" but this year is different, because they have so much of it to spend and that scares me. Mikey is a F*cking moron and he will now sign a Piece of sh*t CB to a bigger contract than he is worth, just to show "I can spend money".

While Joseph may not be that guy, he did play well in Zimmer's Defense, and If Zim came to me and said "I want this guy back" I'd give ZIm whatever the hell he wanted.

****Note: Zimmer leaves when his contract is up, or 1st chance a Head Coaching opportunity arises. He won't put up with Mike Brown's cheap a$$ much longer.

[cincy9275]

a bad feeling about the start of another bengals season, isn't that normal?

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

Cromartie plays opposite Revis. As such, he probably gets the largest share of safety help while covering #2 receivers of any CB in the league. And he still doesn't look fantastic. And, tellingly, the Jets aren't beating down his door.

Downgrade. And we don't have him, so that downgrade is best case scenario.

As for Joseph, no, he wasn't a 'shutdown' corner. There are around 2-3 in the league at any given time. At the same time, he didn't get shutdown money, either. He got 'mediocre starting CB' money, and he's damn well worth that, if not more.

He should have been signed. This one was bad enough to get Zimmer to speak out against Team Clusterf*ck for the first time, which I think says a lot.

[volcom69]

Cromartie plays opposite Revis. As such, he probably gets the largest share of safety help while covering #2 receivers of any CB in the league. And he still doesn't look fantastic. And, tellingly, the Jets aren't beating down his door.

Downgrade. And we don't have him, so that downgrade is best case scenario.

As for Joseph, no, he wasn't a 'shutdown' corner. There are around 2-3 in the league at any given time. At the same time, he didn't get shutdown money, either. He got 'mediocre starting CB' money, and he's damn well worth that, if not more.

He should have been signed. This one was bad enough to get Zimmer to speak out against Team Clusterf*ck for the first time, which I think says a lot.

Jjoe deceided to leave on his own, the bengals gave him the money he deceided not to take it so not really sure its the FO doing on this one.

They still need a corner they need to make a move to get a vet corner in here, Adam Jones says his goal is to be ready for the opener, but hell he gets hurt more then Jjoe did, so they need more help. Hopefully today they make some kind of signing for a CB.

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

Jjoe deceided to leave on his own, the bengals gave him the money he deceided not to take it so not really sure its the FO doing on this one.

I blame them for 1) not wining and dining JJ enough pre-lockout, and 2) helping to foster the clusterfudge that caused him to give the out-of-town discount to houston.

They still need a corner they need to make a move to get a vet corner in here

Who will cost probably 70-85% of what JJ cost at half the quality

Adam Jones says his goal is to be ready for the opener, but hell he gets hurt arrested more then Jjoe did, so they need more help.

Fixed.

[COB]

I blame them for 1) not wining and dining JJ enough pre-lockout, and 2) helping to foster the clusterfudge that caused him to give the out-of-town discount to houston.

Agreed. He's your number one priority in free agency. They should have been in very frequent contact with him. If they can't talk to him, talk to his agent and make sure the player knows how important he is.

This is so contrary to Mike, as he was taught by Paul. They look at playing in the NFL as a privilege, one the player should be grateful for. It worked in 1954!

[Horsemen]

0-16? No, I think we'll win a game or two somehow, just enough to get us out of #1 overall and the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, not that I expected Mikey to make a play on him anyways, i'm sure we'll ride the Dalton wagon for a minimum of 3 years as we let the rest of our talent walk.

On the J.Joe thing: Look, I see a dozen different ways the Bengals could have handled that. We could have franchised him for a year and tried to work out a deal. Could have tagged and traded him for draft picks before the lockout or just now for picks to draft a replacement. Could have just payed the man. Could have opted out of drafting Green or Dalton and drafted a replacement. Could have went hard for Nnamdi out the gate. Could have drafted a replacement instead of a freakin' 1st round tight end(That was outplayed by the 2nd, 3rd and 4th round TE's in that draft class)and gave him a year as a rotational guy to get ready. Hell we could've offered the Cards Palmer for Rodgers-Cromartie and a draft pick and gotten the deal dun while Philly ho-hummed on Kolb.

But hey, that's only what winning franchises do. Us? We let good players play out their contracts then leave with no actual plan except "aw shucks, I tried fellas but it didn't work out" before going after a 3rd or 4th tier replacement. To those spinning it into a positive, you really think our other top guys will be staying? No, Hall will get the same treatment as J.Joe and end up walking, bank on it. Because that's what we do and it isn't that Joseph is the best CB ever, but he was ranked the #2 CB in free agency for a reason and was nothing but a strength for a roster that doesn't have that many and for a secondary that was carried by Hall and J.Joe because Mikey despises quality safeties.

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

A team needs a combination of lack of talent, lack of experience, lack of leadership and bad luck to go 0-16. The Bengals have a serious shortage of talent, particularly on offense where their patchwork O-line has been exposed, they may or may not have an RB, and have crap at QB (unless or until Dalton matures). On defense, the secondary is now shredded, the front 4 is a joke, and the LBs have underwhelmed lately.

Now, about experience and leadership. Thankfully they still have Whitworth, because the starting QB just went AWOL, which speaks volumes. The head coach re-signed after coming back with his tail between his legs, getting none of the concessions he demanded from the owner. Think the players don't know that? The OC has no NFL experience, and the DC probably wants to get the hell out of dodge when he can. If this team is 0-12 in December, can this staff motivate this team to work hard? I think it's questionable.

So can this team go 0-16? I think it's a realistic possibility. I wouldn't ever bet on it, just because it's the NFL and weird things happen. Especially in a strike year when everybody's starting off in a bad spot. Still, this has the possibility to be a really terrible team.

[redsbengalsbucks]

Doom and gloom, is that all you guys can think about.

This team doesnt look like a contender on paper, but they do have a solid core of young players. Those young players could really gel in this new WCO(exactly the O to run with a young team). All the pieces are coming together for a very good WCO team. You need WR's that can run crisp routes (Gresham, Shipley and Green are known for this), you need a RB with good hands and the ability to make the first guy miss (Leonard and Scott are very good at this). The quetion mark is can 1 of our QB's step up and make the throws accurate enough to make it all work.

The D has taken a few hits the last few days, but if Nate Clements has anything left he can fill the whole left by JJoe nicely. Rey moving to the middle will change the D, hopefully in a good way. The young guys on the D-line preformed very well late last season, if they continue to disrupt the O-line in this manner, the DB's will not have to cover near as long as in the past. Losing Muckelroy for the season brings the LB depth into serious question, the team needs to go out and sign a couple of LB's for depth (1 outside and 1 middle) and they need to upgrade the S positions.

I am not in full blown 90's doom and gloom yet. I still see some very good potential on this team.

[walzav29]

This team is now 100% drama free. They can't help their reputation free agency wise right now because it's mudd, but really. Teams have to build through the draft. Losing JJ was a big loss, but now they can get back to football. It looks good having a #14 out there.

[alleycat]

Well, if you are going to go 0-16 and have the 1st pick AND take back to back QB's, now is the time to do it with this new CBA. Cam Newton cost what, 8 M per year. And Dalton = pennies.

But man, could we REALLY use those two first and third round picks we could have gotten from trading Palmer and Chad now...

In the next draft we need a CB, S, LB (x2), DE, DT, C, RB...

Gosh, that's depressing to look at.

[combatbengal]

I hope i'm wrong, but Dude we are going to suck. Watch a video of practice and the ball hit the ground to many times on off. RB fumbled the ball and it wasn't even full contact. WR dropping balls. Yea i know someone on here is going to tell me that they aren't used to each other yet. However, Shipley looks great, he's fast and has great hands!

[TJJackson]

Right now - I am thinking 3-13, plus or minus a game

My only real hope is that they play the youngsters a LOT - treat the whole season as a "training camp" of sorts for next season

Gonna lose big anyway, no matter what they do, so the only "win" to earn is getting some game experience under the belts of the youngsters

Players I want to see a LOT of this year: CB Ghee, CB Lindsay, OL Boling, LB Moch (especially on special teams), S Sands, WR Green, DT Atkins, DE Dunlap, TE Gresham, OL Stephens, DE A Johnson, TE Coffman, RB Scott, and yes - the Flesh Zeppelin, who is (big surprise) still injured. I really still consider him a rookie for all intents and purposes.

I think between Andre Caldwell, Green, Shipley, and Simpson they will have two decent starting WRs. Caldwell's tweets during the offseason seem to indicate he has a big chip on his shoulder and I wont be surprised if he emerges as the top WR, even over Green. I am absolutely certain this group is better than the Batman and Robin "led" corps last year