What’s more concerning is 26 scouting staffers couldn’t see the Deshaun implosion coming for Cleveland

Feels like that many staffers is someone handing out a lot of jobs to nephews and cousins.

I'd bet everything he does. He knows that franchise isn't serious about winning and is wasting his career.

Lotsa fun fan fiction here lately. Keep em coming, ladies.

Genuine q - do you think signing Higgins long term is the best thing for the team?

They fired a good DC because they needed a scape goat, when the defense faltered due to letting tons of talent walk out + not drafting any good defenders for multiple years.

How do you fix that by paying three offensive players upwards of $130m per year? Three guys who were unable to win the trophy while collectively making about $30M a year for a 2-3 year window.

For the Bengals, i think it's a good idea because the goal of every team is to get better, not worse by losing your good players and not replacing them with quality. The Bengals have a track record of not wanting to pay premium for certain players, then not replacing them properly through free agency and the draft.

With this team, the best scenario is keep what is good and make replacements elsewhere. Joe, Ja'Marr, Tee, Trey H should all get (new contracts/raises). OBj, Gesicki, Logan Wilson and to a lesser extent, Jordan Battle, Mike Hilton and CTB and behind them, Dax Hill, DJ Turner and BJ Hill, should be the focus.

They have the ability to start using creative cap manipulations and they have enough money (contrary to popular belief) and cap space to sign them all as well as a couple big name free agents, without crushing the team for the future. It requires more work than they've done and a willingness to do it, which we haven't seen yet as Burrow is the only player currently with void years on his contract.

The willingness is the key, not the ability. Along with that, they can't afford to continue to miss so badly on the draft year in and year out. Those rookie contracts help immensely when you're (somewhat) mortaging your future with cap dances.

They also have the ability, through structure to make sure the cap hit doesn't become too big in any given year. The standard practice is lower cap hit early with each subsequent year increasing. They could stagger the hits each year so that only 2 of the 3 big contracts have large numbers in any given year, while the 3rd is a lower number, thereby giving them roughly the same bottom line each year. The cap continues to go up, so that total number could go up each year, without a financial burden.

Re: that "good" DC they just fired. Lou was ok when he had all the pieces. By ok i mean he was never better than the 16th rated D on either metric the entire time he was here, save one time. They were 6th in scoring in 2022. Other than that, it was 16th or lower every other instance. They were "good" in '21 and '22 but as soon as pieces started getting replaced, they weren't so good anymore. Lou would drive me crazy with the rush 3 drop 8 in the worst times, constantly giving up a first down because the QB had all day to sit in the pocket and wait for someone to get open. Not blitzing the crap out of Mahomes on a bad ankle in '22 and the stupid 4th down in '24 being chief among the instances.

Silver lining is they've drafted so poorly over the past 3 drafts that they really don't have anyone in imminent need of resigning. Seriously, is there a single player that's been drafted by the Bengals since 2022 that's going to get a second contract?

2024
Mims (starter)
All (2nd string that could be #1 some day if he stops blowing out his knee)
Jenkins and Jackson (IDL who are maybes at best right now)

2023
Chase Brown (good starter)
Turner, Battle, Iosivas (average starters)

2022
Dax Hill, CTB (average starters)

it's over for joe

bengos won't pay this

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Cincinnati Bengals Ja&#39;marr Chase is seeking around $40M per season. <a href="https://t.co/zBFp33TVYP">pic.twitter.com/zBFp33TVYP</a></p>&mdash; NFL Rumors (@nflrums) <a href="https://twitter.com/nflrums/status/1892302235494724000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

no shot Mike Brown pays that

he's getting traded

He deserves it. Dude is ****ing incredible. But as Reek has shown it’s awful tough to win by yourself at WR

Wasting all the talent on that offense because they would t move on from Tua. Was already clear as day what his ceiling was, they paid him anyway. MOAR WEAPONS! We’ve been there how many times?

Not taking anything away from Andy, love him despite his flaws. But pre Mahomes era Reid still was having because Chiefs moments. Although he did finally get us a playoff win before Mahomes was starter. If you don’t have the quarterback, even with an elite HC…. Still difficult to make it all the way, as every other AFC team is finding out. Might catch lightning and win one. But you’ll never make more than that without that quarterback.

The last AFC quarterbacks that weren’t Mahomes/Brady/Manning was Flacco. That was 13 years ago. Before that was 17 years and Big Ben. Before that? Elway.

I’d bet a good amount of money that Joe Burrow pulls a Carson Palmer in the next 2-3 years.

Mike Brown isn’t gonna change. It was hard enough to get that guy to give Burrow himself a deal like he received.

Burrow was going to every podcast and radio interview on radio row practically begging Mike Brown to no be so cheap. He’s gonna get sick of it when they trade Chase.