sparky151

Ensminger has been at LSU for several years when their offense was stone age. It was adding Brady last year and Burrow stepping up that made it so effective.

Texans and Bears are already after Warford. Bengals should have offered Saints a late round pick swap for a guy everyone knew they were going to release. Bengals should definitely pursue Warford but he might cost more on the open market than his 7.75 mil contract number with the Saints.

I picked 6 wins. 5-7 is the range imo. We've improved but so have other teams in the division and we look to be finishing 4th again. The right side of the O-line is still not up to NFL standards and let's see if Waynes is a big upgrade on Dre or not. I expect the run defense to be better with Reader added and the passing game to be better by late season after Burrow gets some experience. But we'll probably have a top 10 pick again in 2021.

Saints aren't going to pay Larry Warford his 7.75 mil salary. We could probably get him for a pittance, ie a late round pick swap next year. He's certainly a much better RG than XSF and would help if we're going to start Fred Johnson at RT.

I can't believe you are arguing this but the team couldn't afford to keep Dalton and do their other business. Little things like signing Burrow, extending Mixon and WJ3.

The Bengals have had a better than usual off-season. But that's not a high bar. We overpaid Reader and Waynes considerably. Reader is a good player, Waynes is average. We've continued to ignore the O-line. That will certainly keep the Bengals out of the playoffs. We're still probably the 4th best team in the division. Let's hope Burrow makes good progress and the game slows down for him by end of the season. Then if we fix the O-line for 2021, we'll be in business. I'll guess the Bengals win 6 games +-1.

Before the draft, we were about 7 mil under. Signing the rookies will cost about 12 mil total. But the team also would like to have some cushion to sign replacements for injured players inseason and also like to be able to pick up a mid-priced vet or two if the opportunity presents itself. We can potentially save money on longer term deals for Green and WJ3. But Mixon is in line for a substantial raise. So yes, we do need to cut or move Dalton.

The Athletic had a piece where they think Johnson will be the starter with Hart as his backup. Say the team liked Fred's audition at the end of last year. I'm optimistic that Jonah will become a good LT but doubt he's there yet. He's never played a snap in a live game. Hopkins was above the Bengal average last year but that's not saying much. PFF had him 27th among NFL centers. Jordan was terrible in his first bout at LG, then better later in the year. XSF has never played RG in the NFL and has mostly been a career backup. Making him the starting RG is ambitious, to say the least. Hart's struggles are longlasting and not getting better, in the sense of getting close to average.

Just go to Iowa or South Dakota. Rent some college's facilities since they don't have students around.

He's not a plug and play starter for most teams because they have someone better than Hart at RT. We, unfortunately don't. So take Jones, trade for a veteran guard like Warford or Jackson or Thuney, then get Burrow some weapons. I don't mind a LB in round 3 or 4 but this isn't a one year fix. Blacklock would be an absolutely terrible pick for us. Mims is ok in his own right but is the sort of stupid pick the Bengals frequently make.

Josh Jones is a 4 year starter in college. He's both polished and athletic. He's an upgrade from Hart today. We can cut Hart and go with Johnson as the backup right away.

We should take Josh Jones at 33 and see if we can get Larry Warford from the Saints for our 5th. That would fix our O-line and leave rounds 3 and 4 for LB and something else. Something like Gay-Chinn-Dugger-ADG-Dye in round 3 and Hamler-Duverney-Hill in round 4.

Uh, no. While teams have to comply with the minimum spend requirements, they're not hard to meet. Browns could have extended players or gone bigger in free agency rather than eat a 16 mil dead money hit. They did it for the draft pick.

Pats are in rebuilding mode this year. They don't have a QB and very little cap space. They are eating 26 mil in dead money, mostly from Brady. But next year they are more than a hundred mil below the cap (unless the cap dives a lot). So if they find a QB and hit on their higher draft picks, they'll be in ok shape.

Cleveland got a 2nd rounder from Houston for taking Brock Osweiler's guaranteed 16 mil contract. They cut him and ate the 16 mil for the draft pick.