sparky151

You think they're keeping Volson as the backup to Patrick, even though he costs more? I think even Duke knows how bad our guard play was last year and given that he can sign a better player than Volson or Patrick for the amount Volson is scheduled to make, will do so. I hope he's kicking himself for not signing Teven Jenkins to the 1 year 3 mil deal with a cap hit of 1.8 mil. Liscow and Rapien speculated that Scherff probably wants to be paid similar to the 9 mil that Zeitler got. Bengals are about 24 mil under the cap at the moment (using rule of 51) so they figure once the team reserves money for rookies and practice squad they'll spend about 12 mil more. The way they frontload contracts that might all go to Hendrickson. But given the Riley Reiff precedent, they could afford Scherff at 9 mil, plus Risner or Hernandez at 4. Of course a competent front office would extend Trey for say 4 years 120 mil with a 25 mil signing bonus and 50 mil in guarantees. Give him a first year minimum salary plus the 25 mil signing bonus and his cap number is less than 7 mil instead of 16. They calculated the wasted 2025 cap space from the bad contract structures and delays in deals they were committed to getting done as 28.8 mil this year. That's a shockingly large number.

OSU lists his 40 time as 4.53. https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football/2025/03/155479/buckeye-pro-day-central-results-videos-sights-and-sounds-from-ohio-state-s-2025-pro-day

Teven Jenkins contract with Browns. They got him cheap, even if he misses a third of the snaps. https://x.com/NowBrowns/status/1904857517999468836?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1904857517999468836|twgr^ce2979e734084f8c6a5c486e70b445c024c486c5|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums.footballsfuture.com%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcoremodule%3Dsystemcontroller%3Dembedurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2FNowBrowns%2Fstatus%2F1904857517999468836

If we lose Trey, the Bengals pass rush will be much reduced. Apart from Slaton, who will be off the field in obvious passing situations, we have the same D-line as last season. Trey would be replaced by Murphy with Ossai at LDE. The whole rest of the team combined for 18.5 sacks while Trey got his 17.5 facing constant double and even triple teams. You may remember Dehner's screenshot from the Chargers game where Hubbard is being blocked at the line of scrimmage by their FB while Hendrickson is tripleteamed? Sure, we should draft a good pass rushing prospect. I'd like Pearce at 17. Would also be happy with Green, Nolen, or Harmon. But they aren't going to replace Trey's production. They would be there as upgrades from Ossai or Hill. Re-signing Ossai and Hill was a mistake as they are basically assured of starting spots and certainly of roster spots when they weren't very productive last year. We'd have been better off combining the money paid to them for Josh Sweat and drafting a DT. Quality over quantity. No, Chase and Higgins will be here after Trey is gone. They can easily extend Hendrickson if they want to at a lower cap cost in 2025 than he's on the books for currently. And of course having cap space doesn't force the team to spend it on poor players, it just gives them the option if a good player is available and can be carried forward if not used in the current year. That's why the rest of the league gives contracts with lower cap hits in the front year.

He did go 21 of 26 against us last year with the terrible Titans.

If they wait until after the draft to trade Pratt, we'd either get a pick in 2026 (maybe conditional) or perhaps a player. It would be better for both us knowing our needs and the other team as well to do a trade before the draft. While someone like Jihaad Campbell would be a big upgrade on Pratt, we could replace him with a midround or even late pick. Personally I like Jay Higgins of Iowa in round 6. He's good in coverage and only allowed 1 TD last year while making 4 interceptions.

Murphy hasn't made much impact but I'm not sure his hands are the reason. The pre-draft piece in 2023 with anonymous scouts scoffing at him made him sound soft.

Wehr is likely to not be drafted. There are 257 picks in this year's draft and about 350 players get invited to the combine. Wehr wasn't among them. Gridiron Grading is high on him though. I'd be interested in him as a UDFA as well as Thomas Perry of Middlebury, Shaun Dolac of Buffalo and Jackson Woodard of UNLV among other non invitees. In the real thing, my guess is that Green, Simon, and Mullings are available at those picks. Watts, Walker, and Frazier are likely to be off the board before our picks in those rounds.

Pretty sure we're not trading Trey. I think the team will give him a new contract but wouldn't be surprised if it's after the draft. We should trade Pratt. He doesn't want to be here and was a part of our putrid defense last year. Trade him to the Colts or Raiders. Should only take a 7th for him. If we get more than that, hats off to Tobin. We have a good bit of cap space still and should definitely be signing more players before the draft. We need 2 starting guards plus depth all over the roster. A pass rusher would be nice too.

Yeah, Ford showed his value last year as a backup. That's why he got a raise. But he's not starting material, thus the need for 2 starting level guards. The team seems to be counting on the draft for one of those starters and perhaps waiting on Scherff for the other. Or maybe Will Hernandez.

It would cost more than pick 49 to jump from 17 to 4 anyway. Pats would probably want Hendrickson in the deal as well. Regarding hand size:

OT Kendall Lamm signed with the Eagles.

If you have the worst ever measured at something, that means you're ahead of 0% of others. If you remember the 2020 draft, teams hoping Burrow would fall to them made a big deal about his hand size too.

Yeah, they seem to be assuming that Burrow and Chase's career years are a new baseline that they can expect every season. Nonsense. Bengals are still paying for stuff like taking Carman instead of Humprey or not taking advantage of the teams wanting to take Will Levis at the end of round 1 in 2023. The roster is also pretty thin. We drafted 2 DTs on day 2 last year. Neither set the world on fire as a rookie, neither is even an average pass rusher, but they have safe roster spots. So we have Slaton and Hill ahead of them. Slaton is also below average and Hill might generously be called an average pass rusher. So one of our biggest problems on defense from last year has gone unaddressed. Maybe a rookie will bail us out but since we don't know who we'll be drafting, that's a bad plan.

Disagree. Our RB room is pretty bare after Brown. Chase is RB1 and Perine can be RB4 but we don't have the spots in between filled. I'd like another vet, Dobbins in particular plus a rookie who runs with power. The O-line needs vets more than rookies. We could take a guard in round 2 or 3 if we plan to start him as a rookie. Or wait for a developmental prospect. We have 3 spots left to fill, both starting guards plus the swing tackle. If the team is planning to start Volson or Ford or Patrick at guard, that's a bad plan, that will get Joe hurt.

I agree Lee is a center only but some here think he can play guard. IMO he's not big enough or strong enough for that but the team is fattening him up. I don't know that the team is down on Lee but they brought in insurance with Patrick. If Karras gets hurt, I'd bet Patrick is next man up.

We don't have a 7th round pick, it was traded to the Bears for Herbert.

They signed a backup guard. He's the likely replacement for Volson. We still need 2 starters with Ford and Patrick as the backups. Bengals seem to want Scherff if he plays this year. Agreed that it would be surprising if they bring in 2 free agent starters at guard. But they should pleasantly surprise us and use the early pick at another position.

Well, they'll have to draft a guard in round 2 or 3 if they don't sign a clear starter in what's left of free agency. But they could use that pick on defense if we filled the guard need before the draft. Or even take a RB or TE. What I'd do: Sign a pair of guards, add Dobbins and a swing tackle. Extend Trey, trade if possible for Mayer. Use the first 3 picks on defense, draft a power RB on day 3, and use the rest of the picks on defenders.

Colts wouldn't offer pick 14. Maybe their mid 2nd rounder plus something. But the Bengals probably can't afford to trade Trey after not signing a pass rusher early in free agency.

Sure, but to get an average of 10.4, there would have to be as many "expert" mocks showing him at 20 as at 1. That's when it's pretty obvious he's going #1 overall.

Agreed that Ford should be a backup at guard and tackle. But he's probably a starter at guard at the moment with the other spot between Volson and Patrick. Maybe they draft a guard and put him in the conversation. They should just sign a couple of vets like Risner and Scherff or Hernandez and put the position to bed ahead of the draft.

It's still true that defense isn't optional. Lots of high flying regular season teams have fallen short in the playoffs. Indeed, usually the highest scoring team of the regular season is not the Superb Owl winner.

What's strange about thinking the guys they actually put on the field are higher in their estimation than a guy who only played on specialty plays? Aren't you one of the folks who thinks Lee can play guard as well as center? But now he can play LG but not RG? The most important thing for the season was keeping Burrow healthy. Volson and Cappa both sucked at that part of their jobs. Ford could cover for one of them and Karras could certainly cover for the other if they trusted Lee at center. Instead they briefly turned to Stueber. It would be nice if Lee turns out to be a good NFL player. But he's certainly not a lock to be that or for the roster in 2025.

How does Cam Ward have an average draft position of 10.4? In how many mocks is he going outside the top 5? Some "experts".