GoBengals

address the last line first.. so nothing will be improved by the young players being a year smarter/stronger? and nothing is going to be improved by the defense allowing players to play faster and react faster than in lous complex system as they players said twoards the end of the year. and nothing will be improved by the defensive key starters and rotation players missing approximately 40 less games than last year? (the league average vs what we experienced last year. the constant theme that the defense performed poorly before ever player was just a bad player and nothing else was a factor is exhausting. shit happens in the nfl, and shit happened to the bengals defense last year.. it probably wont happen again this year... My perception is: Lou's scheme is incredible, its confusing for offenses and allows for big plays from the defense. However Lou's scheme required essentially high end veteran players who are incredibly high IQ football players (like top IQ not just"not idiots"). And with the spending on offense keeping the top offense together, the need to rely on young defenders is a need, thus his scheme and his use of said players, was wasteful and inefficient. do you see that situation differently? "the defense is softer than baby shit" seems pretty lazy of a take. as for "bringing in a midtier DE" id like to know like who? and also what you think mid tier is? are we talking a 3rd down pass rusher? a 3 down DE? a tru OLB/edge? if you look at the top 80 sack leaders, about 15-20 are DT and NT or other positions. which puts even Ossai as 60th in the remaining group of DE/DL(non dt/nt) OLb , LB, groups. Ossai had 5 sacks and was damn good at the end of the season making plays, just a short reign of performance to cash in. Clowney, Young, judon, montez Sweat all had 5.5 sacks..khalil mack, bud dupree, Thumbideuz, campbell, ojulari, highsmith, von miller, all also 5.5-6 sack ranges. maxx crosby just got a dumptruck of money and had 7.5 sacks and missed a third of the year. Kinlaw, Diaby, Bosa, Lawson, Chaisson, all 5 sacks or less. top signings this offseason free agents: JOSH sweat had 8 sacks and got 19million a year. chase young had 5.5 sacks and got 17mil. ayear Odeyingbo has 3 sacks and got 16 mil a year demarcus lawrence has 11 sacks in the last 3 years combined declining each year and got 11mil a year it really feels like a bunch of people on here think the bengals could have gone and gotten some 8 sack a year veteran and paid them 7 mil a year or something...hell DL/DT players like larry oganjobi who has been terrible in pitt and just got 7 mil. a year.. im cool adding a guy... but here is whats on the market: Dmearcus walker: over 30 and had 3,5 sakcs - top DE on the market here is the free agent list on spotrac.... these dudes are all pretty old and not that good.

Since the fist batch of free agents came and went and some guys re-signed, I figured id run through my thoughts on where the roster stands. Wondering your guys thoughts as well? With the rest of free agency, the draft, post draft cuts, and cut down says still ahead many changes will happen, with some obvious 3-4 spots of improvement happening still with the draft. OFFENSE: 1. QB - Burrow, Browning - Neutral no changes, and hard to project joe improving on being possibly the best QB in football. 2. WR - Chase, Tee, Iosivas, etc - Neutral - Again hard to predict any improvement, even if Burton grows up theres only so many snaps and throws available. 3. RB - Neutral - I dont think Perine adds much at this point, a reliable vetteran blocker, but Brown improved dramatically, maybe a SLIGHT improved group grade. i wouldnt argue against it. 4. Tackles - Improved. I think Mims health and experience and another offseason and Browns health, should be an improved duo. 5. Guards - Im going to go neutral, though id lean Improved, simply a new staff, and a vet addition, and retaining Ford and Kirkland with the new staff and development, but as of not ill stick Neutral. 6. C - Neutral. Same group of guys, which is fine. 7. TE's - Neutral - One could make a slight argument for improved with the change made early in the year to have Geisecki mirror Tee's routes in practice and reps as well as his own REALLY paid off when Tee missed time, Mike could step into his role and gain snaps. but in general Neutral. No parts of the offense got worse. Which is great. DEFENSE: 1. DE's - Neutral - no changes, id love to argue improved here but i dont expect 17.5 sacks from Trey again, so even if we get 5-6 more from Murphy and ossai with the new scheme and staff, i expect 13.5-15 from trey. So ill stick to Neutral. I also expect improvement via a draft pick. The departure of Hubbard hurts but alo helps given his performance. 2. DT's - Improved. Simply removal of a hurt expect starter, young guys a year smarter, stronger and healthy, and the addition of Slayton for the run game. So a slight improvement regardless but We may see even more improvement from the draft as well. 3. LB - Improved - Hear me out. Im sure most will disagree here, but Wilson healthy again, Pratt either gone OR converted to a. 2 down LB from a 3 down and a pay cut is a net win, I think Burks will be better than ADG by a small margin, and i think the scheme and responsibilities from golden will help the group improve, as they were great with him at their position coach in the past. 4. CB - Improved - the shit show couldnt get much worse, I think the youth being back healthy and a year smarter and stronger and in a simplified system for their strengths helps a ton, I dont think we NEED to add a corner, CTB, Hill, Turner, Newton, Ivey, Wilson, tons of youth and talent there, the group was decimated last year and clearly suffered the worst from the described coaching/scheme issues. 5. Safeties - Neutral - Im not sure I can pinpoint enough improvement on scheme and expectations alone, given some tackling issues as well, so Neutral for now, i expect maybe the draft changes that? or a late cut addition for depth. Iexpect quicker decision makin and movement on the field so improved but not enough without seeing it first to get too excited, so going with Neutral. Im not sure any group got worse on defense either? TONS of offseason still to come. what do you guys think?

Bengals cap space/spending year to year: 2024 - $6mil 2023 - $10.7mil 2022 - $1.99mil 2021 - $3.8mil 2020 - $10.8 mil 2019 - $11.2 2018 - $8.4 mil 2017 - $11.1 mil 2016 - $6.2mil 2015 - $8.2mil 2014 - $10.6mil 2013 - $7.9mil 2012 - $3mil 2011 - $26mil (Carsons deal came off books via the trade, about 16mil) spending is all over the place, 2012 they were one of the lowest spending teams, almost every skyrocketed over the cap. one of the 6 mil years they were bottom 6-7 an one of the 10mil they were top 13 in spending... fairly interesting the waves of spending that has gone on over the last 10+ years.

why do you act like the yspend the lowest against the cap in the league or something

he didnt change shit in this regard.. bengals have always paid players they valued. palmer was highest paid, willie was highest paid Ol twice, geno was top 2 paid, someone else too., not handing out fake years theyd never pay is a good practice. they sign players to contracts they actually want them to complete.

oh thank god a reference to irrelevant unrealistic mentions of the brown/blackburn family money.. they are billionaires, none of this effects their pockets what so ever. everytime someone brings this up its a waste of everyones time. the team is worth 5 billion dollars, they are living through a trust and life insurances funding their lives as their own bank level of rich, treys fucking contract doesnt effect their pocket one god damn cent.. yes that was me, and unlike 99% of the population, i gained more information and got on board pretty quickly. Lou laid out the issues with the youth as they werent studying the playbook enough and werent prepared to play. which isnt uncommon for young players, then late in the season when seemingly from info released later, his job was all but threatened to play the young players some guys(lots of guys) went down, and even the old smart vets like Hilton and Stone mentioned how much more free and fast they could play with him simlifying the scheme and plan each week. which sheds the light that he was holding the youth to an unrealstic expectation to run his scheme which many have now described as overly complicated "mad scientist" the mad scientist was previously like he was creative in making everyones best assets shine.. but it was actually him demanding perfection and complex off the coff changes pre and post snap.. and even the most savvy vets had issues. so with that new information.. i changed my mind, he needed to go, the roster gameplan seems obviously to be paying the offense and devoping the defense through youth and draft and developing who you have... and lous system CANNOT function in that environment.. thats how information and opinions work. i dont immediately know what the rest of these are regarding so ill leave that at that.

yea this years draft hat is terrile.

so i talked with the loyalty software people and got them to amend their import function, (because obviously its easier for them to rewrite software than me learn excel) and they are going to import with a match name, OR email, OR phone option to import the balances.. ill know tomorrow how that turns out.

so here is sample data im looking at. at the end of the day all i need, is to use the EMAIL as the linking data, and spit out the CUSTOMER ID and the BALANCE associated with the customer ID. after that I may need to try to run it by combining the name fields in the top one, and comparing the name fields instead of email addresses for any that do not have email address

im trying to decide how i feel about this going forward. i have the following thoughts: what does losing trey mean? odds of his getting 17 sacks again seems lower, but lets say he is gonna get 15. do you need to replace 15 sacks? how many of those sacks would have led to a punt anyway? 3rd down sacks that with pressure even would have been incomplete? with better run stopping how many more sack opportunities does the team get? with better coverage how many more incompetes or "coverage sacks" are created? if we traded trey for the colts 2nd rounder, we spend our first rounder on a DE. we spend the colts 2nd on a pass rush DT, spend our 2nd on a safety or CB so a gang of good young talent. Was Lou fired for no reason or the talk of him now using the young players and relying on slower vets (bell, hubbard, pratt, etc) a problem like rumored? if so shouldnt Ossai, Murphy, Battle, etc perform better? why does a big portion of the fanbase act like if trey is gone we will get no sacks? not giving up a 4 yard run on 3rd and 3 seems more likely than counting on trey to save the day every 3rd down. not to mention not getting to 3rd and 3 if they get 2-3 yards on early down vs 4-5 yards running. there are far too many variables for treys position to be cut and dry. with him wanting huge cash, would a 2nd rounder young inexpensive, DE pick be the better option? we can really be assuming trey is gonna ahve 17.5 sacks each of the next three years are we? id be stoked to keep him, he is an incredible player. and im not sure there were any DE pass rushers in free agency that were going to be much better options than the upside of a high draft pick. so i dont know how to feel, if we get good value in return, the best possible thing is to load up on young, high value defensive draft talent, for near future cap reasons. and either we should expect more from the young players on defense right away or it was pointless to fire Lou, right?

DAYUM

I am cleaning up the emoji's and fixing little stuff around the forum. I added all of the NFL logos for teams and all in the Emoji group called NFL ill keep adding updates here... going to add all bengals historical logos and stuff too.. if anyone thinks of anything let me know that i can add.

!. i dont know why there is a fork on my floor, i did just knock that empty bottle over putting th ejerseys down tho.. my mess and pasty legs aside.. shoutout to bengals fans for being too scared to bid on Higgins game jersey before his extension.. so i got it for about $2,000 cheaper than the last one sold for a few months ago. jenkins cost nothing basically. love the offseason when fans are throwing tantrums over something.. auctions are dry.. working on a margus hunt game worn for $105 right now as well. might lose out on it but its a win so far.

jesus man grab a suppository and take it easy. yeah they arent going to spazz out and overpay for shitty talent due to few options on the market. especially with draft cuts, camp cuts, final roster cuts, cap casualties, etc still to happen, its march.. there are 3 reasons the bengals arent "in" on someone. 1. they cost too much 2. there is something not to like, attitude, effort, injuries, whatever 3. they called and ohio isnt in the running for placed that player wants to be 4. they called and something they want isnt going to work, length of deal, guaranteed wants, etc.. that someone desperite will cave to ok theres 4.. thats the breaks of the nfl not being slavery... cant make them come here by force. also Bj Hill has 3x as many sacks as Onwuzurike. so thats strange huh? and they are graded almost identical, BJ hill better overall grade, Onwuzurike 3 points higher pass rush grade, and hill better run defense grade.. the grass is greener even if the data defies that logic i suppose. sometimes yall act like you made oatmeal for breakfast but like some of the oats were out of the milk when you heated it and were rock hard but you didnt notice until you stirred it then bit one and it hurt your tooth and that tooth hurt all day, making you wonder if you cracked a tooth, and then you dropped your pizza ou picked up for dinner as you got your keys out to unlock the door to your house. and then you hopped on here like "alright lets talk sports" ya know? they already do. you had a top offense with some of the worst guards in the league, added a let who rates better than volson ever has in any year. brought back depth guys who played well, and have 6 months until the season hits to make more additions. get back several top 2 round picks healthy on defense have young DT's a year better and stronger and experiences a DC who using guys with a simple decision making system for fast reaction times, and doesnt hold back younger talent for vets who are slow to run the complex system. went from loving to hating Lou after all the details came out after he was gone.... sucks.. has a great system but he is a one trick pony, either he gets smart vets who can run it or it doesnt work as he doesnt trust youth. Zielter has shown no interest in returning here and his wife talked shit about the team if i recall.. another came of "they were never coming here" but fans say "why didnt they just sign him!!!!1111" interesting comments. thats how the enitre nfl works. not a TON of guys just getting blindly signed. there in like 20+ people in the coahing and training and personnel staffs.. guys have even 5-20 years careers with 5+ teams each with 60+ players, every coach has touched like 500 players. i just hired a guy at work, listed a job, i had 247 applicants. I work in a industry where security and safety of the location is important. i ran through the interviews, planning to set up in person the following week, hit a guy who worked for a friends company that closed a location. i asked him what the deal was.. told me he was trust worthy reliable good dude.. hated losing him. I was going to have to do interviews offsite so candidates didnt see our location so we dont get robbed. Invited dude to the offices, had a hour chat and walk through, he starts monday. rejected 246 other candidates without an interview.. the info i NEEDED that i cant easily get from interviews, was secured, it was most important.. coaches all know eachother one way or another.. gettig the scoop on guys is VITAL. this is absolutely silliness. Per my previous response above, thats how everything works in the entire world, and ESPECIALLY in sports. unreal. no we arent. we were 1 win from the playoffs, 1, and lost what 7-8 games by a score? you dont think JUST having your first two round CB's back gets a game or two? your nely developed young DT's a year smarte and stronger gets a game? new run stopping DT doesnt grab a game with a 3rd down stop? all the draft picks will have no effect i guess? not a single palyer developes and grows? the new DC system changes nothing and is no better for the young players? man that sucks... thats like winning the lottory of bad scenarios ah yeah all those teams just lacing thier roster year after year after year with HOF players... everyone but the bengals... day 3 HOF crew, bengals excluded. you know the rounds with trash pay and no length and shit guaranteed money. thats where everyone but the bengals finds deep talent. ... i mean, they just fired Lou for doing those things. so tough claim to make against the TEAM, who just fired the COACH who was doing those things... right? correct, id imagine we dont stop our free agent process march 13th... and we have what 4 of the best players at their positions int he league under contract so splash moves arent whatwe are looking for. this is nonsensical boulderdash. they draft and sign guys for a role and depend on them to handle that role, and obide by those contracts. and the bengals are dumb when they obide the deals and the bengals are cheap when the player doesnt. its a cool cycle. these comments are made up of logic based on scenarios and realities that only exist in fans heads. 10 year vet, smart, average guard. was at least rating in the number range of the number of starting guards that are in the league.. an "nfl starter rated guard" if you will.. if the ysign another guard volson is gone, if not volson is this guys backup i imagine. yall are really caught up on this "backup pay" thing. there are less than 20 guards that make 10mil. ayear there ar eless than 35 guards who make 5 mil a year. there are less than 50 guards who make 3 mil a year. the bottom 17% of the top 64 paid guards makes less than 2 million a year. you are making shit up. this is what average veteran guards make.. see data above.. fans seem to think all starting caliber players make what only the top 25-30% of the leagues starters make.. i dont know why. the data is available for free. he was rated 10 years in better than volson ever had in pass blocking.. so ill chalk that as a win. be odd for him to take Lees spot. id imagine they keep volson to back him up, unless they get another guard in FA/daft, kirkland, Ford, Patrick, and X player probably makes sense.. they could drop lee but dropping a possibply promising young cheap C for no reason seems rough. less than volson.. he has 6 penalties last year, volson has 8. more than some but less than volson.. so 2x better... better pass blocker and less penalized... what a time to be alive..

having a solid player on the roster is never a lose. he is incredibly young still, has tremendous physical atributes, and has, even if few, some flashes of great plays. he also gits Goldens desire for plug n play guys who can fit into various roles on the fly, Ossai is a young athletic utility knife. its a win win.. we get another year of his services for 2.4% of the salary cap. yeah as a middle of the pack guy in possibly a role and scheme that doesnt fit his strngths, seems like he can only improve. he doesnt want to lock into a average pay deal if he can get more after a good season.. if he is gonna risk a one off season he must have conversed and trusts in Golden to make good use of him. even a great season wont make his pay insane, a great season lands him like 4/60 at best.. starting 3rd LB. hes the starting 3rd LB. like ADG was.. there are three lb roles, ADG was the starter of one, Burks will be the new starter of that.. mostly. kinda. yea. he has nothing to do with Pratt. different positions at LB. from what i can tell anyway.. but pratt was bad last year so just about anyone would be an improvement. i mean, UDFA are special teamers, like ones who recover touched blocked punts ending up giving a game winning drive, or long snappers who do or dont botch a snap in overtime for a game winning FG. many late picks and UDFA have effects on the games outcomes and the seasons outcomes. maybe a 7th round pick is in on 4th and 17 in KC and plays great D but hits a WR 1/10th a second too early giving them a first down.... he palyed a chunk and made a few good breakups. was a small glimmer amung the shit DB play and injuries for a game here or there.. nothing special tho. yall be watching the games right? wtf... i mean dude is the starer at his LB position. its really simple. no one starts over him at his LB spot.. why is this even a conversation? nostalgia for having a vet RB who can block like an adult. thats every team every single year.. name a team where no UDFA and 7th round picks ever make it? rosters are FULL of them... special teams is full of them. draft is going to be so interesting, a true BPA method would land some TALENT in this draft.. but there ar some needs. G is off the list of urgent needs now luckily, BPA of S/CB/DE/DT even would yield some killer additions.. eager for that to get here.

i appreciate the open mind to my thought process, most people get in their feelings. I just think of places like LA and New york for lifestyle, in new york there are 60 food options at 2am and most are amazing, in cincinnati white castle and frischs are open in kentucky, and thats about it. and in new york and LA you can go hop on an episode of a TV show on your day off, you can join a national sports radio show down the street, lots can be done with zoom type interviews, but its not quite the same. then bring in beaches, even if the play isnt dying for a beach for some reason, GF's and spouses are, kids are, family and friends may be tagging along wherever they live... its just a factor, period. I left ohio because i didnt want my kids growing up there, I couldnt afford private schools, and the douglas county schools in denver area were 10x better, so my broke white ass left, the only thing that magnetizes me to that region is cost of living and sports teams i like... there is a percentage of folks who dont care about any of that stuff, but even then you compete with low or zero state income taxes so a 5-10% state income tax rate or zero. on 5 mil is no joke. on 20 mil is no question. its really frustrating seeing fans say the "why didnt they sign so and so" and we have no idea the teal called and they said no my client has no interest in playing there". thats not reported to the media. we are fans of a small market, with no entertainment or luxury draw and no geograhpical draw (beaches, skiing, etc) so get what we can get and enjoy the ride.. this is supposed to be fun... im gonna have fun with it..

yeah its march.

and the defense improves via health alone, unless of course they have key players miss 80 games again... which hasnt happened in the last 20 years so seems unlikely. and unless some GREAT guard falls in our laps in the draft i assume 3 starter level guys come in through the draft. Al Golden gotta be stoked right now.

they no longer have to escrow the funds, roughly the time of the watson deal that ended, as the browns never did it... i think when the revenue share surpassed 150% of the salary cap they stopped that, as every single team is guaranteed the funds to pay out all deals... nothing officially anounced, but a few articles about it. dont worry they locked in the injured concussed Tua..... who a gang of bengals fans wanted instead of burrow.

still dont know why people think this is how this goes.. this isnt a negative post, this isnt a trash talking post, this isnt an excuse post.. its just the reality of the situation. so like, do you think... that the bengals call an agent, and its like "yeah Houston and Miami have offers in for 3 years 26mill for my client" and the bengals are like "how about 3 years 25.8 million?" how exactly do you think they are lowballing? lemme ask this... when a player comes to Miami for a visit as a free agent, where would you find them for dinner? no idea right? ok like most places could be any of 100 places .... how about when they come to Cincinnati? 3 options, and they all ahve the same owners name on the front. pick a Jeff Ruby.... cause thats all cincinnati has to offer. OBJ was at the fucking mall walking around on his own on his visit.... kenwood mall... the mall i ran into Chris henry twice, the mall i saw pacman 4-5 times, the mall chad went to all the time... kenwood damn mall... the mall i would get chik fil a breakfast in the 30 minutes it was serviced cause the food court opened at 10 at my shitty retail cell phone job... thats where the nfl players go to pass time. so lets square that up... if i have offers from dallas, jacksonville, houston, miami, tampa, and cincinnati. with me? and all are offering 3 years 26 million. I make the least amount of money in Cincinnati, state tax is the highest in ohio. Places with worse state tax burdens: California, Chicago, NY, Kansas, the rest appear to be the same or lower. and in those cities, minus KC, your opportunity to make endorsements cash and appearances is 100X that in other states. so even cali or NYX or chicago you can more easily make that money up.. on top of the better entertainment options, lifestyle, or beaches, etc.. all teams arent created equal, all money isnt equal even if offers are. and you gotta know, all of these players have visited cincinnati on road trips. they know if they wanna live here, mostly on a saturday night, so those night life is important to, have seen the best it has to offer. Von Miller hits the sneaker store for private shopping at night, guys hit the one night club, guys go to Diamins in miamisburgh, there are guys are at the peak of their lives, peak earning, peak party time, peak everything... it takes a special player to want to spend that peak in a place like cincinnati. Uzomah left for NY for the same or less money because he wanted to get into sports broadcasting for post career and the opportunities were plentiful there, Whitworth chose LA regardless of reason for leaving cincay, for opprtunities for his wife and himself who were into tv and broadcasting and news, and LA offered a ton. and now he is in broadcasting. every player who doesnt come here isnt because the front office was being cheap. cincinnati doesnt have much to offer young multimillionaires. thats life. its not a knock on cincinnati, thats many cities.. so you gotta find the free agents who dont care about that, AND dont have aspirations in major media, AND are hopfully looking to win with a guy like burrow here. im not shitting on cincinnati, everyone always gets in their feelings about this... but its fucking true and everyone pretends it isnt.

wouldnt expect him to, but they def could. thats literally what the number is, $11.x is gonna be on the cap for year one.. so 4.5-5mil would be the hit to walk away. thats not that serious, pretty much the Rankins situation.. almost identical

everyone does. and Rankins, like 2 weeks ago.

why not? he did well rotating 4 positions week to week. probably do even better penciled in and working from one position... right? run stopper, cool tee is already under contract, we have tee. fuck this bitch. i almost dont think of starters and backups anymore at DT.. sort of a 4-5 guy rotation of snaps and sitautions.. they probably ARE the first snap starters, but if there is a loss of 2 on first down in comes a pass rusher DT instead.. so it is what it is. we dont know that they didnt call and agent said he doesnt want to live in fucking cincinnati. went to a warm weather city, with (i think) lower taxes. and close to LA and dallas flight wise. and plays indoors half the season. always good durability. agreed for ME its that they are all able to shop around, and see that teams arent willing to give them much more than what we offer AND give up a pick for them, so the reality sets in of sure maybe New engald would pay tee 31 a year for 5 years, but if they give up a first rounder or two, they arent willing to take him at all, or maybe at 27/year, so instead of his agent filling his head with "hold out and on the market you can get 31mil" its "well you can get 27 or 26.4" sort of a realization.. and i think Trey is having the same experience. Crosby gets a dumbass deal that he will never finish, Trey wants that deal, goes shopping, no ones offering that deal, especially with having to give up a pick in a deep ass DL draft.. back to reality..

ill look that up, i dont think ive ever done that before. thanks!