A Rock

I think logically he should perform very well this year, for all the reasons you've listed above. I'm REALLY hoping your right in fact, because a Lombardi will more than erase his faults from last year. The problem is, pro football is wildly unpredictable for many reasons, not the least of which being injuries. The planets really lined up for this team last year resulting in a Super Bowl run, which is pretty bizarre considering how awful the pass protection was. The skill players made great plays on must have it downs. The defense made key stops and got turnovers with playoff games on the line. It was glorious for this franchise after such a postseason drought with so much heartache, but luck was with us for the most part too. Can't count on that, we need to be even better this upcoming year to get another shot at it. Hopefully Carman is a contributor to this. I know my next take here is pretty childish, but it's hard not to blame him for basically coming up one play short of an NFL championship. Him, Adeniji, and Prince. I know Carman is young, but a college graduate hired for millions to play in the NFL should be maniacally prepared to prove himself. Maybe there's something in his personal life that hampered that? Either way, winning cures all. Let's go Bengals! Let's go Carman!

I think Hurst is the sleeper this year. He's a rock solid pass catcher who's biggest downside, as far as I can tell, was ending up on teams with Mark Andrews and Kyle Pitts.

True, and I credit the defense more than anything else for the postseason wins. More accurately, he shamed the franchise into being proactive in free agency where there was a GLARING need.

He has nothing to prove with me. He and the defense put the team on their backs last year, and took us on an improbable run culminating in an AFC championship and so close to a Lombardi it still hurts. Unfortunately, we don't get to pick up where we left off last year, and you can't take anything for granted in this league. I feel like Burrow did something truly remarkable last year though. He shamed the franchise into becoming active in free agency. With him playing so well behind a bad o line, it became a huge topic in the football world, and they kinda had no choice but to finally address it. He showed huge courage a year after getting his knee shredded, and has nothing to prove with me. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do with some protection. No longer feeling like a single postseason win is almost too much to hope for. A championship is a legitimate hope for this fan base now. Another truly remarkable thing he did last year.

I agree with everyone on here stating he should be innocent until proven guilty, and certainly not tried in social media before court. That's ridiculous. But ridiculous is the world we currently live in. Someone on a ladder to the top of that world needs to be INTELLIGENT. This was a very dumb move for many reasons, not the least of which is having his reputation torpedoed. Now we have to wonder if the totality of the accusations are true. Add in he hasn't played particularly smart, had to be told it's important to show up to camp in shape, and I'd understand if Bengal brass wanted to part ways. That sucks cause I DON'T know exactly what he did, and I think he could develop into a much better player.

We'll see moving forward with the improved o line, but we had plenty of need to check down to a RB during the playoff and Super Bowl run.

I saw nothing but upside with Chris Evans when they drafted him. The major gripe was he hadn't played enough, but as far as I could tell it was related to scholastic issues which he rectified. Just more tread on the tires for a swiss army knife type back. He didn't get a lot of touches last year, but he did average 4.5 yards per carry and over 10 yards per catch, with 2 touchdowns. Surprised they didn't use him a little more.

Last year I was just hoping and praying we'd finally win a playoff game. This year I'll be disappointed with anything less than a championship. I know that's wildly premature, and pro football is a wildly unpredictable sport year to year, but this hope is based on two things. Firstly, and obviously, my heart is with the Bengals. I deeply enjoy watching this team succeed. Secondly, I think on paper we're the team to beat. We had a glaring deficiency that caused us to come up just short last year, and the front office dealt with it immediately. That is DIFFERENT. The unstoppable force that is Burrow and Chase is winning out over the unmovable object that was the front office's ineptitude. It's truly remarkable for us long time fans. The three new o linemen and our new tight end are all solid pickups and they're talking like they've all bought in already. Hope they grab anybody else they can and have a good draft. I'd like to see this team start crushing other teams like the early to mid 90s Cowboys. Why not? This fanbase deserves it.

I feel strangely a little worried about being disappointed by this, like she'll be wearing Jets gear on Monday morning after they lose. Lol

Seattle was a head scratcher in 2021. Mixon's 42 catches were over half as many as Metcalf's 75. They just refused to get him seriously involved for almost the entire season. I started wondering if it might have even been something personal, Metcalf is a pretty immature teammate at best. Didn't hear much though, and now Wilson is gone.

That was an incredible run. They were one play on either side of the ball away from a Championship. Hopefully they don't approach the offseason with that mindset though. They were also one play away on either side of the ball from losing every playoff game this year, including the first round. They didn't dominate anyone in the playoffs. Win or lose, the beating Burrow is taking is unconscionable. Protect his health, keep the defense intact as much as possible, and I think they could go on a run that doesn't keep us all on the verge of a heart attack, lol.

Yeah, advertising that we're not going to run with no extra pass blockers never seemed like a good idea this year. Seemed like defenses would blanket everybody early with no real concern about anything developing before someone up front got home, and they were almost always right. Not sure how much of a defense of the Oline this is, but I agree Zac ran it too much. Seems like he ran it on 3rd and even 4th and short yardage situations too? Wish we could have some of those back.

I'm tired of this guy's act. The Bengals don't need a ridiculous and negative sub plot. Four mentions of himself, none of the team or fans after a heart breaking loss. And I definitely don't blame his play on the field. He played pretty damn good. He got fooled on the first Cupp td, but that was just a great play by the Rams. He gave up the game winner, but the refs decided the Rams were going to get as many chances as necessary. But of course it's HIM getting beat on the dagger play. Just bad mojo or something man. I don't care about him trying to torch people on twitter. Just want one season to end with nothing but a sweet taste, no bitter. Everyone else saying the right things. Even Mike Brown to may amazement. But this guy...

I can only keep stating the obvious. Our defense and offensive skill players were absolutely off the charts good this postseason run. There's no words for how disappointed I am in the o line. An NFL quarterback is sacked 1.5 times per game on average. Burrow was sacked SEVEN times in the Super Bowl and we almost won. He was sacked NINE times vs. the Titans and we did win. If we'd had anywhere near an average line we'd have been the early 90's Cowboys. Not just winning every postseason game, but it wouldn't have been even close. So how good are we is a difficult question. We have some of the best players I've ever seen, and a 30th ranked o line at the same time. I know they tried and there were injuries in that group. Zac juggled it the best he could and slayed every Bengal demon on the way except the last and biggest.

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. The five stages of grief. When the ball hit the ground on 4th and 1, I was overcome with anger and depression instantly. I'm still not even close to right. A big part of that is the fact that I may never see a championship for the team I love. The funny thing is, I've been fine with that for many years, but once they got close, I realized how badly I wanted them to get it. I didn't sleep Sunday, and I didn't sleep particularly well last night. That's when the denial part kicked in, going over the late blown call, the inability to gain a yard, what if, what if. Like if I thought about it hard enough, something might change. There's no bargaining, it's not like my wife died. I'm actually close to my kind of acceptance, accepting it happened and nothing can change it. I'm not okay with it. Never will be. I'm still not okay with the 80's Super Bowl losses. I'm probably a pretty immature 53 year old, lol. On the flip side. Man did this team overachieve this year! We basically came within a play of winning the Super Bowl with a terrible o line. Who does that! Spectacular skill players on offense, and good players on defense who somehow coalesced into a great unit. Especially down the stretch. Nothing can take away the joy of winning 3 playoff games after such a long drought. Will the team make the right moves and be better next year? Nothing in life is guaranteed, that's part of the pain of coming up short this year, but I sure hope so.

Ouch! Can't sugar coat the fact that the brass ring was right there, and after years of varying degrees of heartache, we still didn't grab it. It really felt like there was a chance this year, it felt different. Very mixed emotions right now. Angry and depressed cause you've got to find a way when a very rare opportunity is there. Super proud of the defense. They were without a doubt the superstars of this team all postseason. Proud of Burrow and the skill players on offense. They were spectacular at times and were trying to overcome the two biggest problems that cost us the Lombardi IMO. Obviously the O line. I mean, come on. 7 sacks today. 11 qb hits. Amazing we got so close with a couple of guys who have no business starting on an NFL o line. The other hurdle was the rhythm of Taylor's play calling. That was a year long problem and certainly, at least in part, a byproduct of trying to juggle his way around that o line. Hard to be too critical. Despite all the problems, this team won games they probably shouldn't have (Titans, Chiefs) and damn near won the Super Bowl. DAMN I wish they would have. Then I wouldn't be sitting here with a headache with all the coulda, shoulda, woulda screaming in my head, and typing this long post that doesn't begin to say what I want it to. Here's hoping they make the necessary tweaks, and we're back sooner than later to clear that last hurdle. Who Dey

I thought CJ was gonna be key against the Chiefs and they won without him. I hope he's back for the Super Bowl. If not, or if he's limited, I'd like to see Evans out there as an all purpose check down. Mixon is definitely the best RB that's gonna be on the field for the SB, and I'd love to see him get going sooner than later in the game. Seems like slants, check downs, screens would be optimal for spreading things outs and getting Mixon going on some 2nd and short yardage situations.

I was thinking the same thing. I'd really like to see CJ getting some 8 yard gains on first down. Set up some 2nd and 2 situations for Mixon and get him going, keep the clock ticking, keep the chains moving. Looking for CJ today!

Very good assessment. I would add a couple things. Burrow is the toughest dude, mentally and physically, at the position. He never bitched last year about the o line, and he was playing well before his knee got jacked up. He comes back from ACL surgery, and takes us to the AFC championship. Unbelievable. He can create on broken plays as well. The Boyd touchdown (that whistle affected NOTHING) and the first touchdown to Chase against the Niners are as good as anything you'll see on broken plays. Some of those sacks last week were ridiculous. Guys double teaming interior linemen and allowing edge rushers to get to Burrow untouched. I'm predicting the o line gets their act together after watching game film and plays half way decent. Half way decent is all Joe needs. GO BENGALS!!!

I've noticed he's not scrambling as much. He can play QB at his size, but not if he's gonna just drop straight back. Could be injury related.

Hopefully your office Christmas tree stays up until a meaningless preseason game next year. 🎄

Not even sure he needs to develop, they might just need to get him more involved. He showed good bursts of speed and good vision on a couple of productive kick returns yesterday. Those traits were readily abundant (along with pass catching) on his college highlight reel. He had a nice catch for a touchdown against Detroit this year, is considered an all purpose swiss army knife, and the biggest knock on him coming into the league was that he barely played his last year at Michigan (could just be more tread on the tires) due to academic issues. Seems like a no brainer to use as an extra blocker and a check down for Burrow. Like to seem him more involved, unless there's something I'm missing here?

Thanks for posting. Every time I watch an interview with a player this year I'm reassured. Great attitude, talent, and football knowledge has made all the difference. Loved his breakdown of the touchdown, knowing the ball was coming to him before it was thrown because the defense didn't rotate, and knowing Burrow is seeing the same thing. Money.

Lol. Yeah, I've never really gotten into arguments with you or anyone else on here. I avoid it. The only posts I ever cringe at are my own, a half hour after posting sometimes. Arguing through a keyboard tends to make the blood boil, though it's pretty entertaining if you're not directly involved. Now's the time to band together. We've been freed from postseason purgatory!!!

Beautiful video. Hope no one leaves this board. Being a true fan is emotional. Being a Bengal fan is doubly so.