I_C_Deadpeople

I Know, we are still in the playoffs, For now, a quick distraction. Once the season ends we can fill the tpoic with relevant info. Dane Brugler just ran an updated mock draft which is on the Althletic. The article below is from Paul Dehner in repsonse to that. In Dane Brugler’s first two-round mock draft for 2022, he selected Washington cornerback Trent McDuffie in the first round and Penn State tackle Rasheed Walker in the second round. As with any draft projection, how free agency unfolds will play a major factor if these are the two positions targeted in the draft. That’s especially true for the Bengals, who have the most projected cap space of any playoff team. The Bengals’ top priority in the offseason will be adding reinforcements on the offensive line. That could go for any position, with center at the top of the list as Trey Hopkins’ contract expires and he crosses 30 after an uneven season battling back from an ACL tear. Riley Reiff is also a free agent after his season was cut short by an ankle injury. It would make sense if the Bengals tried to put together the same deal Reiff signed last year (one-year, $7.5 million) as a veteran leader and stopgap and put an eye toward the tackle of the future in the early rounds. That would make a large, athletic tackle like Walker (6-6, 325) a nice fit to give him time to learn how to be a pro from Reiff and have some time to develop before being forced into the lineup. The Bengals are not going to punt on 2021 second-round pick Jackson Carman, but he clearly fell out of good graces during a season where he was given every opportunity to assume the starting job but lost it to Hakeem Adeniji midseason. Carman still needs to find maturity, consistency and stay off the ground if he wants to be part of the long-term plan in Cincinnati. Walker played left tackle for three years at Penn State, so flexibility to swing to either side will be important. But in this scenario, it would make sense if the Bengals started him out on the right side. Without question, they still don’t have a right tackle of the future in place opposite Jonah Williams, so any way to take a big swing at that hole would make perfect sense. The 6-6, 325-pound Rasheed Walker was a Nittany Lions starter for three seasons. (Matthew OHaren / USA Today) The first-round pick of McDuffie also falls in line with Cincinnati’s needs. Just as important, it falls in line with its history. Director of player personnel Duke Tobin loves first-round corners like Bengals fans loved Saturday’s playoff win. The Bengals selected a corner in the first round five times from 2006-16. They have not taken a cornerback before the fifth round since. The Bengals have selected a single cornerback since head coach Zac Taylor arrived in 2019 — a seventh-round flyer on Jordan Brown out of South Dakota State, who did not make the team. They’ve instead opted for free agency to fill the spot. The most significant signing backfired in a massive way. They inked Trae Waynes in 2020 to a three-year, $42 million contract and he missed all of last season and started just four games this year, including Week 18 when the team played all its backups. He’s healthy for the playoffs but has essentially been relegated to a $14 million gunner on the punt team. There is zero chance he is back next season. The Bengals will save $11 million against the cap by cutting him. He’s the largest cap hit on the team next year. Eli Apple has filled in admirably and appears to have found a home here, but is a free agent and Cincinnati has turned to midseason waiver wire pickups Vernon Hargreaves and Tre Flowers when injuries occurred on the outside late in the year. Putting a succession plan in for the future, potentially bumping Apple back to a fourth corner, would go a long way to solidifying an already quality secondary with Chidobe Awuzie and Mike Hilton the definite starters. Brugler has the Bengals passing on a few quality defensive linemen in Houston’s Logan Hall and Texas A&M hybrid lineman DeMarvin Leal. That makes sense because Cincinnati not only has D.J. Reader, Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard all signed for the long haul, they invested 2021 draft picks in Joseph Ossai, who will return from a season-ending injury in the preseason opener, versatile Cam Sample and seventh-rounder Wyatt Hubert, who also missed the year with an injury. The only question will be how Cincinnati addresses 3-technique in free agency. Larry Ogunjobi is a free agent and just suffered a foot injury in the playoff win against Las Vegas. B.J. Hill played well, but he’s also a free agent and a rotational piece. They would love to bring back both but it will depend on the price tag. It could be closer to the top of the list if they enter the draft without a real answer at the position. Two questions would exist with picking McDuffie. One would be his lack of interceptions, but much of that came due to how well he covered his side of the field. Taylor loves cornerbacks who can create turnovers, so that will be an element worth watching. The second issue would be size (5-11, 195). With Awuzie, Hilton and Apple, the Bengals have the market cornered on slightly undersized corners. They could use somebody longer for better matchups against bigger, more physical receivers (look out for A.J. Brown and Julio Jones). For that reason, Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner (6-3, 200 pounds), potentially staying home out of the University of Cincinnati, would be an ideal fit with his rangy body type, but Brugler has teams falling in love with the Bearcats star and going 12th overall to Minnesota. If a slip happened there, you’d better believe the Bengals would be calling. Either way, these two picks are in the cone of probability for spots the Bengals are trying to fill.

The front office is somewhat known for the lack of 'titles'.

What is Brown's current position with the Bengals?

I got banned there for saying "booger"

If you want to keep building the culture, yiu HAVE to sign this guy. Even if yoiu overpay a bit, there is loads of cap space now and in the coming years. But he seems to be a team leader and you have to pay for that until there are more leaders and then you can be more clinical about it.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ben-roethlisberger-nfl_n_61e73350e4b03874b2de2e16

Good point.

I was thinking how many young people have never seen a library. In our City, we have closed a lot of libraries due to lack of use. As a lad, we spent a lot of time in the local library - no computers or internet at that time.

I may have been sarcastic lol

I need Tibor to stay on the board, he makes me look like an optimist lol

Looks like the Mayock experiment is over as well lol

What is a "library card"? Never heard of such thing

Stafford shed his own playoff lsoing demons. And Cards HC Marvin Klingbury and QB Kyler Dalton put on quite a show.

The refs were who we thought they would be!

To me the Good can be summarized as follows: Many players stepped up their game in the playoff limelight compared to past playoff teams where many players folded.