The "vet guard" is kinda shit & they had to be cornered into extending Higgins. I'm not even sure it was the right move when the roster is so weak in other areas. When you think about what made Brady one of the QB GOATs it's his ability to elevate the players around him. Burrow shouldn't need a $50M/year receiver tandem to succeed. Though again, this assumes the team would invest that money wisely in outside FA's - see that "veteran guard".

Tobin talked about not paying more money for the same team, but aside from some bargain bin shopping and the draft picks that's what we've got.

...and I still gave them a B+, because it's the Bengals and even if they were practically forced into half of what they did, they still get credit for doing it.

A more aggressive approach to FA is unlikely but that is what it would take for me to give a team that just posted a 9-8 record despite two MVPs an A+. They seem to think they can sneak their way to a championship with those bargain FAs and mid round draft picks on some Moneyball strat, but 1. This isn't MLB with a massive 3-tiered farm system for talent to get lost in and 2. This FO just aren't as smart as they think they are to be playing chess in the middle of a boxing ring.

With news of the Risner signing I may consider an upgrade to "A-", he's kind of the best of the rest as the time to go shopping was 4-5 months ago, but I'm glad they finally did the obvious thing here.

IMO extending Tee was the right decision, even if Uno didn't give them a choice. Bengals had a massive amount of cap space available at start of the year. We could have been more proactive and brought in some outside free agents besides Slaton and the low cost guys. We did do a partial house cleaning of some underachievers from last season. Hiring Golden was the right call. Moving on from Pollack was wise, we'll see if Peters is the man but I'm optimistic there.

Getting the stadium deal done was good. Waiting until the last minute to extend Trey and add Risner wasn't. Both should have been done before camp opened.

The team waited and had to pay more for a number of players. We missed the opening of free agency getting deals done with the WRs. We could have made deals during the draft but were passive. We submitted no waiver claims at final cuts. On the face of it we have a suspect defense that could be upgraded at every level. Maybe we'll be treated to schematic brilliance every week but we don't look ready for a deep playoff run this year. That's disappointing. I expect a playoff slot and perhaps we can get hot and go on a roll. Or perhaps we'll look back and wonder what if we'd beefed up some areas.

Just think of all of the blood sweat and tears fans could have saved if they just signed Risner before the draft, when they were supposed to. They would have been so much smarter if they had signed him then. I mean intentionally smart. Now, they are just accidentally smart, obviously. I mean they might look smart, and yeah, they might even get to claim it, but we know the difference, the truth, right?

Well they needed 2 new guards to upgrade from Volson and Cappa. They got one in the draft. They added the other one right before the season starts. Would have been nice to have Risner all through camp, even if they had to pay him more to go through camp. Maybe that would cost 250K or so. They could have cut Volson and saved a couple mil instead of keeping him around long enough to get hurt and collect his salary on IR.

Risner was 100% NOT going to step foot into a training camp. That was the whole point.

3 minutes ago, spicoli said:

Risner was 100% NOT going to step foot into a training camp. That was the whole point.

Not for vet minimum. That's why paying him a little more would have been worth it. We'll see if he's on the veteran minimum benefit deal, which pays him the full vet minimum salary but counts on the cap at a reduced amount. But the Volson situation backfired, both when they wheedled him down in the spring with a bonus, then when he got hurt and they couldn't get out of the reduced contract. At least they moved on from Moss before he got hurt again.

11 minutes ago, sparky151 said:

We submitted no waiver claims at final cuts. On the face of it we have a suspect defense that could be upgraded at every level.

Mmhm, yeah, don't like that. Staying at B+ for now, they're a little too complacent for a team hovering around .500

3 minutes ago, spicoli said:

Risner was 100% NOT going to step foot into a training camp. That was the whole point.

Don't care for that much either. As others said, he was probably still on the market for a reason. Which, again, maybe they should've done something 4-5 months ago when there were better options instead of waiting until the last possible moment.

I agree with what the Locked on guys said the other day

B to B-

A on offense and C to C- on defense, which makes it a B to B-

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6579973/2025/08/28/bengals-salary-burrow-hendrickson-chase-higgins/

I'm waiting for an update on the status of Olivia Ponton.

Hope she's on the team. She's really hawt, by howdy.

Katie might have cooked here 🍳

1 hour ago, BlackJesus said:

Katie might have cooked here 🍳

For what exactly? Letting two of the 4 "stars" in question reach the point of a hold-out, or being cornered into signing the third?

Good job signing Gesicki, but apologize? Settle down.

7 hours ago, BlackJesus said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6579973/2025/08/28/bengals-salary-burrow-hendrickson-chase-higgins/

Who else should they be paying if not their stars? Does anyone want to give CTB or Dax a big extension now? Chase Brown isn't eligible yet.

"I can afford my star players."

3 hours ago, sparky151 said:

Who else should they be paying if not their stars? Does anyone want to give CTB or Dax a big extension now? Chase Brown isn't eligible yet.

I guess the outside FA's that they've done such a stellar job of identifying and recruiting? It's probably not great to be the team with the highest % of the cap dedicated to the fewest players, particularly coming off a dud season with nothing but excuses to show for it. I still think the smart move long term is going to be a tag/trade of Henderson (though I'm not sure how many other teams are going to give up anything for the right to pay him franchise tag money for a year) & probably moving Higgins, too. Hate to see Tee go but I've assumed that was inevitable since they drafted Chase. They still need too much help elsewhere and are now stacked at WR. If they're afraid of FA's that only leaves the draft. Suspect it would take a couple of extra picks or FAs to get this defense beyond average.

As it turns out, Dallas and Jerry Jones are everything that the media wants you to believe Cincinnati and Mike Brown is. 😎

How do I grade this offseason? Mason's are reaching into my pants to lay bricks.

I gave them a B.

From afar, signing Tee, Chase, Gesicki, and Tre (and yes, it was painful and their waiting cost them both $ and some valuable practice time for guys like Stewart and Tre) was an impressive achievement that I didn’t think they’d get done. And with the tag, they have some options for dealing with Tre next year - franchise tag, tag and trade, etc.

Adding guys like Fant and Risner and Slaton will help. I think it may take some time to gel, but I feel the D will be better with Golden as DC, some better position coaches at DL and LB, and a badly-needed injection of athleticism at DL and LB through FA and the draft. And I like the new additions of Brooks and Fairchild to the offense.

So a lot has to break for them to have a great season… health for sure, young guys stepping up on D, the OL holding up, the defense gelling and improving over the course of the year - but overall, I think the FO has done a good job of positioning the team for success.

So odd that the Bengals keep adding complimentary offensive pieces while ignoring the worst safety room in the NFL. It only compounds the worst personnel mistake they have made in recent years...letting Jessie Bates walk away in free agency. Now the Bengals safety room will include a 3rd rounder, a 5th rounder, a 7th rounder, and an UDFA. None of them have even proven to be a starter level thus far, much less impact players. Al Golden's toughest task may be hiding this deficiently.

On the plus side, this will be the strongest and deepest offense the Bengals have had under Zac Taylor. The sky is the limit on that side of the ball.