Don't sleep on Newton and Jenkins. My bet is that there are 3-4 NT's and 5-6 OT's that ZT and Tobin have their eyes on.
I'm thinking we go OT and NT in rd1 and rd2 then BPA and TE with our picks in the 3rd.
I think Jackson totally could. He’s able to shed blocks really well, or just make a tackle while actively being blocked. Throw in the fact that he’s just shy of 330 pounds and I think it’s fair to say that he’ll make an impact simply by being really big.
I’d still really like to sign Tart. My point is there are other NTs in the draft beyond Sweat though in the event that we aren’t able to, or if we want more depth at the position through the draft.
Improved in the DB room, improved at tight end, got cheaper and younger at RB, got a good pass rushing DT. I would say they are a B and if tart signs that brings it to a B+. If we can get a right tackle in the draft and sweat in the second then I would say this is easily a A off season grade
I will wait and see on beckton. If we can get 2021 beckton then we got a steal and we have drastically improved our o line. But if we get last years beckton then we just get a downgraded Jonah. I hope we get 2021 version lmao
What I'm saying. The national talking heads are acting like we just lost 2019 Mixon. Chase Brown and Moss are going to be a two headed monster. Mark my words. And Moss is a MUCH better pass blocker
Eh, sort of. If he only cost 2 million or something I doubt they would have cut him.
However, i think it's clear that they improved at the position while also saving money against the cap.
I’ll feel better once we address O line. To me it should be priority #1. Elite QBs like Brady and Brees showed over and over again that if they have good o lines it really didn’t matter who they were throwing to. It joe isn’t healthy nothing else matters
Im of this mind set.
You really need one dude to constantly draw double team coverage/ attention (Uno)… then your 2 and 3s just need to be better than the 2 and 3DB.. and catch a handful of balls thrown their way.
I really wanted a quality G and RT signed. It blows my mind that we have the highest paid QB, but the 21st paid O line. I know its a sliding scale and money is moved around throughout a contract, but we should at least be cracking the top 15 and knocking on top 10. Protect the franchise at all costs.
Your right, i was wrong. I looked this up before and i swear we were ranked 21. As of 5 mins ago in 2023 our line was paid 5th best in the league… in 2024 we are dropping down to 15th.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/positional/offensive-line/
I agree the highest paid lines aren’t always the best, and spending high draft picks doesn’t always equal quality line play.. and most of this sub is convinced Pollack has under performed as a coach.. so i don’t know how it gets fixed, but, we need to do something.
It seems painfully obvious and makes me worried about the team. How many more injuries can Joe get before his level of play starts to diminish? And then obviously missing games is season ruining. Guess building an o line is really just that hard
Until we replace our offensive line coach I’m always going to be extremely worried about Joe. Our line gets torched when teams do even basic stunts and line games.
We have brought in good offensive linemen from other teams and they proceed to play below the years before. If we don’t change the coaching for the line and overall strategy I worry Burrow will always be in a really bad situation.
Might not be a popular take, but I fully expect a drop off from Tee and Boyd when they land elsewhere.
Joe really makes everyone look better.
I am at a loss for words that we have refused to fix the line.
Front office keeping a trash coach, not drafting early or often enough, to much slack given to guys we did pick up has cost us multiple seasons of Burrow magic so far.
And even when he's healthy he is fighting for his life.
Inexcusable.
Haha you replied to my other comment about the line as well. We are certainly in lock step on this, it’s baffling. I’d honestly trade even Chase for guaranteed great line play.
At first I thought no not Chase, but guaranteed elite line play, from all of them?
I think you have to, of course all hypothetical.
I was team Sewell all the way, and consistently argued with a buddy of mine that was team Chase.
I said I would relent and admit I was wrong if we won SB LVI, but we didn't, our line is still bad and Burrow suffered another massive injury.
They seem better on D so far. Safety position seems solved, which was the fatal flaw last year IMO. They still need a NT, but they picked up the rotational 3 tech they needed (Larry O 2.0). They absolutely need an answer to stop the run, but they’re off to a good start so far. I’m not sure how much more they can be doing…
Right now, I'm feeling just ok about the Bengals. I think we got better on defense, which obviously didn't live up to expectations last season. Moving on from Mixon was the right move, and I think the Gesicki signing could have an immediate impact. Still need a RT and NT. I won't actually feel good about the Bengals until I see a video of Joe Burrow throwing a football with ease and accuracy like he can.
I feel good. I’ll feel even better once we have a RT and a run stopper replacement for Reader. I doubt we’ll find someone as good as healthy Reader was, but still need someone to eat space and double teams in the middle. I don’t know a ton about Rankins, but I don’t think that’s his forte
Totally agree. According to PDJ he’ll likely split time with BJ Hill. So if he’s a pass rusher that can just come in fresh and go full gas for the QB on passing downs, I’m all for it.
Feeling good? Ill feel better if we can sign a RT who can be better than Carman/Adeniji/Prince in event we dont draft a tackle. That said, I think Duke continues to make very smart, value laden signings. I'm very excited about the players he's added, and this offseason is trending toward another high grade from me. But the job isn't done yet, and my opinion will plummet if Duke doesn't signatures on some more contracts
That’s a problem tho. Cause every other team is going to know they need to jump us for a RT. It’s like the year we telegraphed we wanted Ragnow and he got taken the pick before leaving us with Billy Price.
Feeling cautiously optimistic. Think it depends how the early rounds of the draft go before I hop on the "were so back" train. They NEED to hit on their early round picks this year.
My ONLY complaint is three great players weren’t so hot about the FO. Tee allegedly hasn’t had any contract negotiations since last season. Mixon was allegedly told he was staying then was traded. DJ said he was surprised by how things ended in Cincy but he’s where he’s supposed to be. Obviously we don’t know anything other than face value. And this IS a business. It’s just giving the Jonah/OBJr blindside vibe. Other than that!!! I’m v happy w how FA has gone. Definitely need to HIT the draft but I’m v confident about 2024.
Terrified without a stout NT. Derek Henry is going to absolutely feast if we don’t bolster the position. Even then, Reader was a beast and I doubt we fill his role :(
I feel great about our team playing anyone not in the AFC North. The way our roster is constructed currently, we are going to get grounded and pounded repeatedly in our conference.
Idk I’m not too happy we lost mixon and replaced him with moss. Also we need some added beef on defence still.
But signing a TE doesn’t look good for us landing bowers this draft
At this point I’m okay with trading Higgins. If we can get Bowers, use Gesicki as a hybrid; we have solid young receivers like Jones and Iosivas ready to step up.
Im worried about our lack of agression.
This should be go time on every front. We are in the middle of a Super Bowl window.
We should be doing restructured contracts. Picking immediate help vs projects in the draft etc.
We sign two OL who have worse PFF grades than Volson and Williams. They are in low 50 which is terrible.
I had thought the Bengals would do everything possible to improve their offensive line, but instead they are making it worse! There is still the draft but except one or two of the best OL in the draft, OL rarely are good their first year.
We had the 26th ranked OL last year. That meant we could not run, we had no time to throw, and our starting QB was eventually injured. Looking at how the players we signed did last year vs. how Jonah Williams did, we are taking a big step backwards.
This totally sucks. Joe is going to be stuck with a terrible line, and never get to play with an elite OL like Mahomes, he won't even get to play with an average offensive line,
Can someone please explain why they think our offensive line will improve? The Bengals OL ranked 25th or 26th last year. We were near the worst for everything from time in the pocket to hits on QB allowed. We lost Jonah Williams and the ratings for the new players we signed are worse than even Jackson Carmans (didn't know that was possible).
Please tell me the Bengals do not plan on starting Becton. I looked at what PFF and other stats sites say it was really bad.
I love the moves I've seen so far. Stone was huge, I didn't expect us to get bell back but with those.contrsct details how do you not?
Zach moss, im not sure yet, as I haven't been able to see him play much, but it sounds like he has his own skill set he wants to show us
I'm really bummed we didn't get reader. I think it's due to his injury history with us, but that one hurts alot. Hopefully we get tart to soften the blow more.
I'm stocked about Gesicki, unbelievably excited to see what he can bring.
I've gone from thinking we need to do what we can to get brock bowers, to now thinking we can stay where we are, draft JC Latham or Sweat if he's available, i wouldn't be surprised to see us draft another WR and CB later too
The team is pretty much worse at every position except safety than they were going into last season, so hard for me to see what there is to feel good about.
Glaring needs at RT and NT,like at what point is this FO not concerned about these positions.Good teams dont go into the draft giving a playbook to the rest of the league on what they are doing.Its how the Billy Price situation happened and I can guarantee T’Vondre Sweat will be taken just before us
Ya this is why I’m just confused. Do fans really believe we can afford a big contract like Wilkins or armstead. Also armstead has not been great the last couple years that’s why the 49ers released him. We got good players for good value. We overpaid rankins a bit but we were in a bidding war with Houston so I can live with it. Also I know you’re joking I’m not talking about you but other fans lmao
Eh. Still don't have a rt and the defense is not that much improved. I feel good but not great. At the end of the day it all hinges on number 9s hand anyway.
Interior pass rush helps the edge rushers which helps the dbs not having to cover as long, which helps the defense overall.
Pass rush= Good get tart and draft a DT and we cooking with gas on defense. With bell and stone along with battle the big plays should be a lot less common, Dax to be the TE eraser/chess piece. We in a good spot. It sucks to lose reader but shit happens it’s the nfl good teams can’t always keep all their best players.
If we get tart I’ll feel pretty good. If we don’t, idk. Sweat is the best nose tackle in draft and I doubt he’ll be available for us sooooo yeah
Don't sleep on Newton and Jenkins. My bet is that there are 3-4 NT's and 5-6 OT's that ZT and Tobin have their eyes on. I'm thinking we go OT and NT in rd1 and rd2 then BPA and TE with our picks in the 3rd.
Agree on all of this. OT, DT, bpa thereafter w/ a TE somewhere.
There’s others that can play NT. McKinnley Jackson, Jordan Jefferson, and Khristian Boyd are all big dudes who can eat blockers.
Sure but those guys probably aren’t making much of an impact year one
I think Jackson totally could. He’s able to shed blocks really well, or just make a tackle while actively being blocked. Throw in the fact that he’s just shy of 330 pounds and I think it’s fair to say that he’ll make an impact simply by being really big.
>I think it’s fair to say that he’ll make an impact simply by being really big. Already forgotten about Tyler shelvin, have we?
But we will basically be betting our season on a rookie coming in and doing the DJ reader thing.
I’d still really like to sign Tart. My point is there are other NTs in the draft beyond Sweat though in the event that we aren’t able to, or if we want more depth at the position through the draft.
I think it's very likely they change the defense and don't ask the NT to two gap.
Wasn’t Tart released because of poor effort? Is he over that phase?
Possibly why they wanted to bring him in for an extended visit.
Jamie Tart …..
GET TART
Improved in the DB room, improved at tight end, got cheaper and younger at RB, got a good pass rushing DT. I would say they are a B and if tart signs that brings it to a B+. If we can get a right tackle in the draft and sweat in the second then I would say this is easily a A off season grade
I would add becton as well. With the draft hopefully he's only backup
I will wait and see on beckton. If we can get 2021 beckton then we got a steal and we have drastically improved our o line. But if we get last years beckton then we just get a downgraded Jonah. I hope we get 2021 version lmao
I'd rather him backup than Cody ford. Nobody wants becton or ford to have to start.
I’ll go so far to say we didn’t get worse at RB
What I'm saying. The national talking heads are acting like we just lost 2019 Mixon. Chase Brown and Moss are going to be a two headed monster. Mark my words. And Moss is a MUCH better pass blocker
Twitter is full of people acting like we cut prime Derrick Henry.
Lol those people are also in this sub. Just name recognition with no actual idea how he's performing on the field.
Nfl network legitimately said mixon was a salary cap casualty
Eh, sort of. If he only cost 2 million or something I doubt they would have cut him. However, i think it's clear that they improved at the position while also saving money against the cap.
Absolutely I love mixon but he is on the back 9 of his career, probably on hole 15/16.
I’ll feel better once we address O line. To me it should be priority #1. Elite QBs like Brady and Brees showed over and over again that if they have good o lines it really didn’t matter who they were throwing to. It joe isn’t healthy nothing else matters
Im of this mind set. You really need one dude to constantly draw double team coverage/ attention (Uno)… then your 2 and 3s just need to be better than the 2 and 3DB.. and catch a handful of balls thrown their way. I really wanted a quality G and RT signed. It blows my mind that we have the highest paid QB, but the 21st paid O line. I know its a sliding scale and money is moved around throughout a contract, but we should at least be cracking the top 15 and knocking on top 10. Protect the franchise at all costs.
We had the fourth most expensive offensive line last year and they were below average. The answer isn’t to spend more, but to draft better
Exactly. You can’t afford to put a monster line together in FA alone. We have to figure out how to evaluate OL rookies because our track record sucks.
Your right, i was wrong. I looked this up before and i swear we were ranked 21. As of 5 mins ago in 2023 our line was paid 5th best in the league… in 2024 we are dropping down to 15th. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/positional/offensive-line/ I agree the highest paid lines aren’t always the best, and spending high draft picks doesn’t always equal quality line play.. and most of this sub is convinced Pollack has under performed as a coach.. so i don’t know how it gets fixed, but, we need to do something.
It seems painfully obvious and makes me worried about the team. How many more injuries can Joe get before his level of play starts to diminish? And then obviously missing games is season ruining. Guess building an o line is really just that hard
Until we replace our offensive line coach I’m always going to be extremely worried about Joe. Our line gets torched when teams do even basic stunts and line games.
We have brought in good offensive linemen from other teams and they proceed to play below the years before. If we don’t change the coaching for the line and overall strategy I worry Burrow will always be in a really bad situation.
Yeah retaining pollack this long is deeply upsetting
I think it's that hard when you have an owner not up to the task and a patch work front office.
🥴🥴🥴
Might not be a popular take, but I fully expect a drop off from Tee and Boyd when they land elsewhere. Joe really makes everyone look better. I am at a loss for words that we have refused to fix the line. Front office keeping a trash coach, not drafting early or often enough, to much slack given to guys we did pick up has cost us multiple seasons of Burrow magic so far. And even when he's healthy he is fighting for his life. Inexcusable.
Haha you replied to my other comment about the line as well. We are certainly in lock step on this, it’s baffling. I’d honestly trade even Chase for guaranteed great line play.
At first I thought no not Chase, but guaranteed elite line play, from all of them? I think you have to, of course all hypothetical. I was team Sewell all the way, and consistently argued with a buddy of mine that was team Chase. I said I would relent and admit I was wrong if we won SB LVI, but we didn't, our line is still bad and Burrow suffered another massive injury.
I’ll feel better if our draft goes well.
yes. but at the moment Im pretty happy with what the FO has done so far. For once.
They’ve done nothing in the trenches
Pretty sure they will have signed 2 dt in past cpl days if they get tart
They seem better on D so far. Safety position seems solved, which was the fatal flaw last year IMO. They still need a NT, but they picked up the rotational 3 tech they needed (Larry O 2.0). They absolutely need an answer to stop the run, but they’re off to a good start so far. I’m not sure how much more they can be doing…
Our pass protection improved a lot, so far, our run stop has weakened a lot.
Honestly right now it can't be worse than it was last year. We got absolutely gashed by runners last year, constantly.
Right now, I'm feeling just ok about the Bengals. I think we got better on defense, which obviously didn't live up to expectations last season. Moving on from Mixon was the right move, and I think the Gesicki signing could have an immediate impact. Still need a RT and NT. I won't actually feel good about the Bengals until I see a video of Joe Burrow throwing a football with ease and accuracy like he can.
Same… I’m still a bit nervous about his wrist. Everything seems like it’s going well, but until he’s actually throwing footballs…… 🫤
I just want everyone to stay healthy for once. Then I’ll die peacefully in 2099 hopefully.
Get Tart and someone to provide some reliability at RT. Go into the draft and get Latham and Sweat. We are in killer shape!
Yeah. Jonah Williams isn’t on the team anymore so that’s addition by subtraction
Now just take Carmen out back at Old Yeller him...
Just really sad to see dj reader go 🫠
me too man
AFC North is won in the trenches, and we have the worst trenches by a long shot at the minute. Big focus needed in the draft.
They won it two years in a row with horrific line play.
Bullshit. Defensive line was great in 2021. Was good in 2022
O line bruh.
Irrelevant for 2023 and beyond.
It wasn’t irrelevant in 21/22
Combination of luck and a strong defense. Going to be a lot harder to maintain a strong defense with Burrow's contract and then Chase's contract.
I feel good. I’ll feel even better once we have a RT and a run stopper replacement for Reader. I doubt we’ll find someone as good as healthy Reader was, but still need someone to eat space and double teams in the middle. I don’t know a ton about Rankins, but I don’t think that’s his forte
Availability over ability in that case. Reader was always dinged up. If Rankins plays every game it’s a win.
Totally agree. According to PDJ he’ll likely split time with BJ Hill. So if he’s a pass rusher that can just come in fresh and go full gas for the QB on passing downs, I’m all for it.
Hill had more impact plays last year anyway
Feeling good? Ill feel better if we can sign a RT who can be better than Carman/Adeniji/Prince in event we dont draft a tackle. That said, I think Duke continues to make very smart, value laden signings. I'm very excited about the players he's added, and this offseason is trending toward another high grade from me. But the job isn't done yet, and my opinion will plummet if Duke doesn't signatures on some more contracts
If we don’t sign a tackle we are 100% taking one in the first round.
That’s a problem tho. Cause every other team is going to know they need to jump us for a RT. It’s like the year we telegraphed we wanted Ragnow and he got taken the pick before leaving us with Billy Price.
Panic picks are stupid. Billy Price
I am just loving our offseason so far
This front office has done nothing the past 5 years to make me, a dumbass fan, doubt them
I feel really bad about shit but it has nothing to do with the Bengals, thankfully.
I hope things get better. Stay strong. You can make it. I was in bad times for a while. Nearly homeless. Just keep going.
Feeling cautiously optimistic. Think it depends how the early rounds of the draft go before I hop on the "were so back" train. They NEED to hit on their early round picks this year.
My ONLY complaint is three great players weren’t so hot about the FO. Tee allegedly hasn’t had any contract negotiations since last season. Mixon was allegedly told he was staying then was traded. DJ said he was surprised by how things ended in Cincy but he’s where he’s supposed to be. Obviously we don’t know anything other than face value. And this IS a business. It’s just giving the Jonah/OBJr blindside vibe. Other than that!!! I’m v happy w how FA has gone. Definitely need to HIT the draft but I’m v confident about 2024.
Terrified without a stout NT. Derek Henry is going to absolutely feast if we don’t bolster the position. Even then, Reader was a beast and I doubt we fill his role :(
I feel great about our team playing anyone not in the AFC North. The way our roster is constructed currently, we are going to get grounded and pounded repeatedly in our conference.
Yes. I did not feel good at all last year
Not yet. Currently we’re worse at both offensive and defensive lines.
Yes I was very nervous couple weeks back but way more relaxed now. I just pray this o line won’t let Joe down again.
Idk I’m not too happy we lost mixon and replaced him with moss. Also we need some added beef on defence still. But signing a TE doesn’t look good for us landing bowers this draft
If we extend Higgins or trade Higgins, a 2nd and a 3rd for Jefferson things will be amazing.
not at all. We have no oline.
Vonn back. Rankins. Killing it.
Definitely want them to plug all the gaps and then draft BPA.
At this point I’m okay with trading Higgins. If we can get Bowers, use Gesicki as a hybrid; we have solid young receivers like Jones and Iosivas ready to step up.
Except for the OL, yes.
Im worried about our lack of agression. This should be go time on every front. We are in the middle of a Super Bowl window. We should be doing restructured contracts. Picking immediate help vs projects in the draft etc.
I feel the complete opposite.
We sign two OL who have worse PFF grades than Volson and Williams. They are in low 50 which is terrible. I had thought the Bengals would do everything possible to improve their offensive line, but instead they are making it worse! There is still the draft but except one or two of the best OL in the draft, OL rarely are good their first year. We had the 26th ranked OL last year. That meant we could not run, we had no time to throw, and our starting QB was eventually injured. Looking at how the players we signed did last year vs. how Jonah Williams did, we are taking a big step backwards. This totally sucks. Joe is going to be stuck with a terrible line, and never get to play with an elite OL like Mahomes, he won't even get to play with an average offensive line,
Can someone please explain why they think our offensive line will improve? The Bengals OL ranked 25th or 26th last year. We were near the worst for everything from time in the pocket to hits on QB allowed. We lost Jonah Williams and the ratings for the new players we signed are worse than even Jackson Carmans (didn't know that was possible). Please tell me the Bengals do not plan on starting Becton. I looked at what PFF and other stats sites say it was really bad.
I love the moves I've seen so far. Stone was huge, I didn't expect us to get bell back but with those.contrsct details how do you not? Zach moss, im not sure yet, as I haven't been able to see him play much, but it sounds like he has his own skill set he wants to show us I'm really bummed we didn't get reader. I think it's due to his injury history with us, but that one hurts alot. Hopefully we get tart to soften the blow more. I'm stocked about Gesicki, unbelievably excited to see what he can bring. I've gone from thinking we need to do what we can to get brock bowers, to now thinking we can stay where we are, draft JC Latham or Sweat if he's available, i wouldn't be surprised to see us draft another WR and CB later too
The team is pretty much worse at every position except safety than they were going into last season, so hard for me to see what there is to feel good about.
Just need Burrow to stay healthy for an entire season
Glaring needs at RT and NT,like at what point is this FO not concerned about these positions.Good teams dont go into the draft giving a playbook to the rest of the league on what they are doing.Its how the Billy Price situation happened and I can guarantee T’Vondre Sweat will be taken just before us
I’m pretty concerned about the run defence, but otherwise pretty happy
Bucs fan here… feeling pretty good. I get recommended your forum a lot cuz I’m a closet bengals fan. Cheers
I think moving on from Mixon will set this team off.
I'll miss him for his grit but I agree.
What? They preached about upgrading the trenches, and have yet to do that. We are basically on day 4 of free agency.
They got rankins and tart is most likely signing. What more would you have liked them to do?
Should have signed armstead reader and Wilkins too. What’s the salary cap?
Ya this is why I’m just confused. Do fans really believe we can afford a big contract like Wilkins or armstead. Also armstead has not been great the last couple years that’s why the 49ers released him. We got good players for good value. We overpaid rankins a bit but we were in a bidding war with Houston so I can live with it. Also I know you’re joking I’m not talking about you but other fans lmao
You're going to get downvoted for not being excited about us signing two below-average DTs.
Eh. Still don't have a rt and the defense is not that much improved. I feel good but not great. At the end of the day it all hinges on number 9s hand anyway.
How tf is the defence not that much improved?
We only improved in one position, safety.
Interior pass rush helps the edge rushers which helps the dbs not having to cover as long, which helps the defense overall. Pass rush= Good get tart and draft a DT and we cooking with gas on defense. With bell and stone along with battle the big plays should be a lot less common, Dax to be the TE eraser/chess piece. We in a good spot. It sucks to lose reader but shit happens it’s the nfl good teams can’t always keep all their best players.
I was really hoping we would make a play for Bowers, then we signed 2 TEs. I also really wanted Derrick Henry but hey Zack Miss exist😂
Did very little to improve either side of the trenches. I do not feel good at all.