03-19-2018, 04:17 PM
(03-19-2018, 03:21 PM)kevin Wrote: The Bengals were trying to trade Burfict to the Raiders on Friday Match 16th. Then came him caught using performance enhancing drugs and 4 game suspension. The Bengals were prepared for more Burfict suspensions in his contract. Ian Rapoport : " If Bengals LB Vontaze Burfict loses his appeal of a 4 game suspension, the guarantees in his 3 year, $33M contract will void. That's nearly 11.3 M. Which means Cincy can move on if they want to ". So when you combine the Bengals trying to trade Burfict and now this, plus Bengals needing to dump some payroll, Burfict may not even be on this team this season. News is Bengals have had about enough of Burfict and his suspensions every year and just want to go in another direction. Had the Raiders trade went through, he would already be gone.
I don't think it changes the draft, since Bengals tried to trade him to Raiders Friday. Bengals seem to have a plan. The news is with Bengals needing to dump some payroll, they will be letting Bodine and Pacman go to other teams in free agency. Bengals are looking at center with pick 21 in round 1 to replace Bodine. I do think LB in the draft will not be far behind.
New D Coordinator Austin has a track record of being part of Super Bowl defenses in Seattle, Arizona and Baltimore. He has coached under Joe Paterno, Urban Meyer, John Harbaugh and other winning coaches. In 3 other cities he was part of Super Bowl Defenses, and hopefully Cincinnati will be his 4th Super Bowl Defense city. Much like LeBeau, his specialty is DB's and we have all the #1 picks that need some top coaching. He is just the guy to get the most out of Kirkpatrick, Dennard, Jackson and our safeties. I think he will be adding a safety in F/A or Draft. Of course better blocking would help our D. Having the worst O Line in NFL caused many 3 and outs and kept our D on the field way too much. The best athlete ever suffers from fatigue said HOF RB Jimmy Brown. If you want to help the D, we need to improve the blocking so we can eat more clock on offense. It looks like the Bengals plan is Center In One, but you may get that LB in Two. Probably a safety not far behind. Baltimore had Reed back there. This Austin will want top CB and DB play and like Lebeau, he will get it because everywhere Austin goes he improves secondaries and defenses.
Pretty sure there was no truth to the rumors that Burfict was being traded. The only person who reported it was some guy that nobody knew.
That being said, I don't think it changes anything. The Bengals place such a low premium on LBs in their scheme. Maybe they take on in the 3rd or 4th round instead of the 5th or 6th, but I can't see them changing things because of a 4 game suspension.
