Mike Sans wrote an interesting article about Hill!
https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/news/bengals-film-breakdown-deep-dive-dax-hill-roller-coaster-season

I took refuge with the Cowboys (my girlfriend's team) expecting at least a playoff room.

Watching this meltdown made me realize how good I have it.

After factoring in futures contracts as placeholders and accounting for tag/tenders (Higgins, Browning, Adomitis) the Bengals will have 51 players under contract...and adding an estimated 3.25m for draft picks, they will have an effective cap space number of about 34.4m. 

Let's say they re-sign the 9 players listed below 1 year deals (just as examples). These contracts replace the placeholders for a net cap hit of 15.15m...meaning they will still be at 51 contracts and have around 19.25m in remaining cap space.
   
RB- Trayveon Williams               1 yr- 1.225m
WR- Trenton Irwin                     1 yr- 1.2m
TE- Tanner Hudson                    1 yr- 1.35m
TE- Drew Sample                       1 yr- 1.275m
G- Max Scharping                      1 yr- 1.25m
DT- DJ Reader                           1 yr- 12m
LB- Akeem Davis-Gaither            1 yr- 2.125m 
LB- Joe Bachie                           1 yr- 1.2m
LB- Markus Bailey                       1 yr- 1.175m

*I used a low-end estimate for Reader just because of the uncertainty with the injury and the risk of signing him to more than one year right now. I feel like the high end would be something in the 13-14m range.

….rate of any rookie


Future bright as hell

Although the team will have roughly $60 million (depending on what report you believe) to spend in free agency, are there any players that the front office could approach for possible restructures to save some cap space? I am think maybe Hubbard, Hill and maybe Cappa? Thoughts?

We need a better offensive line, and I'm seeing a lot of people here saying that we'll roll with the same offensive line next season with maybe only replacing Jonah.

Am I the only one that's pissed off that we might be keeping the same line without much change?

Burrow took us to a Super Bowl and an AFC Championship game with horrible lines, and we're not selling out to protect him?

That's what's confusing me most: we know what Burrow can do, so why wouldn't we sell out to protect him? The writing seems like it's on the wall: protect Burrow and win multiple Super Bowls.

I get it that last season was supposed to be dramatically improved and they shit the bed, so why wouldn't we expect the same this season?

Karras improved his play a lot sand only allowed one sack in the last eleven games after allowing five in the first six, but none of our linemen earned a PFF grade over 70.

Who's to say they won't collapse again next season?

Are there ways to assure they'll be good enough next season? Will it only take firing Pollack? Will we even do that? Is he the problem?

How do we make sure that 2024 isn't another wasted season with Burrow in his prime and no line?

Who would you keep? Who would you bring in to replace them?

Will we have a decent line in 24? Will it be good?

Man this was good, couldn't stop smiling.

What happened to big play Chase? In 2021 the guy was electric. Big plays everywhere and really the lightning rod of our offense. While he’s still been really good the last two years his big plays are way down. Does anyone know why? In my view it seems like we use him way too much on shorter stuff. I don’t have a clue why we don’t take deep go routes to him atleast 4 times a game. 75 percent of the time he’s either going to bring it down or draw a penalty. Just wondering if the film junkies have a legitimate answer for this. Hoping this staff wakes up and uses him like the Ferrari he is and stops trying to make him a possession reciever. We can’t pay the guy 30 mil a year to catch 7 yard passes all day. Trenton Irwin can handle that.

It's a minor detail that has a big impact.

We were bottom 3 in the league in giveaways the past two years. The Bengals TAKE CARE of the football - don't fumble or throw interceptions. They also take the ball away a decent amount - top 10 the past two years. They were top 5 in turnover differential in 2022 and 2023.

This team is not perfect by any means, but taking the ball away and not giving it away can off set a lot of the deficiencies this team has - especially on defense.

It's probably not a good idea to rely on it and I'm not sure its super sustainable, but it's definetly a part of this teams identity and you can tell its coached/preached. It's becoming a trend.

The NFL announced the home teams for the Europe games today. The Carolina Panthers are the home team for the game in Munich. We are on their home schedule. Based on their home schedule, the Bengals are a very likely choice to go overseas since the rest of the schedule has played in Europe more recently.

A Munich game for the Zinzinnati Bengals would be cool