In the column of "too little, too late", at least for Joe Burrow and the Bengals this season, it seems that the ever so reactive NFL is doing what had already should have been done.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/nfl-might-be-changing-facemask-reviews-that-impacted-joe-burrow/ar-AA1xmUVQ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=af84a88087534726b68546514be3282b&ei=17

Quote:Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was on the wrong end of some obvious facemask penalties that didn't earn flags last season.

Some of those plays went on to see the offenders fined -- not that it helped the Bengals much in hindsight. Other major misses somehow didn't get fined.

And now the NFL might be doing something about it.

As it stands now, the NFL could rule to change things up this offseason and make facemask penalties subject to replay assistance. And it appears they're already doing so in the playoffs right now.

Considering Burrow seems to suffer from an inordinate amount of these and referees still seem to call them for some quarterbacks more than others, this is probably a good thing for the Bengals -- especially because Burrow himself refuses to complain in his own favor toward referees during games.

CincyJungle has an article stating that ESPN says we should trade for Pitts since he's due 10.5 mil this year and he has underproduced for a top 5 draft pick.

Quote:Solak believes Cincinnati will trade for former fourth-overall Atlanta Falcons pick Kyle Pitts.

“Tight end Kyle Pitts is due $10.8 million on the final year of his deal in 2025. Can the Falcons get more for him in a trade than they would in a compensatory pick after he leaves in free agency? I think they could, as he has a rosier future on an offense that actually fits his skill set. My prediction: Pitts will get dealt to the Bengals for a Day 3 pick,” Solak stated.

Many of us have been contemplating how the Bengals will spend their money and how they can manipulate the roster to create extra money, SI does a pretty good job in laying it all out.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/financial-breakdown-an-in-depth-look-at-the-bengals-cap-space-cash-spend-and-ability-to-improve-roster/ar-AA1xfNou?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=59041293885544b8fb3d0185c9c2050d&ei=6

Quote:Trying to figure out how much money the Cincinnati Bengals will spend in 2025? You’re in the right place. We can all look at Over The Cap and see that the Bengals are projected to have $47.5 million in cap space with a salary cap of $278.4 million.

But that only tells part of the story. To really understand how the Bengals might spend in 2025, it helps to look back at how they’ve managed their finances over the past five years.

Since drafting Joe Burrow in 2020, the Bengals have ranked 21st in total cash spending—about 2% below the league average. Their spending has fluctuated, exceeding the league average in 2020 ($234.5 million vs. $218.8 million) and 2023 ($258.7 million vs. $245.9 million), which coincided with drafting and extending Burrow. However, they spent significantly less than average in 2021 and 2022 ($390 million combined vs. $440.7 million). In 2024, their spending aligned more closely with the average.

In 2020, their biggest cash expense was Burrow, followed by DJ Reader with a big signing bonus, Trae Waynes, A.J. Green, Joe Mixon, Geno Atkins, and William Jackson III. In 2023, big signing bonus payouts for Burrow and Orlando Brown Jr. drove spending.

In 2025, they're scheduled for $186.5 million in cash spend. This can decrease to as low as $142.85 million if the Bengals cut all of the speculated cap casualties (Hubbard, Rankins, Cappa, Pratt, Stone, Moss). Those cuts would leave the Bengals with $89.3 million in cap space as well, per OTC’s numbers.

Cap space should not restrict the Bengals in 2025 if they continue to modernize. But if they continue to do business the ol’ fashioned way without pushing cap hits into the future, we’ll hear the same stories about pie and cap space estimates that don’t seem to align with reality.

Unfortunately, most NFL cap coverage loses important details, getting lost in average annual salaries and basic cap numbers. Bengals fans have access to excellent cap literacy. We’ve broken it down on Locked On Bengals over the years, resident expert Andre Perotta frequently provides excellent breakdowns, and Joe Goodberry just did a great video focused on offseason priorities: contracts for Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Trey Hendrickson.

An important piece of the puzzle is cash spending, and to predict the future, tracking teams’ “cash over cap spending” is prescient. Over the last five years, the median NFL team spent about 10.7% more cash than the unadjusted salary cap per year. In that time period, the Bengals spent 8.6% more cash than the unadjusted salary cap.

Assuming the trend holds, if the Bengals 8.6% cash over cap in 2025, they’ll spend ~$300M in 2025. Depending on cap casualties, that leaves $113.5 million to $157.15 million in cash to spend, while Katie and Troy Blackburn navigate the corresponding $47.5 million to $89.3 million in cap space. The exact figures will depend on cuts, but we’ll track their spending throughout free agency to have an idea of how much they have left to spend.

What this cap and cash situation means, practically, is that the Bengals can structure contracts with Chase, Higgins, Hendrickson, or premier unrestricted free agents with big signing bonuses. Signing bonuses are the best way to spend cash and offset salary cap impact, because while they’re effectively paid out immediately, the cap hit is prorated over the life of the contract, up to 5 years.

For example, Orlando Brown’s $31.1 million signing bonus was prorated over the life of his 4-year contract, leaving an annual cap hit of $7.75M along with each year’s salary. He received $33.7 million in cash in 2023, but his cap hit was just $10.4 million.

If the Bengals took this approach with other big contracts, they could turn the roster over in a hurry. They’ve made strides in the way they do business, but if they don’t take steps to spend more competitively after disappointing results, it will be fair to question why they won’t put their money where their mouth is to build a real contender.

1. We can't start out 1-3 again. Just ask Big Whit: https://thesportsrush.com/nfl-news-youve-been-terrible-at-starting-the-seasons-andrew-whitworth-sends-strong-message-to-the-bengals-hc-zac-taylor/

Whatever they've been doing in OTA's, camp, practice, and pre-season games they have to scrap it all because it doesn't work. And I feel long story short they have to just get tougher.

2. They have to fix the Oline. Specifically the guards. We can't let Joe Burrows best years slide by with the two worst guards in the NFL. Cut Cappa and bench Volson. We can't just roll the dice and hope it gets better. I'm ok with OBJ, Karras, and Mims but would like to see more depth than Lee (unknown) and Ford.

3. The defense, good gawd get it fixed. Ok so we fired Lou, great. Hire a proven coach and get the ball rolling. We can't continue being one of the worst D's in the NFL and expect to be in the Super Bowl hunt. We don't have to be top 5. Just middle of the road kinda thing.

I'm just hoping and praying...again, that the F.O. will step up and let the deadwood go and get Joe some help before it's to late.

I know there's the thread about Aikman saying Burrow should be MVP, but I look for websites for Burrow winning the MVP and winning the bet I made in the preseason and figured I'd post a few here and other people could post theirs.

I'm rolling down to get dinner and then watch the games, but here's a website with Gruden giving his opinion that Burrow should win MVP!

Quote:While the Cincinnati Bengals might not be in the Playoffs at 9-8, one man still deserves this award for the iconic season he just produced and that is none other than Joe Burrow. And somehow Burrow is 200-1?!?!? So disrespectful!

Quote:Gruden is right! Burrow led the NFL in yardage and TD passes easily on a team that could not stop a nose bleed. Hell he threw for at least 250 yards & 3 TDs in 8 straight freaking games?!?!? No one has ever done that in NFL history!

The Bengals lost 4 games when scoring over 30 points. And he managed to do all of that playing behind a weak offensive line in a tough AFC North. How many games do the Bengals win without Burrow this fall? 3 or 4?

Burrow cannot help the fact that he played with a historically bad defense. The man did literally everything he could to get them to the playoffs. The Bengals choked 4 games in brutal fashion to the Chiefs (PI call), Chargers (2 missed FGs) & two to the Ravens (10+ point leads in 4th).

All of this sounds like excuses but give the man his award for one of the best seasons in NFL history!

PFF selected Bengals punter Ryan Rehkow over Tory Taylor for their all-rookie team.
https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-pff-all-rookie-team-washington-commanders-qb-jayden-daniels-headlines-the-offense-rams-jared-verse-shines-on-defense

For those who were worried about Brad Robbins holding down the spot going into this past season after seeing his poor performance the year before, the Bengals seemed to find a great one.

Rehkow had a YPP average of 49.1, which was 10th in the league.
His longest punt was 80 yards, which was 2nd longest in the league.
41.5% of his punts were inside the 20.

GET REHK'ED!

Makes sense as the new D coordinator would be able to hire his guys.

https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/news/report-cincinnati-bengals-move-on-from-two-more-coaches-making-major-changes-to-staff-01jhdhxy9rak

I had the pitchforks out for Lou as much as anyone.  Time will tell if the decision to fire him was correct or merely an out for Zac to defend a disappointing season.  A blood sacrifice was in order, and Lou was the most obvious.

With that in mind, there have been rumors about certain defensive players and a lack of professionalism.  Battle, who showed promise, struggled to get snaps early on.  Many gave Lou a ration of shit for this.  Now, I'm hearing that Battle came to camp significantly overweight and slow.  Not Bell and Lou favoritism.  Not Lou being stuck in is ways about veterans and youth.  It was a player coming in fat.  That's as unprofessional as it gets if true.  

CTB, oddly regressed after playing well as a rookie and in his second year.  Mental lapses killed him.  Lately, there have been hints that he'd embraced more of a party lifestyle this year and that it impacts this play.  It's weird to me considering what a good kid he has always appeared to be.  

You don't hear this stuff about Joe, Ja'marr or Tee.  Or Trey.  You hear about guys that shut their families out on Saturday to get focused on gameday.  Obsessive professionals.  

I think there may have been a bigger cultural lapse than we realize this year.  These guys are scapegoats, but how many others did similar things if true?

And you are asking the questions for the potential DC candidates to answer. What is the question that you'd most like to be answered about an area of concern that is important to YOU?

I'll get it started. Q: In this day and age of limited hours of contact between coaches and players due to stipulations in the NFL CBA, how do you address the issue of draft picks that were very good players in college, yet are failing to be developed into solid players by the team that drafted them?

Saw today that Safety Dajahn Anthony stated the Bengals have already made a decision and hired the new DC, which will be announced soon. He said it will shock a lot of people and he is excited. So it's one of the two they interviewed already, or it's in house is my guess.