Not only was he the Bengals' highest graded defender, Jordan Battle had PFF's 5th highest safety grade of any rookie in the last 10 years. pic.twitter.com/veKVT8oxoD

— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) January 8, 2024

Jordan Battle received a 90.0 PFF grade in week 18 after collecting 3 tackles, a sack, an INT and allowing 1 catch on 4 targets.

The Bengals rookie ended up being the highest graded defender for Cincinnati (82.5) after playing 524 snaps this year.

Of ALL rookie defenders this… pic.twitter.com/HmNeIfpT96

— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) January 8, 2024

Has there been any word on him coming back? This was his 3rd year back and that’s the length of most of these assistant contracts I assumed….So I was HOPING we would move on since the guy has shown ZERO ability to coach up our draft picks and our line has continued to be bad every year, despite a lot of decent talent.

Seriously, how do they think they can sell keeping him to this fanbase? My God how stubborn are they?! It’s so frustrating. They are SO CLOSE to being a yearly top team, yet they just refuse to take the final couple steps that the top teams take. Like keeping a position coach year after year that has cost this team 2 super bowls already.

I hope someone here can tell me they’ve heard something that could give us hope he is gone?

The #Panthers requested an interview with #Bengals OC Brian Callahan for their head coaching job, per source.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 8, 2024

Jonah Williams still far from thinking about free agency but appreciates what he’s helped build with Bengals pic.twitter.com/70Ucal7Zbt

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 8, 2024

DJ Reader promises to be back playing somewhere, enjoyed his role as Bengals leader pic.twitter.com/1xzEjvhXef

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 8, 2024

I gotta say, I think we found an absolute gem in this kid. ELITE speed and athleticism, and he's flashed when given the opportunity this year. I REALLY think he's going to be special. He seems like he's got the right attitude to work and get better as well.

Pair his speed with Chase Brown's speed, and man...next year we are going to have some weapons on that offense.

“It was super-gratifying” Andrei Iosivas on his 2-TD day and his rookie season pic.twitter.com/y0U9V3g36F

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 7, 2024

Nuggets:

Joe Burrow: "We know the standard here. That's what we've got to get back to."

Joe Burrow: "Everyone's expectation is Tee will be back. The offseason plays out in crazy ways to don't expect, but we want Tee back."

Joe Burrow said that the Bengals discussed with him the plan for the future of the roster when he negotiated the contract extension. They talked about these moves over the summer.

Joe Burrow on Tee Higgins: "We'd love to have Tee back. He's a big part of what we've done here. It's no secret, our relationship. I expect Tee to be back. We all want Tee back."

Joe Burrow on the under center offense: "It brought some different things to the offense that we were not able to do at the start of the year because I physically couldn't do it (because of the calf)."
"It was a good couple weeks."

Joe Burrow is lifting with his legs and doing a lot of core work. Tougher to do upper body workouts, but they're modifying a plan to keep his upper body strong.
"It's tough when you watch from the sideline. I was focused on getting myself better every day and doing what I could for Jake."

Joe Burrow: "Feeling good. Getting better every day."
No target date to throw. "I think I should be good for OTAs. We'll see."

So records aside, we played really good offenses and defenses.

9-8 was pretty good especially without Burrow.

The Bengals went 9-8 against the hardest schedule with like six of their games with a healthy starting quarterback pic.twitter.com/9qXENOrXNX

— Timo Riske (@PFF_Moo) January 8, 2024

Hopes were high after Super Bowl and AFC Championship 2 years in a row. However had someone told you at beginning of season that Joe Burrow would only win 5 games, hopes would have been low. Joe Burrow started season injured again and Bengals took early losses again as they waited for Burrow to get healthy again. When Burrow got healthy the Bengals beat the 49ers and Bills and looked like the Super Bowl team. Then we saw Burrow on the sidelines trying to throw the ball and bending over in pain. Painful throwing wrist injury. So Burrow started the season injured and left the season early injured. At that point many thought Bengals would not win another game. Enter Browning who kept Bengals in play-off race until tough road games Christmas and New Years of At Pittsburgh and At Kansas City. So Burrow won 5 games and Browning won 4 games

Fans should give Bengals credit for Super Bowl season, AFC Championship Game season back to back and then this 9-8 season with Burrow only healthy enough to win 5 games. They never quit. With Browning they stayed in the play-off race up to the At Kansas City Game, which Bengals played tough. They finished with a win over Cleveland.

The point in season Bengals where beating 49ers and Bills, the Bengals looked on their way back to play-offs. Then Burrow in pain due to wrist injury. Give Bengals and Browning credit, they stayed in the play-off hunt up to New Years weekend. Had somebody told you Burrow would only win 5 games and Bengals would stay in play-off hunt up to New Years, you would have said No Way. Bengals fought Hard. They Never Quit. They never made excuses. They won 9 games for a winning record. Bengals have nothing to be ashamed of. Fans should be Proud of this team and those that aren't are Good Time Charlie's, not true Bengals Fans.

Good Job Bengals.....NO QUIT....Winning Record Season

4 choices Pete Johnson Most TD James Brooks Most combined rushing and Receiving Cory Dillon Most yards rushing Joe Mixon 2 in almost all categories

Despite the disappointing end to the season, the team has the resources (in terms of cap money and picks) to do a lot of needed things.

BUT

It is important to get the priorities straight because some of the needs are going to be expensive and they probably don't have the resources to do everything.

So my order of importance right now is:

1) Fix the interior DL room. This is going to be costly because we probably need a major Free Agent here AND a high pick. This is whether we resign Reader and he fully recovers or not. Trey can't be the only source of pressure up front and ideally you want the other source to be on the inside. Fix this and you see an immediate uptick on the defense.

2) Get a savvy veteran Free Safety.

3) Resign Tanner Hudson so that there is flexibility in the draft, especially as they NEED a blue chip DT and this is not a deep TE draft.

4) If both Tee and Boyd leave a veteran good possession WR is a need also.


Obviously the Tee situation has to be resolved early. The problem is his agent is notoriously hard to work with (not just with us either) and will want terms the team cannot perform if they are keeping Chase. So this may be a tag and trade (especially as draft capital is needed).

I was just thinking about player moves and not the higher level things like potential evolving of the scheme on both sides of the ball to fit the player skillsets better.