(03-14-2024, 05:22 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: The tragedy by the FO isn't their unwillingness to pay Reader in free agency, the tragedy is whiffing on the draft picks that were supposed to replace him.

I think Tyler Shelvin is still available. 

Best of luck to Reader.

I never heard of him until he signed with the Bengals, but quickly appreciated his play and how he represented the team.

Hope he does well in Detroit, but once he got on that plane to Detroit the front office knew he wasn't coming back. Thats why Teair Tart is visiting today. Really hope they sign him, he reminds me of a younger Reader when we signed Reader.

Im seeing the guaranteed money was only $9 million. That says that no one is trusting he is going to be able to play at the same level next season

(03-14-2024, 05:44 PM)Hello to everyone Wrote: Hope he does well in Detroit, but once he got on that plane to Detroit the front office knew he wasn't coming back. Thats why Teair Tart is visiting today. Really hope they sign him, he reminds me of a younger Reader when we signed Reader.

To me Tart doesn't have as good of leverage or balance--or power for that matter.

But he's healthy, and probably much cheaper. 

If the Bengals hit on a stud NT in round 2, with Tart, Hill, and Rankins they will be better than last year.
But I think they have to hit on that NT in round 2.

I will say I think our pass rush should be better this year if we add Tart and a good rookie.
But our run defense will definitely be more of a group effort.

(03-14-2024, 05:15 PM)CJD Wrote: MASSIVE failure on the front office's part. They should not have shied away from an offer that didn't even reach 14M AAV for one of the best Nose tackles in the NFL.

I thought, if the Lions stole him, it would be because of a 3rd year, but they didn't even give him that

The Bengals are fools for not matching this offer.

Could not agree more. 

We had $45 mil or so in practical cap space after tagging Tee. We cut Mixon and Scott to free up $8.5 mil more. We spent $9 mil on Stone & Moss. So $44.5 mil or so. 

With that cash, the BEST guy we got was Rankins for $13. Which is what Reader cost. Gesicki for $2.5, Sample for $5, ADG for $3, Bell on vet min. 

We now are gonna blow our $20 mil left on Becton and Tart. 

What a disaster. That is an F for FA. No Reader. No RT. No CB4. No complete TE. No WR3. No needle mover of any kind with $50 mil. No restructures to free up space. 

What should we have done? 

Onwenu $19 
Reader $13 
Fuller $8

That's $40. And you know the cap hits will be lower. Call it $35 max. So $10 in space. Restructure Burrow frees up over $7. $17 mil with Reader, Onwenu, Fuller, Stone, & Moss in pocket. More than enough for Gesicki. Bell costs nothing. $14 mil left. Pass on Rankins and you can still have the insane Sample & ADG deals. And $6 mil left.  

Think about it. We paid Sample $5 mil and let Reader go over the cost of cutting Carman. Insane. 

A 6th grader could have done a better job. 

Again, if we wanted to bail on Reader, fine.

To not to land ANY high end talent with $50 mil in space takes some doing. But we did it!

(03-14-2024, 05:50 PM)Isaac Curtis: The Real #85 Wrote: Again, if we wanted to bail on Reader, fine.

To not to land ANY high end talent with $50 mil in space takes some doing. But we did it!

I would have liked to see the Bengals get someone like Onwenu as well. 

They've certainly improved in some areas.
But it's not wise to go into the draft with glaring needs at OT and NT.

Onwenu was going nowhere once the cap shot up. The cap shooting up changed the entire Free Agency tableau as a lot of players who before were going to be hitting the market got resigned by their current teams.

Sucks, but he was hurt a lot and didn't play a lot of snaps.

(03-14-2024, 05:19 PM)jj22 Wrote: Well we saw that coming. Lou gets no respect from this FO.

This is an insanely bizarre take. 

BW Webb
DJ Reader
Trae Waynes
Vonn Bell
Trey Hendrickson
Chidobe Awuzie
Mike Hilton
Larry Ogunjobi
Nick Scott
Sheldon Rankins
Geno Stone

3rd Germaine Pratt
3rd Logan Wilson
3rd Joseph Ossai
1st Dax Hill
2nd CTB
3rd Zachary Carter
1st Myles Murphy
2nd DJ Turner
3rd Jordan Battle

They've invested a TON of money in FA signings (I think 3 or 4 of the 5 largest exterior FA signings in Bengals franchise history?) and first two day picks (9 of the 15 we've had) into his defense. He has managed to take that and produce an above-average scoring defense ONCE in 5 years.

Appreciate what reader did, but I'm glad we did not go down.The atkins road with a wasted contract especially after missing so many games three of the last four years

Think my favorite memory of Readers was the Titans playoff game... where he and the team just shut Henry the F down.

(03-14-2024, 05:15 PM)CJD Wrote: MASSIVE failure on the front office's part. They should not have shied away from an offer that didn't even reach 14M AAV for one of the best Nose tackles in the NFL.

I thought, if the Lions stole him, it would be because of a 3rd year, but they didn't even give him that

The Bengals are fools for not matching this offer.

I would agree, if DJ plays for them and plays well for them by midseason, but if he doesn't even play this year they are not fools.

This is yet to be seen on if this was a failure or not.

Regardless, The Gravedigger was great for us especially in the biggest games when we needed to stop the run. God bless DJ Reader.

(03-14-2024, 06:09 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: This is an insanely bizarre take. 

BW Webb
DJ Reader
Trae Waynes
Vonn Bell
Trey Hendrickson
Chidobe Awuzie
Mike Hilton
Larry Ogunjobi
Nick Scott
Sheldon Rankins
Geno Stone

3rd Germaine Pratt
3rd Logan Wilson
3rd Joseph Ossai
1st Dax Hill
2nd CTB
3rd Zachary Carter
1st Myles Murphy
2nd DJ Turner
3rd Jordan Battle

They've invested a TON of money in FA signings (I think 3 or 4 of the 5 largest exterior FA signings in Bengals franchise history?) and first two day picks (9 of the 15 we've had) into his defense. He has managed to take that and produce an above-average scoring defense ONCE in 5 years.

You act as if they have given him a bunch of elite talent and he has done nothing with it.  The fact is most of those guys are mediocre.  ONE Pro Bowl caliber player of all these names you posted.

(03-14-2024, 05:50 PM)Isaac Curtis: The Real #85 Wrote: Again, if we wanted to bail on Reader, fine.

To not to land ANY high end talent with $50 mil in space takes some doing. But we did it!

Bengals with $72M in cap (including franchise tag value) heading into free agency, "Hey, let's see what's on special at Dollar Tree!"...

(03-14-2024, 05:22 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: The tragedy by the FO isn't their unwillingness to pay Reader in free agency, the tragedy is whiffing on the draft picks that were supposed to replace him.

Bengals need to get their heads out of their asses when drafting or this will continue to happen as we continue to pay Chase and Burrow.

Along with it, if they didn't whiff on Dax Hill you don't have to sign Geno Stone and that money could have been used to retain Reader.

Draft better, Duke.

Completely agree with this. Whiffing on draft picks is forcing the FO to spend money on players to plug holes, rather than them being filled with players on low-cost rookie contracts.

No front office is going to hit on all draft picks, but it feels like we are paying the price for draft failures from 2021 and 2022.

If they had resigned Reader, the Bengals would have one of the most expensive DL rooms in the league… They’re already paying BJ Hill, Hendrickson, Hubbard and Rankins. They need to hit on a DL draft pick, or it’s going to be hard on the salary cap to have to keep paying veteran prices for DL players.

The same could be said for the O-Line room. In 2023 the Bengals had the 6th most expensive o-line room in the league. Because they’ve whiffed on so many o-line picks over the years, the FO was forced to sign more expensive mid-tier veterans instead of getting production out of players on rookie contracts.

(03-14-2024, 06:21 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: You act as if they have given him a bunch of elite talent and he has done nothing with it.  The fact is most of those guys are mediocre.  ONE Pro Bowl caliber player of all these names you posted.

No, I act like Lou has been given more in FA talent than literally any other coach in Bengals history on either side of the ball and has managed to be below average in 4 of his 5 seasons as DC, and they still keep spending high draft picks and FA $ on him. So saying he gets no respect from the FO is bizarre.

2018 our big outside FA signing of note was Preston Brown at 1yr/$4m
2017 our big outside FA signing of note was Kevin Minter at 1yr/$4.25m

I wish DJ the best.

He will be missed.

(03-14-2024, 06:31 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: No, I act like Lou has been given more in FA talent than literally any other coach in Bengals history and has managed to be below average in 4 of his 5 seasons as DC. So saying he gets no respect from the FO is bizarre.

c'mon now. You've seen his post-season results