The good news: The Chiefs just went through this with Chris Jones. That resolved itself in a way that the team could stomach. 

The bad news: this defense would be BAD without Hendrickson. And I mean Bad with a capital B. You can't build a house without a foundation. You can't have a good modern defense if you can't rush the passer. 

Depressing news: guys like Brady and Polamalu took pay cuts in order to win. Have the Bengals had anyone in their room express fealty to the organization in a similar manner?  If I'm remember correctly, Troy P actually left money on the table to retire when the team asked him to. How'd the FO treat Big Whit again? Sent him a text about how they "didn't value an aging tackle" or something? Burrow or no Burrow, there seems to be a big difference when it comes to championship culture. 

i understand it's tough when you see the salary cap jump up and all kinds of players signing mega-contracts. But publicly demanding a trade is a real bad look. Ask the team behind the scenes for a pay increase or trade. I wonder if it came from Hendrickson or its his agent's ploy.

Glad I didn't shell out 125 to send my kid to his 4 hour football camp.

Trey may have a point regarding his pay related to performance, but he signed the deal. You don't get to reset your deal every time the cap goes up.

(04-24-2024, 07:45 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote:


A second straight 1st round backup DE while Burrow's career starts slipping away because we refuse to fix the OL? I would be.


Or all of those media statements are just fluff pieces and everyone should recognize that it's a business and accept it rather than truly thinking "X player loves X player/coach/city" just because they said it when they have no real other answer to give other than "nah, F them" which would go over about as well as a fart in an elevator.

I don't think Verse is a backup, but to each his own. If you lose Hendrickson, Joe better be tossing a lot of TDs, because opposing QBs will FEAST with the shit pressure the dline generates. The oline has been addressed. I mean, I guess we could always waste ANOTHER first/second round draft pick on a meh OL or outright bum. The Bengals being so great at drafting them and all....

(04-24-2024, 08:04 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: They haven't refused to fix the Offensive line.  The last 3 free agency periods they have signed Cappa, Karras, Orlando Brown Jr.  and then Trent Brown. That is 4 offensive linemen that have won Super Bowls protecting Brady and Mahomes  who are now protecting Burrow.  Everyone of them have been an upgrade in talent to the guys they replaced.  You may not like the fact the Bengals havent spent early round picks on offensive linemen but what they have done instead is spent money on proven quality free agents at those positions.  This claim they have refused to fix the offensive line is ridiculous and completely untrue given what the Bengals have invested in it the last 3 years. 

Pretty much.....and they draft oline like they're tripping on shrooms or something.

Trust the process; We have a solid trio with Sample, Murphy, and Ossai. One of those guys will produce for us this season.
Trade him to the Lions for the 61st pick which add another top 100 pick to our draft repertoire.

That's why they have a draft. Given the Bengals defense last year, let him go.

F*** that guy.

(04-24-2024, 08:57 PM)Bilbo Saggins Wrote: The good news: The Chiefs just went through this with Chris Jones. That resolved itself in a way that the team could stomach. 

The bad news: this defense would be BAD without Hendrickson. And I mean Bad with a capital B. You can't build a house without a foundation. You can't have a good modern defense if you can't rush the passer. 

Depressing news: guys like Brady and Polamalu took pay cuts in order to win. Have the Bengals had anyone in their room express fealty to the organization in a similar manner?  If I'm remember correctly, Troy P actually left money on the table to retire when the team asked him to. How'd the FO treat Big Whit again? Sent him a text about how they "didn't value an aging tackle" or something? Burrow or no Burrow, there seems to be a big difference when it comes to championship culture. 

Yeah but the defense was bad with him last year, so if he isn't here this season, then whatever additions there are better be insanely good.

(04-24-2024, 07:02 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: He wants what he's worth and more years. 

Bates 
Higgins
Hendrickson
Jonah

Pay you're ***** good players. Cheap ass organization. 

Uh, salary cap...

(04-24-2024, 08:52 PM)jason Wrote: Trey provides zero against the run.

Hubbard is definitely a way better pass rusher than Trey is a run stopper, that’s for sure.

(04-24-2024, 08:04 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: They haven't refused to fix the Offensive line.  The last 3 free agency periods they have signed Cappa, Karras, Orlando Brown Jr.  and then Trent Brown. That is 4 offensive linemen that have won Super Bowls protecting Brady and Mahomes  who are now protecting Burrow.  Everyone of them have been an upgrade in talent to the guys they replaced.  You may not like the fact the Bengals havent spent early round picks on offensive linemen but what they have done instead is spent money on proven quality free agents at those positions.  This claim they have refused to fix the offensive line is ridiculous and completely untrue given what the Bengals have invested in it the last 3 years. 

I'm not saying they're not solid players, but this has been vastly overstated time and time again as if it's some kind of great ability and credibility builder.

Karras was a backup for both of the SB years and played 0 offensive snaps in both SBs and only 4 offensive snaps total in both years playoff runs.
Cappa got hurt early in the Wild Card round of his SB year and was on IR for the rest of the playoffs.

They have played a grand total of 0 combined offensive snaps in SBs. Jimmy G played as many offensive snaps in his two SB wins with Brady as they did.

- - - - - - -

We are going into 2024 right now with Volson as a terrible pass blocker and Trent Brown as about as reliable of a starter as Bob Sanders or Tyler Eifert. 

So yes, if they are both starters in 2024 because we used our 1st round pick for the second year in a row on a backup DE, then we had neglected the OL.

As a side note: Ted Karras is heading into his age 31 season and he'll be a FA.

This interview with Whitworth is good perspective about how this stuff is viewed and handled. The communication from the front office to it's veteran, good players regarding contracts and extensions has been ASS lately. You cannot convince me otherwise. Multiple players have come out and said as much. They need to get their shit together.

https://x.com/JoeGoodberry/status/1783288248925557235

For the life of me I don't understand how some of you can continue to give this FO a pass on personnel stuff like this. 

(04-24-2024, 09:18 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Uh, salary cap...

We could have afforded any one of those players. Stop. 

As bad as the D was last year, now imagine it without Reader and possibly Trey! This would be absolutely devastating. I def don’t want to waste the first pick on another WR, now we may pull the trigger on an another damn DE. This freakin sucks. Dick move Trey/Agent.

Soooo.....
What do we add to Higgins and Hendrickson to get Justin Jefferson ?
[emoji13]

Sent from my SM-S515DL using Tapatalk

(04-24-2024, 09:27 PM)TKUHL Wrote: As bad as the D was last year, now imagine it without Reader and possibly Trey! This would be absolutely devastating. I def don’t want to waste the first pick on another WR, now we may pull the trigger on an another damn DE. This freakin sucks. Dick move Trey/Agent.

Thankfully we don’t have to worry about that. Trey is under contract for 2 more years.

(04-24-2024, 09:27 PM)Rotobeast Wrote: Soooo.....
What do we add to Higgins and Hendrickson to get Justin Jefferson ?
[emoji13]

Sent from my SM-S515DL using Tapatalk

Trade both to AZ for picks #4 and #35 and pick Marin Harrison Jr. and whomever is best at #35.

I bet this started when they didn’t pay Reader.
Probably got Trey thinking.

I also think players would be more willing to stay if we won a Super Bowl recently.

Would definitely suck to lose Reader and Hendrickson in the same offseason.

If they could trade him for a top ten pick that would be nice.
But I don’t know what kind of cap damage you see from the trade.

I’m guessing they won’t trade him but you never know.

Definitely worth tuning into the draft this year.

Bengals seem to be losing a lot of their best players the last two years and it’s showed in terms of the results, specifically on defense.

For insight on how the Trey Hendrickson - Bengals situation probably has gone, listen to Andrew Whitworth describe his perspective and how he threatened to retire during the 2015 season.

Full show here: https://t.co/9TzWgyNtTM pic.twitter.com/KHB0exC9c8

— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) April 25, 2024

Absolutely a great watch. Fantastic insight into what goes on behind the scenes to see how players can feel mistreated. Whitworth should never have been treated like this as he was an absolute definition of the player you want on your team.