This is purely opinion of course and includes Free Agency.

First, between Free Agency and the draft we have retooled the interior Defensive Line - and it needed the redo. The new IDL room of Rankins, Hill, Jenkins and Jackson is stronger physically and brings more juice in pass rush to the table. It also has good run defenders up and down. We did give up some size when Reader left but overall I think this is a better room. At DE it is mostly our same cast but we did add Cedric Johnson who can learn and develop into a good starter - he has the physical tools just needs technique.

In a similar mold the safety room got a major makeover. Seeing as the flood of explosive plays were mostly caused by players out of position and also that our safeties typically call the player alignments this was inevitable. Stone and Bell are both smart and savvy safeties, perfect tutors for Jordan Battle and Bell is already versed in our alignment calls as it was his job before he went to Carolina for a year. So the safety room traded a little top end speed for a huge injection of IQ. At CB Josh Newton has showed ability in zone and will be allowed to develop.

Then we come to the new OL room. Trent Brown at RT is a better scheme fit than Jonah was and Mims is a physical freak who may be inexperienced but is not raw (his film shows smarts and good technique) and a prime blue chipper. Matt Lee also adds to us as a great Center prospect. So this room while not retooled (and it really didn't need a retool) got three new parts that look good at this point.

Next we come to a room that did get a retool - TE. Sample and Hudson are back which is good because both were solid for us. Gesicki is more like a slot receiver that happens to be called a TE. Both of our late round picks have sky high potential. This is a retool that probably pays off more in 2025 after All and McLachlan have some seasoning.

The WR room only got one new piece but what a piece! Jermaine Burton is a risk in temperament terms but ability wise he is a true threat and blue chipper. If Zac wins his bet that the team culture will work on Burton and he matures then we have a true mismatch to line up across from Chase.

RB is another room that got a makeover. The new room emphasizes pass protection and Yards After Contact while Chase Brown gives it home run speed. Zac Moss fits our scheme like a glove. My wild prediction special here is Noah Cain makes the team and Chris Evans does not with Trayveon Williams rounding it out.

(04-30-2024, 03:53 PM)Joelist Wrote: This is purely opinion of course and includes Free Agency.

First, between Free Agency and the draft we have retooled the interior Defensive Line - and it needed the redo. The new IDL room of Rankins, Hill, Jenkins and Jackson is stronger physically and brings more juice in pass rush to the table. It also has good run defenders up and down. We did give up some size when Reader left but overall I think this is a better room. At DE it is mostly our same cast but we did add Cedric Johnson who can learn and develop into a good starter - he has the physical tools just needs technique.

In a similar mold the safety room got a major makeover. Seeing as the flood of explosive plays were mostly caused by players out of position and also that our safeties typically call the player alignments this was inevitable. Stone and Bell are both smart and savvy safeties, perfect tutors for Jordan Battle and Bell is already versed in our alignment calls as it was his job before he went to Carolina for a year. So the safety room traded a little top end speed for a huge injection of IQ.  At CB Josh Newton has showed ability in zone and will be allowed to develop.

Then we come to the new OL room. Trent Brown at RT is a better scheme fit than Jonah was and Mims is a physical freak who may be inexperienced but is not raw (his film shows smarts and good technique) and a prime blue chipper. Matt Lee also adds to us as a great Center prospect. So this room while not retooled (and it really didn't need a retool) got three new parts that look good at this point.

Next we come to a room that did get a retool - TE. Sample and Hudson are back which is good because both were solid for us. Gesicki is more like a slot receiver that happens to be called a TE. Both of our late round picks have sky high potential. This is a retool that probably pays off more in 2025 after All and McLachlan have some seasoning.

The WR room only got one new piece but what a piece! Jermaine Burton is a risk in temperament terms but ability wise he is a true threat and blue chipper. If Zac wins his bet that the team culture will work on Burton and he matures then we have a true mismatch to line up across from Chase.

RB is another room that got a makeover. The new room emphasizes pass protection and Yards After Contact while Chase Brown gives it home run speed. Zac Moss fits our scheme like a glove. My wild prediction special here is Noah Cain makes the team and Chris Evans does not with Trayveon Williams rounding it out.

Well your opinion pretty much matches mine to a T Joelist. What was our team bad at last year? Running the ball on Offense and stopping 
the run on Defense. Between the Trent Brown, Zack Moss, Amarius Mims additions on Offense and the Rankins, Bell, Jenkins, Jackson additions
on Defense we should be much better in both of these areas.

The Joe Burrow injury last year made our Offense predictable always being in the Shotgun and made the OL look worse than it actually was.

Zack Moss was the best Shotgun RB last season so he fits much better when we DO run the Shotgun and he should help Chase Brown learn
going into his sophomore year with confidence with some big plays as a rookie. Nice thread Joelist.

Some flaws but good enough to win it all, especially if everyone is healthy and contributes/progresses. I am warming to the draft we just had more and more. I am beginning to understand the vision the Bengals have of what this year could look like.

Of course, the thing that stands in our way is other teams and time. The season is long and we have no idea what we'll face. Who will be strong, who will challenge us in ways we weren't prepared for, will we be able to bounce back from losses?

Sorry, I know that is a bit vague but it is where I'm at as of this moment.

(04-30-2024, 03:53 PM)Joelist Wrote: This is purely opinion of course and includes Free Agency.

First, between Free Agency and the draft we have retooled the interior Defensive Line - and it needed the redo. The new IDL room of Rankins, Hill, Jenkins and Jackson is stronger physically and brings more juice in pass rush to the table. It also has good run defenders up and down. We did give up some size when Reader left but overall I think this is a better room. At DE it is mostly our same cast but we did add Cedric Johnson who can learn and develop into a good starter - he has the physical tools just needs technique.

In a similar mold the safety room got a major makeover. Seeing as the flood of explosive plays were mostly caused by players out of position and also that our safeties typically call the player alignments this was inevitable. Stone and Bell are both smart and savvy safeties, perfect tutors for Jordan Battle and Bell is already versed in our alignment calls as it was his job before he went to Carolina for a year. So the safety room traded a little top end speed for a huge injection of IQ.  At CB Josh Newton has showed ability in zone and will be allowed to develop.

Then we come to the new OL room. Trent Brown at RT is a better scheme fit than Jonah was and Mims is a physical freak who may be inexperienced but is not raw (his film shows smarts and good technique) and a prime blue chipper. Matt Lee also adds to us as a great Center prospect. So this room while not retooled (and it really didn't need a retool) got three new parts that look good at this point.

Next we come to a room that did get a retool - TE. Sample and Hudson are back which is good because both were solid for us. Gesicki is more like a slot receiver that happens to be called a TE. Both of our late round picks have sky high potential. This is a retool that probably pays off more in 2025 after All and McLachlan have some seasoning.

The WR room only got one new piece but what a piece! Jermaine Burton is a risk in temperament terms but ability wise he is a true threat and blue chipper. If Zac wins his bet that the team culture will work on Burton and he matures then we have a true mismatch to line up across from Chase.

RB is another room that got a makeover. The new room emphasizes pass protection and Yards After Contact while Chase Brown gives it home run speed. Zac Moss fits our scheme like a glove. My wild prediction special here is Noah Cain makes the team and Chris Evans does not with Trayveon Williams rounding it out.

I agree and for those concerned with 5 TE's, All is recovering from ACL surgery. In the past teams had to place IR guys on their 53 man roster, but no longer the case making All a great end of 2024 piece or worst case scenario a 2025 huge piece at TE. Gesicki is on a 1 year deal. All may be Gesicki replacement in 2025 if he has a great year and we can't afford him in 2025.

(04-30-2024, 04:35 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: I agree and for those concerned with 5 TE's, All is recovering from ACL surgery. In the past teams had to place IR guys on their 53 man roster, but no longer the case making All a great end of 2024 piece or worst case scenario a 2025 huge piece at TE. Gesicki is on a 1 year deal. All may be Gesicki replacement in 2025 if he has a great year and we can't afford him in 2025.

Very good point that makes the All pick that much better. The rule change where we don't have to place him on the 53 and we can 
protect certain players on the PS are a good change for the NFL.

If healthy, we're going to another AFCCG facing the Chiefs, at a minimum. Our offense will be even better with Trent Brown on the OL and Moss and Burton joining the team. More importantly, we should see our defense improve TREMENDOUSLY after signing Stone and Rankins and drafting Jenkins. Miscommunication should be minimal and our run defense should see significant improvement.

The season can't get here fast enough! WHO DEY!

(04-30-2024, 04:35 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: I agree and for those concerned with 5 TE's, All is recovering from ACL surgery. In the past teams had to place IR guys on their 53 man roster, but no longer the case making All a great end of 2024 piece or worst case scenario a 2025 huge piece at TE. Gesicki is on a 1 year deal. All may be Gesicki replacement in 2025 if he has a great year and we can't afford him in 2025.

I think McLachan is the Gesiki replacement, same type of athletic receiving TE.  All could become the all around TE we have been wanting for a very long time.  These 2 with Sample could make for a very strong TE room for years to come. All of this depending on health of course.

They did pretty damn good getting the pieces needed to get this team into the playoffs and beyond. I see 3 players that are going to play right off the bat, maybe not start but contribute right away. That is ok because to me it seems, we did very well in FA.
Mims: He isn't needed to start right away. He'll see action, but he is the future and it looks good
Jenkins: He will be an immediate contributor.
Burton: I think he might start, talent is there.
Jackson: Like Jenkins, will contribute
As for the rest of our picks they are future starters. The only player I see in this last group playing and see him move up the depth chart is McLachlan. JMO

Compared to last year's team, the following rooms are better:
QB (healthy Burrow beats recovering and then absent Burrow)
RB (Moss seems like a better fit for this offense than Mixon)
TE (3 new faces and no more Irv)
OT (OT3 being Mims is much better than OT3 being Carman. Brown also seems like a better fit for this offense than Williams. Orlando was playing through injuries last year so he should be improved as well. I cannot express just how comforting is to know that we are not one injury away from Carman Jackson starting a playoff game).
DT (Yes, we lost Reader, but he was injured at the end of the year anyway. Jenkins as DT3 and Jackson as DT4 feels a lot better than Carter and Tufele in those roles. Plus we got a great pass rusher in Rankins to pair with Hill).
Safety (Dax and Scott were disasters back there in regards to allowing explosive plays. We added two new starters in Stone and Bell with Battle as a key reserve behind Bell for a year)

Compared to last year's team, the following rooms are about the same:
DE (Cedric and Ossai will be battling for the last spot, but there will likely be no change to 2024)
LB (We lost Bailey, but he was the 4th or even 5th LB off the bench. Not a big loss overall).
OG (No change to the guards at all)
C (We added Matt Lee, but I'm not expecting a 7th round pick to come in and significantly upgrade a position. Decent depth though).
ST (Maybe McNamara beats out Robbins. Maybe the coaches prefer their draft pick. We'll have to see what happens there. Other than that, no change.)

Compared to last year's team, the following rooms are worse:
WR (This may be a bad take 10 months from now, but replacing Boyd with an unknown rookie is likely a downgrade. Burton has all the potential in the world, but I wouldn't dare expect him to be as good as an 8 year veteran.)
CB (Losing Chidobe and basically not replacing him is not great. Hopefully, Turner takes the next step into a quality starter, but I am worried about the depth behind him and CTB. Hill is joining the CB room and that could go really well or horrifically wrong. We'll just have to wait and see.)

Overall, way more improvements than losses. If Burrow stays healthy, we should contend for a Super Bowl again. Especially since we are now better equipped four our own division by emphasizing stopping the run with our draft picks. That should help us be more consistent week to week, since we've historically only really struggled with our division rivals (10 of our 19 regular season losses in the last 3 years have been to division rivals).

(04-30-2024, 05:44 PM)CJD Wrote: Compared to last year's team, the following rooms are better:
QB (healthy Burrow beats recovering and then absent Burrow)
RB (Moss seems like a better fit for this offense than Mixon)
TE (3 new faces and no more Irv)
OT (OT3 being Mims is much better than OT3 being Carman. Brown also seems like a better fit for this offense than Williams. Orlando was playing through injuries last year so he should be improved as well. I cannot express just how comforting is to know that we are not one injury away from Carman Jackson starting a playoff game).
DT (Yes, we lost Reader, but he was injured at the end of the year anyway. Jenkins as DT3 and Jackson as DT4 feels a lot better than Carter and Tufele in those roles. Plus we got a great pass rusher in Rankins to pair with Hill).
Safety (Dax and Scott were disasters back there in regards to allowing explosive plays. We added two new starters in Stone and Bell with Battle as a key reserve behind Bell for a year)

Compared to last year's team, the following rooms are about the same:
DE (Cedric and Ossai will be battling for the last spot, but there will likely be no change to 2024)
LB (We lost Bailey, but he was the 4th or even 5th LB off the bench. Not a big loss overall).
OG (No change to the guards at all)
C (We added Matt Lee, but I'm not expecting a 7th round pick to come in and significantly upgrade a position. Decent depth though).
ST (Maybe McNamara beats out Robbins. Maybe the coaches prefer their draft pick. We'll have to see what happens there. Other than that, no change.)

Compared to last year's team, the following rooms are worse:
WR (This may be a bad take 10 months from now, but replacing Boyd with an unknown rookie is likely a downgrade. Burton has all the potential in the world, but I wouldn't dare expect him to be as good as an 8 year veteran.)
CB (Losing Chidobe and basically not replacing him is not great. Hopefully, Turner takes the next step into a quality starter, but I am worried about the depth behind him and CTB. Hill is joining the CB room and that could go really well or horrifically wrong. We'll just have to wait and see.)

Overall, way more improvements than losses. If Burrow stays healthy, we should contend for a Super Bowl again. Especially since we are now better equipped four our own division by emphasizing stopping the run with our draft picks. That should help us be more consistent week to week, since we've historically only really struggled with our division rivals (10 of our 19 regular season losses in the last 3 years have been to division rivals).

Nice post CrazyJDawg. Have to say, the improvement of Myles Murphy, DJ Turner, Jordan Battle in their 2nd year on Defense will be key...

Same with Chase Brown, Iosivas and Chuck Sizzle on Offense.

I would like for us to add a Corner and an IOL now that the Draft is over. Last I heard Stephon Gilmore and other Corners are out there, 
Dalton Risner, Connor Williams and Andrus Peat are out there.

While nothing is sure I suspect the IDL rotation is Rankins and Hill rotating as 3T and Jenkins and Jackson rotating as "NT". So I expect Jackson and Jenkins to get more snaps than some expect.

For Boyd's spot we have Gesicki (who basically lines up slot mostly anyway), Chuck Sizzle and even Burton as he gets acclimated to the NFL and readied to replace Tee.

theyre still the biggest threat to the chiefs in the afc. Texans are behind cincy. We already know Lamar never gets it done when it matters most.

(04-30-2024, 06:13 PM)Frank Booth Wrote: theyre still the biggest threat to the chiefs in the afc. Texans are behind cincy. We already know Lamar never gets it done when it matters most.

I love that the Chiefs also wanted to trade up for Amarius Mims. 

I still think we are a little weak at interior defensive line. We replace DJ Reader with Sheldon Rankins. DJ Reader grades out as much better. You have two rookies and neither are known as a great pass rusher. Hopefully they live up to expectations of good run stoppers.

(04-30-2024, 06:32 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: I still think we are a little weak at interior defensive line. We replace DJ Reader with Sheldon Rankins. DJ Reader grades out as much better. You have two rookies and neither are known as a great pass rusher. Hopefully they live up to expectations of good run stoppers.

Reader was an immovable person and huge disrupter. After his injury possibly not as good. Rankins a better pass rusher. Jackson will maybe make up for D J on the goaline and short yardage packages. But I’m not so sure with the addition of Jenkins our 3 man rotation of him, Rankins, and Hill isn’t improved. But I’m not sure you’re not right but I think our pass rush and run defense improved if not for the addition of Jenkins.

WR room is more explosive and will be better.

TE room is better by leaps and bounds assuming good health.

Oline is better and deeper.

RB room could be better.

Dline is better with pass rush, could be better vs the run but that would require Jenkins being ready to produce very early and Jackson actually becoming a force in the A gap. .

Safety room has improved.

(04-30-2024, 07:15 PM)casear2727 Wrote: WR room is more explosive and will be better.

RB room could be better.

Boyd and Mixon were the two players I wanted to move on from the most. RB is probably the weakest position group on team now, but I will not miss Mixon’s comically inept pass blocking one bit. It’s also never a bad thing to go younger at that position.

And the more I read up on and watch of Burton the more excited I am. They will be able to do so much more with him as opposed to Boyd who could only play in the slot. That really did hamper what the offense could do.

(04-30-2024, 08:01 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Boyd and Mixon were the two players I wanted to move on from the most. RB is probably the weakest position group on team now, but I will not miss Mixon’s comically inept pass blocking one bit. It’s also never a bad thing to go younger at that position.

And the more I read up on and watch of Burton the more excited I am. They will be able to do so much more with him as opposed to Boyd who could only play in the slot. That really did hamper what the offense could do.

If Moss and Brown can stay healthy we will be more than fine at RB.

(04-30-2024, 04:59 PM)casear2727 Wrote: I think McLachan is the Gesiki replacement, same type of athletic receiving TE.  All could become the all around TE we have been wanting for a very long time.  These 2 with Sample could make for a very strong TE room for years to come. All of this depending on health of course.

I've been reading some nice reviews and high praise from different outlets regarding Cincy getting him in the 6th. 

(04-30-2024, 08:42 PM)coachmcneil71 Wrote: I've been reading some nice reviews and high praise from different outlets regarding Cincy getting him in the 6th. 

He also needs to stay healthy.  Like Hudson, he isnt a great blocker but shows much more effort, and when he does catch the ball he runs hard like Hurst, but with much more speed and agility.