(03-18-2025, 06:34 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: The debate has been in the forum for months. I was on the side of use the Tee money and fix the trenches. I do agree the FA class is so bad and unpredictable it would be a huge risk. Last year our biggest FA signing (most money spend) was a dud in Rankins.

Williams for 21 million, maybe a great deal, but he only played in 50% of the defensive snaps on a very good DL so teams could not afford to double team him.

Chase Young, another possibility, but now if those 2, we are over budget already.

Fries another overpay at 21 million.

In the end, the decision was made. Bengals know they have 3 huge weapons for at least 4 more years, add a young RT and that is 4 huge weapons in the fold.

The key will be hitting on the mid level FA signings like Slayton, doiing better drafted NFL ready players right now and development of the existing roster and rookie by the coaching staff.

I did love Tobin's comment, we have our 2 WR's, other teams can go find their own. Peopl love to blast the FO for being cheap andthen switch gears when they are not cheap and sign Tee changing Bengals overpaid or he is bad investment.

Bengals have proven they are far from cheap signing Chase and Burrow to not one of best, but best contract for their positions in past few years. I hope our fans can try another attack line for the FO, saying they are cheap is lazy and wrong.

Fries got 5 years and 88 million that's not even close to 21 million. But i get the jist.

These moves make our offense elite in many ways for years to come, with the upcoming draft I think we can do damage. Moves to be made after this are pretty obvious for me they are:

1) Reach an agreement with Trey, something like a 2 yr extension.

2) release Zac Moss, need that extra 3.5 million maybe sign a vet CB on a 1yr deal with it.

3) Sign a solid older Guard on a 1-2 yr contract

- This draft will probably see us draft 5/6 players for the defense, which is a good thing as its a solid defensive loaded class. (S, Dt, DE, LB) is what I'm expecting, I do think we draft a G as early as rds 2/3. Its also very deep at RB, so I look for us to add a solid guy to be the #3 as an UDFA.

(03-18-2025, 07:21 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: We will never be able to say if not signing Tee would have been great or failed. All we can do now is wait and see the results. But, the key also is using the resouces (lefover cap and draft) wisely to get us big and win the Lombardi.

Yes I know, but the scenario outlined in the OP was who would we have signed with Tee's money.

If you're saying the thread is pointless because Tee is signed, well that's for the OP

Tough to imagine the sorcery that would beat the chemistry that the big 3 have.  

I think the real question is what we would have done if some of the recent draft picks actually panned out.  What if Dax was looking like Bates 2.0 and ready to cash in?  What if Murphy was a terror off the edge and getting ready to demand a 25 mil payday?  What if CTB continued to trend in a good direction in 24?  That would have made paying 2 receivers crazy money a lot harder to justify.

Unluckily for us, those guys haven't done squat in a combined 5 seasons.  Makes keeping your 3rd or 4th best player a whole lot easier to digest regardless of position.

The Bengals could have signed Justin Reid + Josh Sweat for about the same price as signing Tee Higgins at his base price not counting incentives which could push Tee's contract higher.  

Also if you sign Sweat, you dont need to spend 7 million dollars to bring back Ossai on a 1 year contract so that saves you 7 million dollars which could have been spent toward a guard like Zeitler.  There are many possibilities freeing up that money would have allowed + getting a 1st or 2nd round draft pick

(03-18-2025, 10:02 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: The Bengals could have signed Justin Reid + Josh Sweat for about the same price as signing Tee Higgins at his base price not counting incentives which could push Tee's contract higher.  

Also if you sign Sweat, you dont need to spend 7 million dollars to bring back Ossai on a 1 year contract so that saves you 7 million dollars which could have been spent toward a guard like Zeitler.  There are many possibilities freeing up that money would have allowed + getting a 1st or 2nd round draft pick

I think this is a good answer to the question. Hard to pull off and I don't really see the Bengals swinging it. What moves do you make from here before the draft?

The national sports media can pound sand. I don’t care what they think. You know whose opinion counts with me? Joe Burrow. He wanted Mike Gesicki, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins on the roster. That’s more than sufficient rationale to get deals done.

(03-18-2025, 10:19 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: I think this is a good answer to the question. Hard to pull off and I don't really see the Bengals swinging it. What moves do you make from here before the draft?

At this point I would probably would wait until after the draft.  See what guys and positions you are able to add during the draft.  After the draft, teams will cut some veterans and the Bengals will have options to fill remaining holes.  Maybe you could sign one of the free agent guards before the draft but only if they come at the right price. 

(03-18-2025, 10:44 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: At this point I would probably would wait until after the draft.  See what guys and positions you are able to add during the draft.  After the draft, teams will cut some veterans and the Bengals will have options to fill remaining holes.  Maybe you could sign one of the free agent guards before the draft but only if they come at the right price. 

I want atleast one guard before the draft. It's gotten quiet on that front across the league so if the Bengals are atleast active it could play into they're hands. I also think a trade down in RD 1 could be really beneficial this year as they're doesn't seem to be a big drop off in the tier of prospects from pick 17 to the end of the 1st RD.

(03-18-2025, 10:31 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: The national sports media can pound sand.  I don’t care what they think.  You know whose opinion counts with me?  Joe Burrow.  He wanted Mike Gesicki, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins on the roster.  That’s more than sufficient rationale to get deals done.

If Joe Burrow is going to call the shots on the roster then he needs to be responsible for the outcome.   Burrow got what he wanted at the cost of not being able to add better free agents to the defense so Burrow and the rest of the offense needs to win the games.  Dont count on the defense to do it for you.

(03-18-2025, 11:09 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: If Joe Burrow is going to call the shots on the roster then he needs to be responsible for the outcome.   Burrow got what he wanted at the cost of not being able to add better free agents to the defense so Burrow and the rest of the offense needs to win the games.  Dont count on the defense to do it for you.

Okay sure. But the team needs to improve the IOL position. That was a big weakness. 

(03-18-2025, 06:55 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: You're framing it in an weirdly biased way there, Housh.

We weren't even a top-5 offense last year, so why would having a much improved defense require us to be a top-5 defense?


- - - - -

If you're asking a real question of who instead of just making a venting thread.... for roughly the same money, who we could have signed on defense that would improve our team more than losing Tee would hurt our offense for an overall net gain? My answer would be signing both Josh Sweat and Justin Reid. Arguably I could probably then sign another player on top of that since Josh Sweat would remove the need for overpaying Joseph Ossai $7m, which could nearly be the AAV of a James Daniel or Kevin Zeitler contract upgrade at G.

We were #5 in third down conversion % we were #6 points per play. #7 in points per game. #5 yards per point #5 in red zone scoring % #5 first downs per play 

(03-18-2025, 11:15 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: Okay sure. But the team needs to improve the IOL position. That was a big weakness. 

The defense has several weaknesses.  Expanding on my previous post suggestion, if you added Josh Sweat to Trey Hendrickson that would be a pretty good pass rush, then you add Justin Reid at safety.  That defense is now better.  You would also free up 7 million by no longer needing Ossai.  If you wanted, you could have put Ossai's 7 million with Slaton's 7 million and paid most of the contract of Jonathan Allen.  That would have given you Jonathan Allen, Josh Sweat and Justin Reid on defense + a 1st or 2nd round draft pick for the Tee trade that could have been used to draft Tee's replacement instead of the current Tee + Ossai + Slaton.  Now my proposal would cost a few million more if using just Tee's base pay but would be right there with the incentives.

(03-18-2025, 11:28 PM)Soonerpeace Wrote: We were #5 in third down conversion % we were #6 points per play. #7 in points per game. #5 yards per point #5 in red zone scoring % #5 first downs per play 

Scoring points is what the final outcome of games are determined by.  The Bengals were not in the top 5

(03-18-2025, 06:42 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I don’t know why anyone pays any attention to sports media. Whatever they said yesterday has no bearing on today. “Joke Bengals can’t sign their star receivers.”  “Joke Bengals sign both receivers.” There is no accountability to their blathering. They just say what they think is a hot take.

Agree.Why does anyone care what they say,or think?

(03-18-2025, 06:18 PM)Housh Wrote: That would’ve made our defense top 5?


Iv been seeing the media say the dumbest shit ever in regards to us signing Tee and Chase.


If you are saying we would’ve been able to get a big fish you are talking about Milton Williams

So that’s 1 guy. Even if we had Milton Williams it’s not like he turns us top 5 by himself.


You could also say maybe with the 28M we could’ve gotten 2 mid tier guys. Like a Chase Young and a Jevon Holland.


Yeah our D would likely be better but 2 mid level guys ain’t taking our D into the top 5.







I guess I’m saying Iv seen ppl say we could’ve done so much more to help the defense with Tee’s money….

Ok give me the exact moves then. It’s everyone saying we messed up but not one media pundit has put together a plan with the 28M that would’ve taken our D to new heights. Mofos just wanna complain about us making a move right after they complained that we weren’t making moves.

Milton Willaims might not be better than BJ Hill on another team. I agree on Tee even if he doesn't stay healthy as much as we would 
all like he was the best FA of the bunch and we brought him back after showing he is just reaching his prime as a player.

(03-18-2025, 11:45 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: Scoring points is what the final outcome of games are determined by.  The Bengals were not in the top 5

Again they were #6 in points per play and #7 in offensive points per game. 

(03-18-2025, 06:18 PM)Housh Wrote: That would’ve made our defense top 5?


Iv been seeing the media say the dumbest shit ever in regards to us signing Tee and Chase.


If you are saying we would’ve been able to get a big fish you are talking about Milton Williams

So that’s 1 guy. Even if we had Milton Williams it’s not like he turns us top 5 by himself.


You could also say maybe with the 28M we could’ve gotten 2 mid tier guys. Like a Chase Young and a Jevon Holland.


Yeah our D would likely be better but 2 mid level guys ain’t taking our D into the top 5.







I guess I’m saying Iv seen ppl say we could’ve done so much more to help the defense with Tee’s money….

Ok give me the exact moves then. It’s everyone saying we messed up but not one media pundit has put together a plan with the 28M that would’ve taken our D to new heights. Mofos just wanna complain about us making a move right after they complained that we weren’t making moves.

There's no single defensive player that makes us a Top 5 d by himself.  But Tee Higgins doesn't make us a Top 5. offense by himself, so the point is pretty moot.

I think, one for one, Josh Sweat would be an interesting comp for Tee.  Williams is overrated AF, by the way.  

(03-18-2025, 11:28 PM)Soonerpeace Wrote: We were #5 in third down conversion % we were #6 points per play. #7 in points per game. #5 yards per point #5 in red zone scoring % #5 first downs per play 

Can just look at the two main ones... 9th in yards, 6th in points.

Still a great offense, but ultimately my point was that pretending the only way that improving the defense is a better idea is if it makes it a top-5 defense is just silly. An 8th scoring offense and 14th scoring defense is better than a 6th scoring offense and 25th scoring defense.

(03-18-2025, 11:09 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: If Joe Burrow is going to call the shots on the roster then he needs to be responsible for the outcome.   Burrow got what he wanted at the cost of not being able to add better free agents to the defense so Burrow and the rest of the offense needs to win the games.  Dont count on the defense to do it for you.

Draft and develop better. Outside free agents are always a gamble. The bengals have arguably spent more assets (dollars and picks (which have a value)) on defense, since burrow got here.