OK, we lost some fan favorites. Peoples take that this team is giving up and in rebuilding mode, no, I don't see that at all. If that was the case they would not resign Kirkpatrick and Lafell or bring back Andre Smith or sign Minter.  I also like that Minter is 26 as opposed to the ages of Harrison, Hawk and Dansby brought in way past their prime.  So I see a lot of positives as we head into the draft next month. Plus we have picks from last few years in training mode ready to become veterans. Bodine, Dennard, Ced, Fisher, Jackson, McCarron, Boyd, Core are among the draft picks developing into veterans. It is a huge jump from college to NFL.  With the players we have and the draft coming, the Bengals can score a lot but give up few points in 2017.  Bengals already said if the LSU RB is there when they pick, they will make him a Bengal.  Don't give up on a team with Dalton and all these pass catchers and Atkins and Dunlap on defense just yet.  

I like the Minter signing a great deal. Outstanding, affordable insurance for both Burfict and Vigil. He can also start at MIKE in base. I wish they had a bit longer deal with him, but I think it also allows them to say to Burfict that he better show up in shape and ready to go or they will extend Minter and not him.

I also like Andre at RG.

Lafell, meh...TJ, meh....Kirkpatrick....very important and glad he is here for the prime of his career.

This has helped the draft shape up nicely.

(03-20-2017, 09:12 AM)kevin Wrote: OK, we lost some fan favorites. Peoples take that this team is giving up and in rebuilding mode, no, I don't see that at all. If that was the case they would not resign Kirkpatrick and Lafell or bring back Andre Smith or sign Minter.  I also like that Minter is 26 as opposed to the ages of Harrison, Hawk and Dansby brought in way past their prime.  So I see a lot of positives as we head into the draft next month. Plus we have picks from last few years in training mode ready to become veterans. Bodine, Dennard, Ced, Fisher, Jackson, McCarron, Boyd, Core are among the draft picks developing into veterans. It is a huge jump from college to NFL.  With the players we have and the draft coming, the Bengals can score a lot but give up few points in 2017.  Bengals already said if the LSU RB is there when they pick, they will make him a Bengal.  Don't give up on a team with Dalton and all these pass catchers and Atkins and Dunlap on defense just yet.  

Looking back at our last losing season in 2010 (4-12), losing our franchise QB (Palmer), the talking heads on major networks and a lot of fans had us not only being bad, but saying worst team in the NFL. I look at 2016, I saw our OL not play well as a unit, I saw our kicker kill us. I saw us lose the same close games we won previously. I see talent on this team, but we need to fix the OL issues and new starters need to step in and step up.

I am curious what pieces are added in the 1st 3 rounds of the draft. We had our #1 pick not play a snap the past 2 years and not much 3 years ago (Dennard) due to injury. Hopefully at #9 (highest pick we have had since AJ Green at #4), we draft a day one impact player that can produce in 2017, not a year or 2 later.

The NFL margin of winning and losing is small, we need to flip some negatives from 2017, add some talent, have more guys step up and have career years. If so, I know we can do well.

(03-20-2017, 09:12 AM)kevin Wrote: OK, we lost some fan favorites. Peoples take that this team is giving up and in rebuilding mode, no, I don't see that at all. If that was the case they would not resign Kirkpatrick and Lafell or bring back Andre Smith or sign Minter.  I also like that Minter is 26 as opposed to the ages of Harrison, Hawk and Dansby brought in way past their prime.  So I see a lot of positives as we head into the draft next month. Plus we have picks from last few years in training mode ready to become veterans. Bodine, Dennard, Ced, Fisher, Jackson, McCarron, Boyd, Core are among the draft picks developing into veterans. It is a huge jump from college to NFL.  With the players we have and the draft coming, the Bengals can score a lot but give up few points in 2017.  Bengals already said if the LSU RB is there when they pick, they will make him a Bengal.  Don't give up on a team with Dalton and all these pass catchers and Atkins and Dunlap on defense just yet.  

I agree and while it stings to lose guys like Whit and Zeitler, fans had to of known that this was going to happen. Whit was 35 going on 36, I think the front office thought he was going to re-sign for the year, but when LA offered more than he was worth he took it. I'm not mad at him for that, but he did give the team a big FU. Zeitler has been solid since we drafted him, but he has had some injuries and not once has any list had him in the top 5 at the position and Cleveland just paid him the largest contract ever for a guard, sucks to see him go, but with extensions coming up for other players like Eifert, Burfict, Dunlap, and Atkins it was the choice that had to be made. 

Re-signing Dre was a smart move, he's young and getting better, plus he holds in check A. Brown which is hard to do. Lafell deserved a new contract after playing well. Smith was a good insurance signing and brings solid depth and Minter was a nice pickup, just entering his prime, he keeps getting better. 

The roster has several guys who are going to be vying for snaps this year so who knows we might not see a big drop off. Westerman could turn out to be a pretty solid guard just like Zeitler, Fisher should improve which will mean an improvement at RT over last season and Ced knows he played bad, but maybe moving back to his natural position along with having a full year of snaps after that injury will help. Will he be as good as Whit, not this year, but it's not to say that he can't be in 2 or 3 years.

When I look at the team, we are getting a bunch of young guys back like WJ3, Billings, and Hardison, this should help the defense and look for Dennard to hopefully be fully healthy which would mean we have a really young talented secondary. Last year our struggles on offense were well documented, but we have to keep in mind that we lost our probowl TE for the first half of the season, we lost our allpro WR for the second half of the season along with our shifty rb. On top of this we had a new OC, 3 rookie WR's, a new FA WR, a new RT and our same shitty C. With a few good draft picks we could easily be in playoff contention again. I think we are going to start seeing the youth movement play into effect.

I'm content with FA so far. Lafell and Kirk were great signings, Pretty much in wait and see mode when it comes to everybody else.


Trade McCarron for a sweet deal, nail the draft and re-sign Burfict before the regular season and I will be a happy fan.

It's going to take more than adding a lb to a 6-9-1 team to get me applauding the front office.

(03-20-2017, 10:54 AM)jj22 Wrote: It's going to take more than adding a lb to a 6-9-1 team to get me applauding the front office.

dont forget that is a 10-6 record if it isnt for nugent/bullock.

(03-20-2017, 10:54 AM)jj22 Wrote: It's going to take more than adding a lb to a 6-9-1 team to get me applauding the front office.

I have to agree.

Andre Smith is only a temporary solution at RG and he missed a lot of time last year.

Ogbuehi, so far, has only proven he isn't anywhere close to being a starting caliber OT (left or right side).

Minter replacing Dansby may be an upgrade, maybe.

The draft is weak in the O-line category so not expecting any help there, certainly not expecting a year 1 starter. So Ogbuehi will once again be the weak the link and Bodine will be the second weak link and I just don't see the team doing much to correct the problem.

Now defense is where I expect to see improvement from the draft, but who really knows what Mikey Brown will do with his final word.

You gotta know that Mikey Brown is looking at next year's list of free agents and he may just concentrate on drafting their replacements or pet projects as we have seen before.

Re-signing LaFell was a great move that does not get anough love around here

Meanwhile the move to bring back Smith gets too much love.

(03-20-2017, 10:54 AM)jj22 Wrote: It's going to take more than adding a lb to a 6-9-1 team to get me applauding the front office.

Pretty much this. We went 6-9-1 last year mainly because for 2 reasons: missed kicks and terrible o-line play. So far it looks like we're sticking with Bullock (who was solid numbers-wise, but cost us the Texans game) and the o-line has gotten even worse on paper. It's hard to get excited for an average (albeit young) LB like Minter when I'm still thinking the o-line will be the demise of this team yet again.


Btw, doesn't it seem like we as fans kinda do the same dance every year? 


Phase 1: Get mad because the Bengals never sign any good free agents (and try to keep the same coaches in place)
Phase 2: Force ourselves to get excited over our biggest external signing (Jason Allen, James Harrison, AJ Hawk, Kevin Minter, etc)
Phase 3: Post draft and preseason optimism


Maybe if our fans (particularly season ticket holders) didn't get re-impressed after every nearly identical offseason, the Bengals would think about tweaking their approach?

Doubtful, but worth considering.

I see your good news with a bringing back Andre, bringing back Marvin, and same people in charge of the draft. And raise you a Mike Brown.

(03-20-2017, 12:38 PM)Millhouse Wrote: I see your good news with a bringing back Andre, bringing back Marvin, and same people in charge of the draft. And raise you a Mike Brown.

Kevin should fold. That's a Royal Flush (this team down the toilet) you're holding right there.

(03-20-2017, 12:26 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Pretty much this. We went 6-9-1 last year mainly because for 2 reasons: missed kicks and terrible o-line play. So far it looks like we're sticking with Bullock (who was solid numbers-wise, but cost us the Texans game) and the o-line has gotten even worse on paper. It's hard to get excited for an average (albeit young) LB like Minter when I'm still thinking the o-line will be the demise of this team yet again.


Btw, doesn't it seem like we as fans kinda do the same dance every year? 


Phase 1: Get mad because the Bengals never sign any good free agents (and try to keep the same coaches in place)
Phase 2: Force ourselves to get excited over our biggest external signing (Jason Allen, James Harrison, AJ Hawk, Kevin Minter, etc)
Phase 3: Post draft and preseason optimism


Maybe if our fans (particularly season ticket holders) didn't get re-impressed after every nearly identical offseason, the Bengals would think about tweaking their approach?

Doubtful, but worth considering.

Since we are throwing blame at season tickets, why not go all in assault against the fans  

How about if all fans quit watching them on TV maybe the team would change their approach. I would argue losing TV local dollars is much bigger negative than a few season ticket holders.

(03-20-2017, 02:00 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Since we are throwing blame at season tickets, why not go all in assault against the fans  

How about if all fans quit watching them on TV maybe the team would change their approach. I would argue losing TV local dollars is much bigger negative than a few season ticket holders.

Easy buddy. I'm really blaming Mike Brown. Just saying that season ticket holders could be the only ones who could get through to him. Like I said though, even that is doubtful. 

Mike is pretty set in his ways.

All this talk about how the fans should boycott until the Bengals do what they want is ridiculous. The fans can not even agree among themselves what they want to dio. so how is the team supposed to make them all happy.

And don't just say "Sign a top free agent from another team" because if the Bengals signed a top free agent who flopped I guarantee not one single hater would say "Yeah, I am back to supporting the Bengals 100% because they signed a top free agent."

You all are a bunch of hypocrites.

Bringing back Lafell, Kirkpatrick and Andre were good moves.

Signing Minter was a great move.

Bringing back TJ i am okay with cause he is good insurance at Guard from what we saw against the Ravens.

TJ Johnson i liked in college but he has sucked at Center here even against 3rd and 4th stringers and couldn't beat out Bodine.

We have to draft a Center in the 2nd to 4th rounds to compete. Have to, if not our QB and running game will be in trouble.

While i think we could be alright, we didn't open up the draft like i thought we needed to. Still have to draft a pass rusher, a RB and a Center.

Probably a Kicker too.

Fans expect to win. I doubt they care if the names change.

The way I look at it...Whitworth was the only player who left that was unexpected. We knew Z was gone.

However, Minter was a surprise signing...and a very good one. Smith was a good move also that I talked about in another thread.

Our offensive line still needs a ton of work...but our defense should still be good and maybe great depending on the draft. (Foster or a good DE could put it over the top.)

(03-20-2017, 09:12 AM)kevin Wrote: OK, we lost some fan favorites. Peoples take that this team is giving up and in rebuilding mode, no, I don't see that at all. If that was the case they would not resign Kirkpatrick and Lafell or bring back Andre Smith or sign Minter.  I also like that Minter is 26 as opposed to the ages of Harrison, Hawk and Dansby brought in way past their prime.  So I see a lot of positives as we head into the draft next month. Plus we have picks from last few years in training mode ready to become veterans. Bodine, Dennard, Ced, Fisher, Jackson, McCarron, Boyd, Core are among the draft picks developing into veterans. It is a huge jump from college to NFL.  With the players we have and the draft coming, the Bengals can score a lot but give up few points in 2017.  Bengals already said if the LSU RB is there when they pick, they will make him a Bengal.  Don't give up on a team with Dalton and all these pass catchers and Atkins and Dunlap on defense just yet.  

I think they're serious about Fournette and Mixon.  All this talk about believing in Hill is well and good, but they wouldn't be visiting Mixon and calling him to Cincy if they were that sold on Hill. Carolina will likely take Fournette, but if they don't...he won't slip past us. Mixon might be even better, but not at 9, unless they don't want to risk seeing him drafted before them in 2. I doubt Mixon makes it past the second round. 

LSU running back will not be there by pick 9. Bengals would have to move up. Doubt that happens.