***Official Bengals Free Agency Thread***

[CincinnatiBengals55]

We slightly upgraded our secondary, slightly downgraded our pass rush (which we never had to start with). The offensive lineman signings will come. Only 1 got signed today, but Rodney Hudson got released so we're in the same position we were in yesterday regarding that. They know they have to sign more guys, don't sweat it yet.

[NATI BENGALS]

(03-16-2021, 11:20 PM)CarolinaBengalFanGuy Wrote: He is full of shit right? Patriots sign all these players and we sign 3 guys and we're the ones out of money?

I could see them trying to get extensions done for Hubbard and Bates. So maybe not.

[BengalFanInNJ]

(03-16-2021, 10:06 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Well it’s good to see Hobson is still right on cue.

From his latest

“ The Bengals paid the price for being active early in free agency. The three deals are worth about $106 million and took up nearly all of the $20 million under this year's salary cap they had allotted for new players. ”

Lolz

New players?? These are cheaper replacements for the players they lost!!!

[Benton]

WjIII 3 years @ $42 million?

Glad we didn't make that deal.

[TheFan]

(03-16-2021, 11:44 PM)CincinnatiBengals55 Wrote: We slightly upgraded our secondary, slightly downgraded our pass rush (which we never had to start with). The offensive lineman signings will come. Only 1 got signed today, but Rodney Hudson got released so we're in the same position we were in yesterday regarding that. They know they have to sign more guys, don't sweat it yet.

How was our pass rush downgraded? I get if you say it didn't improve but you can't consider it a downgrade based on what both of them have actually done on the field. 

[Bengalitis]

Do our coaches know who got signed or will this be another one of those where the coaches are clueless who is out and who is in again?

(IE Callahan clueless when one of our players got cut if my memory serves me well)

[CarolinaBengalFanGuy]

(You might have saw this in another thread but I meant to put it here...)

I know everyone wants offensive linemen that's a given, but I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on Wide Receivers?

The guys I like:

Some of the younger guys
Will Fuller (Texans)
Curtis Samuel (Panthers)
Sammy Watkins (Chiefs) --> I really like this guy, offers explosive playmaking potential, but since he has never fully realized it he could come cheap. Its mostly his potential vs possible price.

Some of the older guys
John Brown (Bills)
TY Hilton (Colts)
AJ Green (Bengals) --> I'm biased and a Georgia fan but I'd still like to see Green back at the right price.

[CincinnatiBengals55]

(03-17-2021, 12:56 AM)TheFan Wrote: How was our pass rush downgraded? I get if you say it didn't improve but you can't consider it a downgrade based on what both of them have actually done on the field. 

It downgraded based on metrics. Pressures, hits, hurries, pass rush win rate things like that (Based on PFF’s numbers). Hendrickson got a lot more sacks because sacks is essentially a clean up stat. Rarely is it the first guy there getting the sack. The first guy makes the QB step up in the pocket or scramble and the second guy gets the sack.

At the end of the day, whichever player gets more help on the Dline over their contracts will look like the better player/deal.

In my opinion, our pass rush slightly decreased and our secondary slightly increased.

HOWEVER, if you’d like to say our pass rush stayed the same and our secondary stayed the same, I could see that as well.

Overall, we haven’t gotten worse and we haven’t gotten better. Still have a large chunk of money to get better. We aren’t done yet.

[NATI BENGALS]

(03-17-2021, 02:53 AM)CarolinaBengalFanGuy Wrote: (You might have saw this in another thread but I meant to put it here...)

I know everyone wants offensive linemen that's a given, but I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on Wide Receivers?

The guys I like:

Some of the younger guys
Will Fuller (Texans)
Curtis Samuel (Panthers)
Sammy Watkins (Chiefs) --> I really like this guy, offers explosive playmaking potential, but since he has never fully realized it he could come cheap. Its mostly his potential vs possible price.

Some of the older guys
John Brown (Bills)
TY Hilton (Colts)
AJ Green (Bengals) --> I'm biased and a Georgia fan but I'd still like to see Green back at the right price.

I feel like the upper tier guys are still going to end up with more than I would be willing to pay. If we could get AJ back at like 3 million I would be all for it.

Wouldn't mind grabbing Keelan Cole. An UDFA who has played in 64 games over 4 years and accumulated 159 catches, 12 TDs, and 2,242 yards with a whole slew of iffy QBs throwing him the ball in Jacksonville.

[KillerGoose]

Trent Williams back to SF - 6 years, 138 million.

[Nicomo Cosca]

(03-17-2021, 07:37 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: Trent Williams back to SF - 6 years, 138 million.

That’s a lot of term for a 32 year old. They better hope he ages like Whit...

[Schmitbuck]

(03-16-2021, 11:35 PM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: I find it amusing the Bengals preach building through the draft to explain their free agency approach, but then don’t retain their own during free agency.

It's certainly more nuanced than that. Neither were drafted by this coaching staff. Lawson has injury concerns and Jackson has consistency concerns.

I think you'll be happier when Bates & Hubbard are extended. 

[mikey6866]

(03-17-2021, 07:40 AM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: That’s a lot of term for a 32 year old. They better hope he ages like Whit...

Its just a phoney back end of the deal for cap purposes.  Once details get released well have a sense of how many years it really is before they would have to cut or restructure.  Im betting in reality its probably around 3 years just over 20 mil a year.

[XenoMorph]

(03-17-2021, 07:42 AM)Schmitbuck Wrote: It's certainly more nuanced than that. Neither were drafted by this coaching staff. Lawson has injury concerns and Jackson has consistency concerns.

I think you'll be happier when Bates & Hubbard are extended. 

were either of those two drafted by this staff?

[Schmitbuck]

(03-17-2021, 09:20 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: were either of those two drafted by this staff?

You know the answer to that. If not, I'll let you look it up. 

[XenoMorph]

(03-17-2021, 09:56 AM)Schmitbuck Wrote: You know the answer to that. If not, I'll let you look it up. 

Oh i know the answer which is why part of your answer made no sense.

[JerseyDD09]

People on here are saying it's a wash from what we had; but, you have to consider how much Hilton can play in the pass rush game as well. He's blitzed more than any CB in the league over the last several years and has had several sacks and multiple pressures. He's the best at it. So, IMO, the pass rush has been upgraded from last year so far, and the secondary is where it was.
FA hasn't even started yet as well. Lol
The Bengals still have much to decide and work with. Do they let go of Geno and Hart for an extra 14 Mill? If they do, they still can sign (2) OL, a WR, and possibly another Edge guy/LB. Maybe a Reddick and I want Bynes back. He's a leader they still need. Mike Daniels will gladly come back and they'll need him as well with Geno gone.

[Schmitbuck]

(03-17-2021, 10:00 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: Oh i know the answer which is why part of your answer made no sense.

Sure it did. He was complaining that the Bengals were hypocritical for not following their philosophy of signing their own drafted players like it was a black and white issue. Maybe google what nuance means. There could be multiple reasons why they didn't want to sign those two players. One could be that Jackson doesn't have the skill set that coaches are looking for their defense. Maybe the current staff wouldn't have drafted him in the first place. 

If he wants the Bengals to extend their players, them extending Hubbard & Bates should make him happy. 

[hollodero]

(03-17-2021, 02:53 AM)CarolinaBengalFanGuy Wrote: (You might have saw this in another thread but I meant to put it here...)

I know everyone wants offensive linemen that's a given, but I'm curious about everyone's thoughts on Wide Receivers?

The guys I like:

Some of the younger guys
Will Fuller (Texans)
Curtis Samuel (Panthers)
Sammy Watkins (Chiefs) --> I really like this guy, offers explosive playmaking potential, but since he has never fully realized it he could come cheap. Its mostly his potential vs possible price.

Some of the older guys
John Brown (Bills)
TY Hilton (Colts)
AJ Green (Bengals) --> I'm biased and a Georgia fan but I'd still like to see Green back at the right price.

I don't like any of these guys, except AJ Green because it's AJ Green.

Fuller was hurt pretty much every season, except for the one where he ended up being suspended. Watkins is hurt all the time too, also he seems to prefer the option to stay with the Chiefs and get 100 more rings. Samuel is overrated. John Brown is not half as good as he appeared to be last year - as evidence, what production did Diggs have in the same position this year. Hilton was a non-factor all year round except for the last few games.

And also, yeah, OLine. Adding receivers won't do much if Burrow or whoever replaces him after being hurt again can't stay upright for more than 3 milliseconds. As of now, I'd rather add a serious TE.

[TJ528]

(03-16-2021, 08:54 PM)samhain Wrote: I think the play should have been to get better on the OL out of the gate.  Now that that isn't happening, they need to take advantage of the receiver glut.  There will be plenty of guys worthy of 3rd WR roles that probably project more as 2s.  A team could really load up for not much of a cap hit.  I'd be happy with Reynolds, but I'd be happier with Samuel or Fuller.  

If that doesn't work, then I like the idea of another pass rusher like Reddick or Ingram.

They might end up needing OL with the first and second rounders, so anything that frees up the draft is helpful.  It sucks that they've ignored the line, but a right side with Sewell and Jackson Carman taking over might be interesting.

Hey guys..I'm fairly new here and I definitely don't want to be negative.  I hadn't seen the info below and was honestly shocked at the ineptitude of the Bengals FO and failure in drafting the OL.  


I was wondering if anyone else had looked back at our drafts since 2015 and looked at how well we've drafted for the offensive line?   I was just curious and looked up previous drafts and was just curious as to whether i should trust this front office to draft any position on the OL?  


2015: Ogbuehi & Fisher - Both outta football
2016: Westerman - Retired
2017: Dielman - Retired (Good lord I never realized how bad that 2017 draft was minus a few wins)
2018: Billy Price & Rod Taylor - Price rides the bench and Taylor looks to be outta footbal
2019: Williams (played 10 games in 2 season) and Michael Jordan - needs to ride the pine
2020: Adeniji - who we have no clue how he's going to turn out

However, looking at this mess and do we really have faith and confidence this organization can draft an OL?  Thats the reason I wanted them spend the money on Zeitler or one of the big names.   

The draft is never guaranteed no matter how high you draft in it.  I just found it interesting to see how many players were out of the NFL that we'd drafted in the last 6 years.  Fisher and Ogbuehli should be just starting their 2nd contracts.  I hate to say but Billy Price might as well be cut because he doesnt offer this team anything other than effort.  I thought he'd be a stud coming out of Ohio State and he's been a bust.  

Anyway, just hadnt seen this posted anywhere and thought i'd put it out there.