Bengals Free Agency

[CottonHill]

(03-16-2024, 02:25 AM)Ell Prez Wrote: It’s really easy to live in Lala land when you only look at the positives. All of the players we signed are fine players. I wouldn’t say Geisiki, Stone, moss, Rankins are bad players. They are good players. But the off-season isn’t just about who you add, it’s about who you lose and who you replace them with. I’ve said this like 5x already

We upgraded at S no don’t. RB idk, could be a wash. DT, no because we need a run stuffer.

We lost Chido, Jonah, Reader. All 3 of them play way more important positions than RB, TE, S.

After tagging Tee, we had $50M in cap space and the only external free agents we brought in was Stone 7M apy, rankins 13M apy, bell 1M apy, geisiki 3M apy. We missed the playoffs. You’re telling me the difference between us and a Super Bowl is Stone, Geisiki, and Rankins? Those are the pieces that are going to bring us the Lombardi? We spent way too much money on stupid back ups and rotational players. We have cap space. The worst part is we have money to spend but no one worthy (that fits a need) to spend it on. And we didn’t even resign tee long term! We lost our starting RT, DT, CB and soon to be #2 WR. With 70M in cap space. How in the heck is that possible. We should have signed Rankins and reader to bolster the line. Not swap 1 for 1. We should have upgraded Jonah tj a better RT, not go backwards with Cody Ford. We should have upgraded over Chido. Now we’re relying on Turner and CTB who both can’t cover all that well. CTB can at least tackle, but he’s our #1 corner. I don’t think he’s a #1 cover corner. This off season has gone about as bad as it could have.

This is exactly what I’ve been trying to say. Agree 100% but some fans imply cannot criticize their team no matter what. Even if they got embarrassed in division last year

[phil413]

What is Mike Williams worth on the market? For the right price I sign him for 2yrs and trade Tee

[Ell Prez]

(03-16-2024, 11:50 AM)phil413 Wrote: What is Mike Williams worth on the market? For the right price I sign him for 2yrs and trade Tee

Or sign him to a 1 year deal and keep Tee. Resign the player after this year who balls out. They both have injury concern and are similar players. But I would have rather spent money on the lines, but that ship has sailed.

[JoeyB2023]

(03-15-2024, 06:14 PM)CottonHill Wrote: I’ve been extremely negative but I feel it’s for good reason.
The Bengals are one of a few teams who don’t actively restructure to make room for more talent. You can’t win in today’s age like that.
We had among the most cap space available and I would say we have gotten slightly worse while the rest of the division for sure, and league in general got better.
The resigning of Sample, Hudson, Williams, and Irwin don’t make us any better. Those guys are depth and special teams guys. The tight ends are 1 dimensional and not particularly good at their strong suit.
I love the signing of Rankins in a vacuum but on the whole, the interior d line is worse which is a biiiig issue.
The secondary signings of Stone and Bell look great but they show bigger underlying issues. They are replacing high draft picks and obviously stopping us from improving in other areas. Furthermore, the Stone signing has a chance to be as bad as the Scott signing. All the indicators are there of a guy playing over his head in a contract year on a loaded defense.
The o line thing appears to be malpractice at this point. If we are having to wine and dine Mekhi Becto , what are we even doing. He is a big massive pile of crap. The right side of our line will be slip if that’s what we go into the year with.
I’m fine with the Mixon to Moss move although it’s lateral at best. The issue was our FO looked to be incompetent in the whole Mixon saga. Release them get saved by a trade. Weren’t doing their due diligence
So with all that cap space we improved our interior pass rush….at the expense of the run defense and improved the secondary, with below average athletes at the expense of our whole roster.
There seems to be zero cohesion or urgency in the FO and gives me zero confidence moving forward. We could’ve easily improved at RT, RG, TE, and have not done so.

Damn u dead on with this. U r my friend now. Someone saying it like it is. Bengals need to step their game up. Imo the new RB and TE are fine but losing chido and we have now who. Losing reader and we have now who? Rankins isn’t reader. At all. Who’s our right tackle. We gonna draft a tackle. Lol yea they always seem to be good at that lmao.
They need to trade tee straight across for Derrick Brown in Carolina. They then need to turn around and sign Tredaviius White and Trent brown. That would make for a good FA. Not what we’ve done so far.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(03-15-2024, 05:08 PM)packerbacker Wrote: How do you guys like your Free Agency so far? What big additions have you had and what are your big losses? I hope Burrow stays healthy next year. Do you guys hate us as much as your AFC Rivals? On Reddit I see lots of fanbases hoping we crap the bed for a long time. Anyway I hope you guys win a SB. You were the better team than the Rams a couple years ago.

It has been alright, I still start with the bad. I don't like losing DJ Reader and Chidobe Awuzie. Reader might not be the same after 
another quad injury, but when healthy he is one of the best NT's in the NFL. Chido will probably be better after another year healing 
from his injury so the Lions and Titans might of got some great players here if they can get healthy.

The good. Geno Stone is a fantastic Cover Safety who was a ballhawk last year for the Ravens. Stealing Stone from a Division rival
is huge. Bringing back Vonn Bell as a leader and a run stuffer is huge, these two additions should help the entire secondary. Rankins
is a better pass rushing 3-tech that we have needed desperately on Defense, this guy is very athletic for his size, love this pick up.

Really like Gesicki for our passing game who I think could be very good with Burrow throwing to him. As Joelist says, he should 
play in the Slot a ton in a way filling in for the absence of Boyd. Zack Moss is an underrated signing around here, he is a good RB who
is one of the best running out of the Shotgun and getting YAC and is a good pass protector. Fits Burrow's type of Offense he likes to
run like a glove, but we still need to play a ton more under Center with Burrow this year now that he should be healthy.

We will see on Tart and Becton if we sign them, I like Tart, Becton?

Not so much.

How has your FA been Packerbacker? Saw you lost Aaron Jones, that doesn't seem good.

[Gdale_Bengal]

I hope they sign tart