Grade the current (last 5 years) FO

[SunsetBengal]

As a note to the OP, the common letter grading scale should have "C" as average, having Outstanding and Excellent as A and B is a little redundant, and no need for "O".

A = Excellence, outstanding work
B = Good, better than most
C = Average, can do better
D = Poor, get someone else in charge
F = Failure, can somebody who can run a franchise please buy this team?

[*jason*]

(Yesterday, 05:12 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Yeah, it wasn't a given on Tee especially. He didn't have a good RAS at all and I guess that is why he even fell to us in the 2nd round.

I didn't expect Tee to fall out of the 2nd even with the poor RAS/combine though, he was that good with Clemson.

Lot's wanted Sewell over Chase, lots. Both were great picks though looking back.

Tee just shows that RAS isn't everything (don't get me wrong,bits important and I wish our O line especially graded higher). Higgins has traits that can't be taught, and watching him in college had me pretty excited when we landed him. Trevor Lawrence hasn't looked so "generational" without Tee Higgins... Just sayin'.

[*jason*]

(Yesterday, 07:21 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: As a note to the OP, the common letter grading scale should have "C" as average, having Outstanding and Excellent as A and B is a little redundant, and no need for "O".

A = Excellence, outstanding work
B = Good, better than most
C = Average, can do better
D = Poor, get someone else in charge
F = Failure, can somebody who can run a franchise please buy this team?

Agreed, and by that standard I give em a D. They're hard-headed, and suck at drafting.

[Stewy]

Don't care

[*bengalfan74*]

(Yesterday, 07:21 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: As a note to the OP, the common letter grading scale should have "C" as average, having Outstanding and Excellent as A and B is a little redundant, and no need for "O".

A = Excellence, outstanding work
B = Good, better than most
C = Average, can do better
D = Poor, get someone else in charge
F = Failure, can somebody who can run a franchise please buy this team?

I voted "D" - poor

[Nicomo Cosca]

(Yesterday, 07:34 PM)jason Wrote: Tee just shows that RAS isn't everything (don't get me wrong,bits important and I wish our O line especially graded higher). Higgins has traits that can't be taught, and watching him in college had me pretty excited when we landed him. Trevor Lawrence hasn't looked so "generational" without Tee Higgins... Just sayin'.

He’ll be officially out of excuses on that front this season. Brian Thomas Jr and Travis Hunter is a pretty nasty WR duo for any QB.

[SunsetBengal]

(Yesterday, 08:19 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: He’ll be officially out of excuses on that front this season. Brian Thomas Jr and Travis Hunter is a pretty nasty WR duo for any QB.

Yeah, the Jags front office just might be as dysfunctional as the Bengals FO. Their fans must be livid over how they've wasted the entire rookie contract of Lawrence, whose now on his 3rd HC, not to mention OC or QBC. However, Lawrence did have life relatively easy in his days at Clemson. They were loaded on both sides of the ball, he has not adjusted well to life in the NFL.

[XsandOs]

1) Given that cap management is directly tied to roster, I would rank them as C. Aside from Bates and Reader, losing Ogunjobi was a miss. Losing Uzomah was a miss.

However; 2023 was a lost season whether Bates, Larry O, or Uzomah were still with us. The calf injury to start the season was the beginning of an injury filled season.

2) Drafting, is a B from my perspective, purely due to Burrow, Tee and Chase. But, drafting as a part of cap management strategy/roster replenishment beyond those three, is at D. It is important to consider when to draft a replacement - given that it takes at least a year to prepare for the NFL game and learn the scheme. So timing is as important as the player. Unsuccessful at drafting replacements for Bates, Reader, Larry O and Uzomah.

3) Free agency grade of B. Hendrickson, Reader, Slaton, Hill (trade), Larry O, Orlando Brown, Karras, Chidobe, Gisecki, Cappa, Perine, have all been great.

With all that said, we have a three to four year window with the core we have. If we can extend Trey, sign Stewart, Mims developes and this year's draft pans out, I could see a SB trophy.

EDIT: In all fairness, I give the Browns credit for at least bringing some respectability to our Team. Small market issues do matter. Signing Tee and Chase, when the vultures were circling above deserves some respect. If they can sign Trey and get Stewart signed, that would be great. If they get a quality G on top, that would be excellent. 

[Luvnit2]

(Yesterday, 07:21 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: As a note to the OP, the common letter grading scale should have "C" as average, having Outstanding and Excellent as A and B is a little redundant, and no need for "O".

A = Excellence, outstanding work
B = Good, better than most
C = Average, can do better
D = Poor, get someone else in charge
F = Failure, can somebody who can run a franchise please buy this team?

As I mentioned to another poster, fair enough and tried to update poll options but couldn't.

Also, just an FYI as I know you are no fan of the FO which is fine, but why not also point out I had 2 extremely bad options redundent. Basically , 6 options, 3 bad options  and 3 average and above.

i did my own thing and have faith an intelligent board could adapt. I also used PR rankings commonly used in business for the top 5 I listed.

[jj22]

This 5 year run started off strong. But it’s been trending downward with the draft and FA failures. They were always going to re-sign Burrow and Chase. Give credit for Tee. But they lost a lot of talent over the span to get these deals done. And it’s been back to back drama filled offseasons and we are still talking getting over slow starts…

For this I have to give this run an overall average. It can change if we hit on any FA and draft picks. But that’ll be this season going forward.

[Luvnit2]

(Yesterday, 11:10 PM)jj22 Wrote: This 5 year run started off strong. But it’s been trending downward with the draft and FA failures. They were always going to re-sign Burrow and Chase. Give credit for Tee. But they lost a lot of talent over the span to get these deals done. And it’s been back to back drama filled offseasons and we are still talking getting over slow starts…

For this I have to give this run an overall average. It can change if we hit on any FA and draft picks. But that’ll be this season going forward.

Actually we started off with a 4-12-1 record Burrow's first year. Then 2 playoff runs and then 2 winning records and no playoffs.

Let's hope they get back to the playoffs this year.

[*bfine32*]

Well, if we're not allowed to consider the good moves, then my score's going to be lower.

[Isaac Curtis: The Real #85]

The poll is flawed. C is average. There isn't anything below F.

A: Excellent
B: Good
C: Average
D: Poor
F: Bad

I will go C.

The best work was in 2020, which is now 6 years ago.

But '21 & '22 were still excellent or good at worst. '23 and '24 and '25 were average at best, and more likely worse than that. '24 was D/F.

This year isn't over yet. And itcis impossible grade yet.

But it is trending south, for sure. Though if a Trey deal gets done and Stewart is in by start of camp, it can't be worse than a C, despite the poor cap management, a poor draft/fail to trade down, and it is probably a B. B+ if we land one more starter level FA late.

And the draft grade could look a lot better once these guys play. If Stewart learns to tackle and Fairchild is a legit starter, it will look a lot better.

2025:
Coaching changes: B/we'll see
Star extensions/retention: C
Own FA/retentions: B+
Outside FA's: C
Draft: D (we'll see)
Cap management: D

[Luvnit2]

(Yesterday, 11:39 PM)Isaac Curtis: The Real #85 Wrote: The poll is flawed. C is average. There isn't anything below F.

A: Excellent
B: Good
C: Average
D: Poor
F: Bad

I will go C.

The best work was in 2020, which is now 6 years ago.

But '21 & '22 were still excellent or good at worst. '23 and '24 and '25 were average at best, and more likely worse than that. '24 was D/F.

This year isn't over yet. And itcis impossible grade yet.

But it is trending south, for sure. Though if a Trey deal gets done and Stewart is in by start of camp, it can't be worse than a C, despite the poor cap management, a poor draft/fail to trade down, and it is probably a B. B+ if we land one more starter level FA late.

And the draft grade could look a lot better once these guys play. If Stewart learns to tackle and Fairchild is a legit starter, it will look a lot better.

2025:
Coaching changes: B/we'll see
Star extensions/retention: C
Own FA/retentions: B+
Outside FA's: C
Draft: D (we'll see)
Cap management: D

hmmm...............

A - Outstaning. 0 0%
B- Excellent      2 8.33%
C - Good*.        8 33.33%
D - Average      12 50.00%
F - Unaccptable/Poor   1 4.17%
O - that just flat out suck   1 4.17%
Total 24 vote(s)

[t3r3e3]

I’d go D-Average, but in most scales it’d be a C. They’ve hit on some easier picks, but have wasted half of their first round picks on guys who don’t see the field or haven’t contributed much. The second round is arguably worse, the 3rd round a dumpster fire. Free agency at the start of the 5 year period was great, but lately it’s been of so good. The unwillingness to put an upper tier line in front of Burrow cost the team a Super Bowl win and decreased opportunities to get back in subsequent years. Finally, they’re still rocking a scouting department smaller than most college programs. Having the league’s smallest scouting/development department while eschewing a draft-heavy team building philosophy seems foolhardy at best. Scouts are relatively cheap, but not as cheap as Mike and the Family.

[CJD]

I was tempted to give an F, but they at least did the right thing and drafted then extended the big 3.

But their drafting has been woeful since 2020 (with one obvious exception at the top of 2021). Beyond that, it seems they have made the wrong choice repeatedly. And not just in hindsight. Carman, Carter, Volson, Jackson, and Burton were all considered clear multi-round reaches on the day that they were selected.

Their free agency has been fairly ineffective the past 2 years. This may have been due to the contract extensions with Burrow, Chase and Higgins, but they consistently leave gaping holes on the roster heading into the draft. And, in some cases, even after the draft. Examples include allowing DJ Reader to leave last season and not signing  a NT and cutting Cappa (which was the correct move) and then only signing back up guards in his place. They somewhat rectified the first issue by signing TJ Slaton, but they already cut Sheldon Rankins, who they paid more money to than Reader received. So they could have just re-signed Reader and avoided all of this.

And there is a new holdout every single off season. Now we're even triggering holdouts from the rookies!

They don't use void years or manipulate the cap very well, they're notoriously unwilling to give guaranteed money past year 1 for most players, which results in losing a lot of good players (Such as Jessie Bates).

They reportedly underbid players who would otherwise be happy to play for the Bengals (in positions of need, no less) such as Kevin Zeitler and Joe Thuney.

They front load contracts for no discernable reason other than to say they don't have the money to sign X or Y (See Geoff Hobson's annual article about how, once you account for rookies, and injuries and roll over, they only have 10 dollars to spent, despite having 30 million in cap space). The biggest example of that is the Chase and Higgins deals, where they left their cap hits unnecessarily high in 2025, and have yet to sign an actual starting guard.

In just about every aspect of their roles, they are either underperforming or woefully inept.

[Soonerpeace]

(Yesterday, 11:25 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Actually we started off with a 4-12-1 record Burrow's first year. Then 2 playoff runs and then 2 winning records and no playoffs.

Let's hope they get back to the playoffs this year.

In ‘23 we almost made it with a strong showing with backup Browning. Last year was most disappointing. They underachieved plain and simple. But I’m more optimistic than some. But a lot falls on Golden. 

[Whatever]

(Yesterday, 06:52 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I can see why you would give them a B for two years of success and amassing wins. However, the past 3 years they have really dropped off by not re-signing guys like Jesse Bates, continuing to have high draft picks fail to launch, splurging too much money on the WR position, and now looking like a kids lemonade stand next to a New Car Dealership when it comes to botching the contract situations with Trey Hendrickson (top 5 player at his position) and their 1st round draft pick (selected to replace the other DE that had to retire), and not to mention failing to do enough to attract the needed outside money to have the cash available to finance modern written contracts. All in all, I give them a D = Average.

Every team in the league loses star players in FA.  That's just the nature of a salary cap league.  Bates is about the one of these that has produced with his new team.  You can argue Reader, but he backslid quite a bit in Detroit and is being talked about as a cut candidate.  Knowing when to let a guy walk is actually a sign of good management, but it's also fair to say they haven't had a lot of success so far with many of the replacements.

Contract drama happens with every team.  Look at the Cowboys and Micah Parsons.  Look at the Steelers and the Rodgers odyssey.  Look at Baltimore with Lamarr.  Look at the Bills with Diggs.  KC and Chris Jones.  Trey's situation isn't much different than your typical "I wanna get paid" drama that unfolds yearly.  Stewart, yeah, that's an out of the box situation.

I think the biggest screw ups have been philosophical issues with coaches.  Lou and his stubborn insistence to run a complicated defense when the club was trying to go through a youth movement on defense and Pollack and his outdated "Glass Eaters" crap that sounded good to fans, but resulted in a lot of cap dollars and draft picks going to the OL with only marginal improvements.

[*ochocincos*]

I was inclined to go D, but I went C because they did get deals done with all of Burrow, Chase, and Higgins.
I haven't been a huge fan of the past two drafts, but this org can prove me wrong this year.
I also was not a fan of the FA haul this year or last year.
With that said, we have to factor in since 2021, so the two deep playoff runs do offset these past couple bad years for me personally.

[Frank Booth]

I give them an A

for Abhorrent