What do you think the Bengals WILL DO this offseason?

[*rfaulk34*]

(03-04-2023, 01:45 PM)Stewy Wrote: I don't follow what goes on as much as the rest of you, but what I expect is that, since the Bengals showed that they were willing to break their mold and go get quality lineman in FA, i would be entirely unsurprised if they didn't do the same this FA and make a single bigger splash than the three last year.  You have to protect the franchise.  The OL potentially cost us two Super Bowls and the window is now and the Bengals FO isn't full of idiots.  

In regard to the potential of the "cuts" opportunities, we'll have to see.  There's always surprises as to who gets cut, so we won't know who until we know.  Perhaps there will be no surprises at OT, perhaps so.  We have to wait and see.  Though I am sure Duke and the FO's plan is better than "Hope that quality OT gets cut and we can sign him".

I get the feeling that they're trying to keep last year's team intact as much as possible. I can see that line of thinking for the short term but i don't know that it's the best for the longer term. Having to pay the guys they'll have to pay means they're going to have to lose something down the road, or they're going to lose someone down the road because they can't pay everyone. 

I love Tee as much as the next guy but i love the team being as successful as they can even more. You simply can't pay Burrow, Chase and Tee their market value and build a competitive team like they've had the last 2 years, going forward--unless those guys get together and agree that they're going to take less than market value. 

There is still a ways to go before we see how this year's team is put together but there are a lot of big decisions to make. They already said they weren't trading Tee, so that means Burrow is getting paid, Tee is getting paid, Chase is getting paid next year and Mixon already has a big contract. If they're not willing to restructure Mixon's contract or cut him, it will turn into a team that is very offensive-heavy on contracts. That means the defense is going to have to suffer. If that happens, they're going to have to have a large number of hits in the draft and/or find some FA defenders on lesser contracts and hope they hit the same way they did with the guys from the last couple years. 

All of that said, paying all those offensive guys doesn't mean much if you can't protect the QB. I agree that their plan will be better than hoping a quality OT gets cut but the last 2 years have shown that their ability to identify and fix the Oline has not been good. They were decent before injuries hit, but woefully weak on the bench, which ended the season without a ring for the second year in a row. Two of the guys that got hurt have a history of injuries (Williams, Collins) and one was a fluke, so you can't think the line is "fixed" and not have better quality guys coming off the bench.

As unpopular as the prospect of trading Tee is, doing that and cutting or restructuring Mixon seems to be the best way to be able to keep and build several other areas, most notably, focusing on a line that can pass protect and open holes for the running game. 

Great, after typing all that out i now find myself moving back towards 'i don't give a **** mode' again because it's just starting to feel more like they're doing this in the wrong way and we're just in store for more close calls and disappointment in the end. Still a lot of time for things to change and for it to come together and look better then than it does now. We'll see...