03-24-2025, 11:42 AM
(03-24-2025, 10:28 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Many of our own fans are trashing the FO. Some are calling us Bungles, same name used by our enemies to trash us. ESPN ranks the Bengals as the 7th best tem in the NFL rght now. They finished 18th in 2024.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/44329752/nfl-power-rankings-offseason-post-free-agency-poll-2025-radar-move
Maybe we do have hope in 2025 in spite of the naysayers opinions.
I think it has more to do with us NOT losing Tee. Which a lot of the dumb@ss national media expected for some reason. When that did not happen, and with us showing no interest in moving Trey, our "outlook" improved.
Like with Trey, we would have done an obviously lopsided deal for Tee (Herschel Walker, Ricky Williams). But we have/had exactly zero interest in a "fair" trade for Trey/Tee.
But we have improved, marginally. The only real positive contributors we lost are Hilton (still unsugned) and ADG. I don't put Rankins/Hubbard/Cappa is that category.
Even so, I think Burks is an ADG upgrade, and Patrick a Cappa upgrade. More versatile and cheaper. Slaton is a different player than Rankins, NT v 3T, but he should start next to Hill and it is hard to see how we get less out of him that we got out of Rankins last year. And for half the cap hit. Dax will not be as good vs the run as Hilton. But will be better in coverage. A bit of a drop there, but not a lot. Except for Hubbard at DE2, we have upgraded or cone close to a wash for all those guys. And the way Hubbard was playing at the end, I think giving Ossai/Murphy those snaps, or even Sample/Johnson, will be an improvement. At least in terms of pass rush.
Logan Wilson, Turner, Dax Hill, Rankins, McPherson, and Cam Sample were all out by the tail end of last year. Having those guys back, plus Slaton for Rankins, should help us.
We retained Gesicki, Hill, & Ossai. And a lot of the useful depth pieces & special teams guys (Rehkow, Adomitis, Hudson, Grandy, M. Wilson, Kirkland, etc.).
And hoping for some younger guys leveling up is not unreasonable. Ossai showed real signs last year. As did Turner & Dax pre-injury. Yoshi also improved and could again. A leap from Mims, Battle, Jenkins, Jackson, & Murphy is also possible.
CTB, Pratt, & Stone not sucking as bad as they did for stretches last year would also help. Or Burton being less of a knucklehead. And I hope Golden & the new coaches help some.
Now, will ALL that happen? Of course not. But a chunk certainly could.
I think we are marginally better and have not had a big loss yet. But with Trey still unresolved I cannot go higher than C+. Especially since we failed to maximize cap space on the Tee/Chase deals AND have not gotten a Burrow restructure done. I'd probably mark us down to C/C- for the contract structure stuff. But slight improvement on field
Extend Trey and sign a starter quality RG or a good vet depth piece on D and we are in B-/B territory. Both and it is B/B+.
Get a Burrow restructure done AND add more pieces on top of that, and we have an A.
