{The Ultimate Bengals Offseason Extravaganza Thread}

[lone bengal]

(03-29-2025, 02:36 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: For those who said we are virtually the same now as before free agency, I don't agree.

Prior to FA
Needed 2 DT's
Needed a #2 WR (until we tagged Tee and even then many like me thought it was a tag and trade)
Needed multipe DE's
Needed 2 starting guards and also backup OG
Needed a special teams LB since we lost one
Needed a at least 1 TE
Needed to lock yp Chase long term

Now
We siged Hill and Slater so need no DT
Signed Tee to 4 year contract
Signed a LB for special teams
Signed 2 TE's
Locked up Chase long term
Signed 1 backup guard Ford and signed Patrick to compete (probably against rookie guard and Ford)

I understand many want to say well a lot of those guys were on the roster in 2024 which is true.
Rankins - did produced nothing in 2024, so if Slayter does anything, it is a huge upgrade
Hill - was solid so glad he did nt go elsewhere, he was a FA and coud have left if FO did not lock him up
Hubbard did little to nothing in 2024, we have 3 guys competing to relace his production who were on the roster in 2024 and all are young so hopefully improve.
Cappas was won of worst guards in the NFL, if it is Patrick, he is an upgrade
We locked up Tee and Chae long term, if no Tee, we needed a #2 WR to replace him
We signed 2 TE's, one of them seemed to get better with Burrow as the season progressed.

OurDB room was decimated by injury as we lost 2 starting CB's to injury, good news is Newton got valuable experience to be a valuable back up or challenge outside of Hill becomes our slot CB.

As of now, we have lost little from the 2024 roster, the sae can't be said for a lot of teams including Ravens and the Chiefs.

If you look at our off season thus far, we are slightly better while many teams are worse to slightly worse.

We all have wish lists, but if you look at it as of now, we are in pretty decent shape heading into the draft with some cap space to do more (hopefully at guard) and buid on what has been done ths far.

The only way anyone can say we are worse than 2024 team is to ignore all of the sgnings of our own players.

At the same time I wouldn’t be surprised next season if the guard situation is a disaster. Like oh man I’m shocked Lucas Patrick , Volson and Ford weren’t the answers. Shocked that are rookie guard wasn’t good or ready to play because we’re usally so good at drafting that position. Or that adding Burks and Slaton to the worst D in the league didn’t make a huge difference. And I like those additions. Then at the end of the year I’ll see Kevin Zeitlers good PFF grade and want to jump off a bridge.