6 hours ago
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.
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.
![[Image: oN5QAdY.png]](https://i.imgur.com/oN5QAdY.png)
