Grade the current (last 5 years) FO

[*ochocincos*]

(Yesterday, 01:15 PM)ERIC1 Wrote: And yet over the past four years with significant injuries to burrow and othey key offensive and defensive players...the bengals have one of the better winning records in the NFL

And over the past two years, Bengals are tied for 15th, right middle of the pack.
The Bengals have a downward trajectory since their 2021 Super Bowl run.
The worry by some (most?) fans is are the Bengals trending downward just because of injuries, or is it because they have continually lost key guys in FA and haven't done a good job backfilling them across the past couple seasons?

It's no secret this past offseason has been "unexciting," to be nice.
Their big FA additions were a run-stuffing NT (Slaton) and an IOL who hadn't been a planned Day 1 starter at OG since 2020 (Patrick).
Their early draft picks were a highly boom-or-bust DE (Stewart) and 2-down LB (Knight).
Their biggest offseason moves have been trying to keep their own talent, which doesn't make the team better, just helps keep it closer to the same as it was.

The Bengals may prove people wrong and these additions may really elevate them back into a (deep) playoff run, but until we see them perform on the field, it's ok to be unexcited.