Day 2 of FA - How is everyone feeling?

[GreenDragon]

Day 2 of FA is basically in the books.
How is everyone feeling, given the signings we've seen thus far?

GONE
Jessie Bates to Atlanta
Bell to Carolina
Perine to Denver
Hurst to Carolina

BACK
Germaine Pratt
Trent Taylor
Traveon Williams

NEW in Stripes
Orlando Brown
Cody Ford


Feeling good about the future?

[Brownshoe]

I'm feeling pretty good. I feel like we could still bring in someone like CJGJ too, which IMO would be an upgrade over Bates. I feel like Bates was overrated. A good safety, but not one of the best in the league. The only thing that I was disappointed with was losing Bell since he was a solid and was on the cheaper end. The only thing I can think is that they really trust Dax Hill and are going to find a vet in FA (CJGJ).

[Murdock2420]

It's nice to see the team is still focused on the weak spot of the roster and trying to secure the OL for Burrow. They build a good enough line and as much as I love Tee, neither he nor Chase would be needed for a championship. Elite QB with a stout line and they can sign mid tier WR's that will elevate with Joe's play and be in great shape.

Be nice to see them add a veteran safety or TE but after those two spots, hard to be down on the team at all. And the TE and S don't have to be top tier guys, just solid guys to contribute.

[Hammerstripes]

I'm still concerned about our S, TE and RT. Would still like to see a vet added at those spots before the draft.

[*Go Cards*]

Feeling good and excited about the OL

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

I am feeling good. The Orlando Brown signing was maybe the biggest FA signing ever for us and giving him a 31 million dollar
signing bonus (most ever) was anything but conservative. We are wanting to win it all now. Getting Pratt back with that great
deal gives us some more scratch to spread around at the other roster spots where good players left and we can still upgrade at
all of these positions pretty easily and the guys are out there. Get Gardner-Johnson in here, Moreau, Darius Slay, Eluemunor
and a Guard like Risner and we are sitting pretty going into the Draft.

Heck, we could just get a couple of these guys and I am still feeling good after the Brown signing.

[*Nately120*]

[ezekiel23]

Can’t believe Mike Brown is pulling the trigger like this.This isn’t like him.I love it.Address the biggest need first.I even like the Cody Ford signing.

[bengals67]

Feeling great!

We signed the best free agent out there who fits our needs.

Keep dreaming of Burrow with a top 5 o line. OMG.

I bitched about bengals management for 20 years but this is a new day.

[OSUfan]

Never felt bad about free agency.

[OSUfan]

(03-16-2023, 08:18 PM)Hammerstripes Wrote: I'm still concerned about our S, TE and RT.  Would still like to see a vet added at those spots before the draft.

Safety - they do have two vets in Michael Thomas and Brandon Wilson. However, Hill and Anderson are the future and should be the starters. How do people expect player to show their abilities when they are not on the field during games? No one would have had any idea what they had in Bates if he didn't get on the field.

RT - Jonah Williams, Jackson Carman, D'ante Smith, Hakeem Adeniji...not to mention they have Ford listed at OT.

TE - They have vet Devin Asiasi. (Wilcox may well be back)

[tms]

(03-17-2023, 08:45 AM)OSUfan Wrote: Safety - they do have two vets in Michael Thomas and Brandon Wilson. However, Hill and Anderson are the future and should be the starters. How do people expect player to show their abilities when they are not on the field during games? No one would have had any idea what they had in Bates if he didn't get on the field.

RT - Jonah Williams, Jackson Carman, D'ante Smith, Hakeem Adeniji...not to mention they have Ford listed at OT.

TE - They have vets in Mitchell Wilcox and Devin Asiasi

Not sure if serious haha

[Millhouse]

Feeling good. On offense need to shore up both TE and RB. TE shouldn't be that hard to do, but finding a capable RB that can be efficient at both running the ball and pass blocking won't be so easy, even if Mixon stays.

[OSUfan]

(03-17-2023, 08:54 AM)tms Wrote: Not sure if serious haha

Not sure why you can't figure out if this is serious. The information is accurate is it not? Are these players not depth and veterans? Your confusion confuses me. Veterans are veteran if someone wants a high end starter at every single depth position they should state this unrealistic intent.

[Soonerpeace]

I’m usually optimistic but it’s too soon for me. I read somewhere that Joe Burrow when only sacked 1 time or less in a game is undefeated. OBJ is going to help. The continuity of the OL will help. I think that between Jonah, Carman, and Collins we get better RT play. I’d draft a RT at 1. But we seem to be trending towards a TE @ 1. There’s some future all pros in this draft. But safety is a worry. As my good friend Leopard Leap said are we as good as last year? He’s right we aren’t, yet. But last year we were no doubt better the first day of FA. Today I don’t think we are close. But as we know from late Wednesday night things change quickly.

I do have faith in the organization that they are focused and determined to make the Bengals a Super Bowl Champ.

[OSUfan]

(03-17-2023, 09:29 AM)Soonerpeace Wrote: I’m usually optimistic but it’s too soon for me. I read somewhere that Joe Burrow when only sacked 1 time or less in a game is undefeated. OBJ is going to help. The continuity of the OL will help. I think that between Jonah, Carman, and Collins we get better RT play. I’d draft a RT at 1. But we seem to be trending towards a TE @ 1. There’s some future all pros in this draft. But safety is a worry. As my good friend Leopard Leap said are we as good as last year? He’s right we aren’t, yet. But last year we were no doubt better the first day of FA. Today I don’t think we are close. But as we know from late Wednesday night things change quickly.

I do have faith in the organization that they are focused and determined to make the Bengals a Super Bowl Champ.

Why is safety a worry? Do you realize how we got Jessie Bates? We drafted him. Last year we drafted both Dax Hill and Tycen Anderson both of which Lou Anarumo was excited to bring into the safety room.

[Soonerpeace]

(03-17-2023, 09:32 AM)OSUfan Wrote: Why is safety a worry? Do you realize how we got Jessie Bates? We drafted him. Last year we drafted both Dax Hill and Tycen Anderson both of which Lou Anarumo was excited to bring into the safety room.

Safety is a worry until I see who’s there. Absolutely like Dax Hill and hearing they are really high on Tycen. But horribly inexperienced. The chemistry between Vonn and Jesse contributed greatly to the defense. Even if Dax & who starts next to him play well I don’t think they will be right out the gate. Safety is the last line of defense. Just like we defended Volson for the first few games for having to go up against Heyward and some others if they struggle it’s potentially more damaging.

[tms]

(03-17-2023, 09:24 AM)OSUfan Wrote: Not sure why you can't figure out if this is serious. The information is accurate is it not? Are these players not depth and veterans? Your confusion confuses me. Veterans are veteran if someone wants a high end starter at every single depth position they should state this unrealistic intent.

Hey I"m a gaslighting expert. You're doing a swell job. Keep it up haha

[*ochocincos*]

(03-17-2023, 09:24 AM)OSUfan Wrote: Not sure why you can't figure out if this is serious. The information is accurate is it not? Are these players not depth and veterans? Your confusion confuses me. Veterans are veteran if someone wants a high end starter at every single depth position they should state this unrealistic intent.

A good amount of these guys are bad.

Adeniji - Straight trash, homie. We've seen enough over his 3 years that I would be happy if he doesn't make the team
Asiasi - Why would people be excited about this guy? He has 4 receptions in 3 years. He's basically nothing more than a TE3
Smith - Couldn't get on the field over Adeniji...no confidence there
Wilson - Basically just a ST guy. Been in the league 6 years and shown basically nothing on defense
Ford - Performed about as poorly as Adeniji in his career. Was not a good pass blocker whatsoever. You're more just hoping that if he sticks, he was just in a bad scheme/position and Pollack will be able to get more out of him. But he's not coming in with proven solid-or-better performance.

So it's not surprising that some fans are not excited about the depth the current team has.
That lack of depth is why the Bengals right side OL got steamrolled in the playoffs.

[*ochocincos*]

(03-17-2023, 08:45 AM)OSUfan Wrote: Safety - they do have two vets in Michael Thomas and Brandon Wilson. However, Hill and Anderson are the future and should be the starters. How do people expect player to show their abilities when they are not on the field during games? No one would have had any idea what they had in Bates if he didn't get on the field.

RT - Jonah Williams, Jackson Carman, D'ante Smith, Hakeem Adeniji...not to mention they have Ford listed at OT.

TE - They have vet Devin Asiasi. (Wilcox may well be back)

Sure, you can force someone into the starting role, but I don't think many people would feel comfortable with a late-round pick (Anderson) getting the start like that. People would be more comfortable if they started seeing him get maybe 5-10 defensive snaps a game and ramp up more slowly.
Bates (and Hill for that matter) had different expectations because of being an early-round pick. It's expected that you have (way) more capability if you're selected that early.
Yes, there are guys who are taken early that flop and there are guys that are taken late that blossom into a good players. But it's still (much) more common for late rounders to not become anything more than a long-term backup or ST-only guy in their NFL career, assuming they even can stick on a roster after a couple years.