The #Cardinals also requested an interview with #Bengals OC Brian Callahan for their head coaching job, per source. Callahan also is a candidate for the #Colts job.
Originally Posted by tredadda:
Agreed, but it’s going to come down to whether Cincinnati gets what they feel is fair value. Worst case is they hold on to him and he goes full Ramsey or Watson.
Tee doesn't have that type of personality but he does have that type of agent... [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
If you end up with that defense, you're gonna go 9-8 and struggle to make the playoffs.
They drafted Dax Hill last year (with eyes toward Bates being gone) and they have a couple guys that started to show promise late on the Dline. Davis-Gaither is a very athletic LB and the dropoff from Pratt wouldn't be too far.
As long as they can protect the QB, they will be fine. Even in the games where Burrow has had to run for his life, and there's been a lot of them, they're at least in the game. They've averaged 27 and 26ppg the last 2 years and that's with mostly a porous offensive line. [Reply]
Originally Posted by rfaulk34:
Tee Higgins isn't the #1 receiver on the Bengals. If he's gone, we have more picks and Chase gets more balls thrown his way.
While true....that also means that Chase isn't getting singled much anymore because he won't have Higgins opposite of him to draw attention. [Reply]
Originally Posted by rfaulk34:
They're going to regress. Bates will be gone. Pratt may be gone. Reader is getting up there in age.
Their focus needs to be on protecting Burrow so those 30+ shootouts are more likely to happen.
I agree with you that Cincy should probably go all in with the offensive side of the ball. They have the key pieces there with Burrow & Chase...maybe Higgins if he won't get too greedy. Like you said, the OL is a critical element. Cincy ran into the same unhealthy OL problem during this Playoff run that killed the Chiefs in their Tampa Super Bowl a couple years ago.
Even great playcalling and a great QB are gonna struggle if the OL is getting killed on every play. KC's OL was able to stay healthy this time around and it paid off in a huge way for them during this Playoff run, especially last night against a pretty awesome Eagles pass rushing unit. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
Joe Mixon is gone too, they'll save 10 mill cutting him and honestly he's declining now.
In today's NFL, there is absolutely no reason at all to spend a lot of money on RB's. The ONLY one you would consider doing that for is a young Derrick Henry type, but even then, I'm still not sure that makes a lot of sense - especially if you have an Elite QB. [Reply]
Originally Posted by The Franchise:
While true....that also means that Chase isn't getting singled much anymore because he won't have Higgins opposite of him to draw attention.
Coverage isn't hard to break. They just need to go more motion. Last couple years, they've done very little of that or any kind of window dressing. If more coverage goes his way, they'll need to adjust that line of thinking. They did start doing it more late in the year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DRM08:
I agree with you that Cincy should probably go all in with the offensive side of the ball. They have the key pieces there with Burrow & Chase...maybe Higgins if he won't get too greedy. Like you said, the OL is a critical element. Cincy ran into the same unhealthy OL problem during this Playoff run that killed the Chiefs in their Tampa Super Bowl a couple years ago.
Even great playcalling and a great QB are gonna struggle if the OL is getting killed on every play. KC's OL was able to stay healthy this time around and it paid off in a huge way for them during this Playoff run, especially last night against a pretty awesome Eagles pass rushing unit.
Yep.
Bengals season ended 2 years in a row because of the line. '21 was just a shit show, especially in the playoffs and '22 was ok until they lost 3 starters in 3 games at the end of the year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by rfaulk34:
Coverage isn't hard to break. They just need to go more motion. Last couple years, they've done very little of that or any kind of window dressing. If more coverage goes his way, they'll need to adjust that line of thinking. They did start doing it more late in the year.
It's my #1 criticism of Taylor.
Just a LITTLE bit of Andy Reid-type creativity and the Bengals offense could be waaaaay better than it is.
Why doesn't he like pre-snap motion? Does he not understand it very well or something? Sheesh, can you imagine Chase and Higgins if they got mismatches even 20-30% more of the time? [Reply]
Originally Posted by RealSNR:
It's my #1 criticism of Taylor.
Just a LITTLE bit of Andy Reid-type creativity and the Bengals offense could be waaaaay better than it is.
Why doesn't he like pre-snap motion? Does he not understand it very well or something? Sheesh, can you imagine Chase and Higgins if they got mismatches even 20-30% more of the time?
I think that's a Burrow thing and i believe there's some hubris involved. Burrow likes to have everything in front of him, set, so he can read the defensive alignment. It's part of the reason he was so slow to want to use play action from under center.
Some motion is necessary to get guys moving and declare man or zone. They do a basic amount of that, but they don't yet move guys to create space or mismatches. Well, they actually did with Chase from mid-season on but i think that will change this year. They should evolve and use more motion and shifts.
The last TD in the KC/Cin game was a good example where they had Chase in the backfield and Evan out wide to cause confusion. [Reply]