2 minutes ago, BlueBloodedColonel said:

The Bengals will always be the Bengals. Everyone knows what that means. They are a textbook inept organization from top to bottom. I truly do not believe that Burrow will finish his career as a Bengal. Of course, I hope that I am wrong. 

The team signed, in my opinion, band aid players for the defense. The defense will still not be good. 

A 31-year-old journeyman DT at the end of his career, a D end who is no Trey Hendrickson, and a safety who has had some clutch plays, but is no Jesse Bates by any means. 

And Sonny Styles will be a Rookie. Cannot rely on first year players! Too wet behind the ears. 

Maybe I am too pessimistic, but the Bengals were not honest with anyone this offseason when they said they were going to make changes to the roster. At least quality changes. if I am Burrow, I am not happy. 

We are not done yet, let's see what else the Bengals do including the draft and any potential trades.  I still maintain we should have traded Hendrickson and Higgins last year.

From Chatterbox Sports on Facebook and this is beyond my area of expertise:

According to Andre Perrotta, the Cincinnati Bengals received a $7M+ salary cap adjustment for 2026, pushing their adjusted cap total to $317,958,913.

Part of the boost comes from insurance tied to Joe Burrow’s contract after missing nine games, with the rest coming from end-of-season NLTBE/LTBE incentive reconciliation.

Already accounted for are the 2026 cap hits for Bryan Cook ($8.66M) and Boye Mafe ($17M), though the official numbers for Jonathan Allen are still pending.

Under offseason Top 51/53 accounting rules, the Bengals currently have ~$32.4M in cap space (~$18M+ after factoring in draft and in-season costs). ?

2 hours ago, theguru said:

We are not done yet, let's see what else the Bengals do including the draft and any potential trades.  I still maintain we should have traded Hendrickson and Higgins last year.

Agreed. Instead, Hendrickson went for free to the inter-division Ravens. They may not be done, but this defense and the moves made don't scream top 10 defense. 

To go from worst to first is asking a lot as is, but they have to make Burrow happy or we are going to possibly see Carson Palmer 2.0. People don't believe me when I say that. 

 

2 minutes ago, BlueBloodedColonel said:

Agreed. Instead, Hendrickson went for free to the inter-division Ravens. They may not be done, but this defense and the moves made don't scream top 10 defense. 

To go from worst to first is asking a lot as is, but they have to make Burrow happy or we are going to possibly see Carson Palmer 2.0. People don't believe me when I say that. 

 

I hope not on the 2.0 CP version of JB. 

Bengals signed Josh Johnson as their backup qb.

On 3/13/2026 at 12:50 PM, BlueBloodedColonel said:

The Bengals will always be the Bengals. Everyone knows what that means. They are a textbook inept organization from top to bottom. I truly do not believe that Burrow will finish his career as a Bengal. Of course, I hope that I am wrong. 

The team signed, in my opinion, band aid players for the defense. The defense will still not be good. 

A 31-year-old journeyman DT at the end of his career, a D end who is no Trey Hendrickson, and a safety who has had some clutch plays, but is no Jesse Bates by any means. 

And Sonny Styles will be a Rookie. Cannot rely on first year players! Too wet behind the ears. 

Maybe I am too pessimistic, but the Bengals were not honest with anyone this offseason when they said they were going to make changes to the roster. At least quality changes. if I am Burrow, I am not happy. 

I think you are too pessimistic. But I tend to be too optimistic at times so take that comment for what it is worth. The Bengals are a significantly different organization the last 5 years. Still not anywhere close to top tier but much, much better than before.

This year's signings are very solid for me. Safety was a huge need and they got the best safety available. They replaced Hendrickson with Mafe, a player 4 years younger and 40% less costly. Allen is a good value and added experience. That added experience is very important to this defense.

Linebacker was the #2 need IMO and that is the BIG miss right now. But I don't think they are finished. I would like to see what linebackers could be cap casualties and if there is someone they may get that way similar to the Allen signing. Right now they have pigeon holed themselves into drafting Reese or Styles. Another young LB worries me even if it is one of those two.

51 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

I think you are too pessimistic. But I tend to be too optimistic at times so take that comment for what it is worth. The Bengals are a significantly different organization the last 5 years. Still not anywhere close to top tier but much, much better than before.

This year's signings are very solid for me. Safety was a huge need and they got the best safety available. They replaced Hendrickson with Mafe, a player 4 years younger and 40% less costly. Allen is a good value and added experience. That added experience is very important to this defense.

Linebacker was the #2 need IMO and that is the BIG miss right now. But I don't think they are finished. I would like to see what linebackers could be cap casualties and if there is someone they may get that way similar to the Allen signing. Right now they have pigeon holed themselves into drafting Reese or Styles. Another young LB worries me even if it is one of those two.

You are inside my head here VoR, we think a lot alike when it comes to our Bengals.

Who Dey!!

1 hour ago, Voice of Reason said:

I think you are too pessimistic. But I tend to be too optimistic at times so take that comment for what it is worth. The Bengals are a significantly different organization the last 5 years. Still not anywhere close to top tier but much, much better than before.

This year's signings are very solid for me. Safety was a huge need and they got the best safety available. They replaced Hendrickson with Mafe, a player 4 years younger and 40% less costly. Allen is a good value and added experience. That added experience is very important to this defense.

Linebacker was the #2 need IMO and that is the BIG miss right now. But I don't think they are finished. I would like to see what linebackers could be cap casualties and if there is someone they may get that way similar to the Allen signing. Right now they have pigeon holed themselves into drafting Reese or Styles. Another young LB worries me even if it is one of those two.

 

I like your take. I agree on the worry of another young LB. I saw Tavai who was with the Lions and Patriots as a potential low cost LB option? 

A parting shot from Geno.

And a little more.

On 3/13/2026 at 12:50 PM, BlueBloodedColonel said:

The Bengals will always be the Bengals. Everyone knows what that means. They are a textbook inept organization from top to bottom. I truly do not believe that Burrow will finish his career as a Bengal. Of course, I hope that I am wrong. 

The team signed, in my opinion, band aid players for the defense. The defense will still not be good. 

A 31-year-old journeyman DT at the end of his career, a D end who is no Trey Hendrickson, and a safety who has had some clutch plays, but is no Jesse Bates by any means. 

And Sonny Styles will be a Rookie. Cannot rely on first year players! Too wet behind the ears. 

Maybe I am too pessimistic, but the Bengals were not honest with anyone this offseason when they said they were going to make changes to the roster. At least quality changes. if I am Burrow, I am not happy. 

I don't consider Allen a journeyman DT. He played his whole career with one team until last season, and has been one of the better pass rushing DT's in the league majority of his career. Also Trey Hendrickson wasn't Trey Hendrickson until he came to the Bengals. Remember at the time the Bengals signed Trey, many people were wondering why the Bengals didn't give Carl Lawson that deal, because most people preferred Lawson at that time. 

I believe the three signings so far are solid, however the fact that they haven't tried to do even more is worrisome. I have zero idea why they didn't sign a linebacker like Chanel. There were also a few other guys they could have went after. The biggest issue is still how they set up their contracts. The Bengals signings have some of the biggest first year cap hits. There were other guys who signed bigger deals, yet the cap hit for this year is bigger. So the Bengals prevent themselves from being able to go all in and get even more guys, by how they set up their contracts. Which is probably why they didn't sign anyone else. 

The Bengals Front office has improved a lot over the years in doing more things, however, they also still get in their own way. Both Burrow and Chase even mentioned they would have been willing to restructure their deals, if it helped create more space for this year. We have seen other teams do that, but yet the Bengals haven't even done that. I know they probably are wanting to try to extend some of their own like DJ Turner and Dax Hill. Which they could have done that and still signed more if they would have structured contracts differently, and also restructured Burrow and Chase. 

I doubt this is the reason, but I am hoping maybe they haven't signed anyone else is because they are trying to make a big time trade for a Crosby or a Jeffrey Simmons. Other than that, it is silly how the Bengals won't get out of their own way and truly won't ever go all in. At this point stop worrying about the future, and go all in these next two years and try to get a super bowl, and then figure it out from there. 

 

On 3/17/2026 at 4:51 PM, nkypete said:

 

My dreams have come true. Good riddance. 

Bengals signed Flacco. They must be worried about Burrow getting hurt again!

5 hours ago, MaddenCurse44 said:

Bengals signed Flacco. They must be worried about Burrow getting hurt again!

They're just covering their hindside.