FatNate

Heading to the car. 4-min left. Cooper up 19. Start printing the Sully to State tees.

Too well coached. Too much talent. 43-24. Cooper.

End of 3. Cooper. 38-24.

5:06. Q3. All Cooper. 33-17.

Physical defense on walker with plenty sagging support. Making it very hard on the young man. Johnson looks great and he has more help.

At the half. 28-17. Cooper. And it Doesn’t feel that close.

2q. 25-17 Cooper. As expected cooper defensive strategy against walker is outstanding.

14-4 cooper.

It’s only a success if this is one of moves that secure a Super Bowl over the next four years. I do not believe many teams have won Super Bowls with this much of the payroll allocated to two WR, which makes question the process. I hope I am wrong.

No one wants to admit it, but Joe didn’t help the situation during his Super Bowl tour. And it appears the organization (and fans) are so fearful of upsetting him (and the ramifications that could lead too) that they worked to accomplish the things that Joe wanted. Unfortunately, I believe many think this will negatively impact roster building for years. Good drafts and development of our own may help the situation. Who knows what Joe and ownership discussed this off season, but I wish it had been ownership expressing a plan to make the team better and getting Joe on board with that plan. I am not sure if that happened or not? But, on the surface it appears the Bengals formed their plan around Joe’s very public demands. Team was in tough spot and I personally wished they would have went a different route.

I believe we are currently ranked #3 on the percentage of the cap paid to the offense and #26 on the percentage of the cap paid to the defense. To be fair I did not fact check the quote, and I have no idea how the rest of the league ranks, so the stat might be deceiving and/or misleading. I do think we will need to draft well on defense this year and develop all the returning defensive guys. I also think we should be very concerned with the interior of the offensive line. I am glad the deals are done, but I personally do not like that we have so much invested at WR. I understand I am in the minority, and I hope I am wrong.

I agree 100% our team has let us down on how the evaluate, draft, and develop. The way ownership handles contracts has failed to evolve, which is give other teams an advantage over us. I completely believe we have time to make the off season better. I am fine with waiting and seeing. But right now at this second of the off season do any us of feel like this team can win a Super Bowl? That’s the goal right? Unfortunately for many of us, we are happy with finishing second, to a better ran organization in Baltimore, and just making the playoffs.

These sound like the same excuses I have used over the years to cover for the team I love.

Free agency this year is a weak class over all. I get it. But have huge needs. Glaring problems. And we have yet to address any of them. I have interest in Becton and Jenkins that are both left. Honestly, believe bringing in both makes us better, but instead I fearful Cody Ford is line to be a starter next year. I am just most concerned with the entire off season plan. It appears we are going to run back the exact horrible defense with a few new draft picks and a new coach. Ultimately the team is saying it was former DC Lou’s fault. No upgrades planned but expecting better performance from those same guys with only change being the coach. Which after another poor season on defense has a built in excuse — new system. I can already hear Dick Tobin at 2026 combine talking about how good the D will be in year two. By not locking up Trey, Chase, and/or Tee it’s like we are holding back money until get those deals, which means we truly don’t know how much we have available to spend. We will never get what the reports are that the Bengals want in trade for Trey or Higgins, which just adds the commentary of the organization being a clown show. And in my opinion shows that we never had intentions of trading either. I don’t mind Gisicki or Perine, but I also do think either is a difference maker and would have rather went cheaper. I am no NFL expert. Not even close. Hell, I can’t even win my fantasy football league. But, I won’t be fooled again by this ownership group. Nope, not me. They are my team. That isn’t changing. Just sick of making excuses for them. Especially while I watch the Bills get better. The Commanders improve. Just to name a few tha have found ways to make moves to improve this off season. Ultimately, it would be nice to see them try to make one unique or creative move — just one, for once. And please, don’t quote who we were close to getting — we are the Bengals and NO ONE trusts our ownership — you have to overpay or they won’t come! We should know that, so either change the narrative or draft and develop better, so you don’t have to beg free agents to come to Cincinnati.

I agree. They are doing what the Bengals always do. Bringing back guys from last year that were simply not good enough. Signing ‘value’ guys from other teams. Haven’t seen one move that makes me think we have actually made the defense better after day one of free agency. It’s early, plenty of time left. My understanding is that the draft is weak on interior linemen. I expected us to be more aggressive on signing two guards.

I am not saying it’s not a fair deal for DK’s skills. But until the Steelers get a QB his talents will be wasted, plus his personality, along with Pickens could be hard to control. At the end of the day, why pay so much for a WR, when you can’t maximize him, because the QB position is below average.

Slow to react and negotiate contracts just keeps making it more expensive for the Bengals. Trey is going to want $30M.

Tee Higgins money, if we want to sign him long term.

This organization is so frustrating. Makes it hard to be optimistic about the team. I have no faith. None. That the front office leaders are capable of fielding a championship level team year in and year out. Honestly, that isn’t a very bold statement — just look at the history of the organization. Hard to find sustained winning and impossible to find consistent championship level periods. We draft poorly or average at best. We seem to miss on more free agents than we get right. We have no creativity with contracts or deals. We are always behind the league trends with how to manage the cap and build a team. We are cheap. All teams spend the same due to the salary cap, but don’t like to guarantee money or pay upfront. We don’t like to negotiate early for new deals. Not to mention little things that the players expect to be covered by the team, that we don’t. Off season will be interesting and the upcoming years with the stadium should be true fireworks. I live in NKY, so it’s not really my fight, but I am a former season ticket holder (kids happened) and fan. I don’t believe this team deserves a dime of extra taxpayer dollars to fund their new stadium. Last season was so disappointing and wasted. It appears we are starting off this season down the same path. It’s early, I could be wrong. But history agrees with my opinion.

I just don’t feel that Tee is worth $30M. That simple. I don’t like tagging him. I don’t believe we will have the creativity to trade him. I think it’s the same cloud that will hang over the team all summer just like last year. I know Joe wants him back and I think his input should be considered, but if we want to improve the defense and the offensive line we can not spend $70M on two WRs. Time for Joe to elevate an average WR, like he has done with TEs over the last few years. The unfortunate thing is that Joe has been so vocal with the media about this deal it puts a poorly run organization into a corner even more than usual.

I don’t know the 15th that well, but does any one know if these are the 12-best teams in the region, regardless of district? From the outside looking in, it appears to be a format that improves the chances of the eight best teams moving on to the regional tournament. Isn’t that why everyone favors seeding the district tournaments? Which in theory gets the best two teams to the regional, but what if districts with three good teams that deserve it more than a district in the with only one really good team? And, if we are all honest, since two teams move on after district play, doesn’t already feel kind of like a double elimination tournament? I love a lot about Kentucky high school basketball, but I don’t think we should be afraid to tinker with the format, just because it’s been the same for ever. I might argue that is the very reason we might want to consider a few new ideas.

They were referencing an existing NFL rule that it was already illegal but the officials have not been calling it. The source was from the radio but they reading from the rule book. Not sure if the interpretation was correct or not. The rule basically said it was illegal for another offensive player to push the ball carrier. I will leave it up the BGP community to verify that information.

Next level greed.

UK fans make it hard to root for their team. In general I could care less if UK wins or losses. Last night was different though I was rooting for Coach Cal. UK fans had it coming by going out of their way to enjoy Arkansas’ unsuccessful season a little to much. For the UK team it’s just another conference loss (even though the fans built this game up as if it was the national title game) and should have no lasting effect on a flawed UK team that won’t last long when tournament time rolls around.

Bronny would fit in well with Wes and current UC Bearcats team. LeBron’s personal life has been uber successful. No real drama or controversy or trouble. How ever, not letting Bronny do Bronny, seems to be a misstep. However, I do think that we only see the poor play and really don’t know the details behind the scene.