Cincinnati Bengals’ Injuries Impacting Depth: Will They Make a Move?

The Cincinnati Bengals are starting to shuffle their depth chart in reaction to preseason game number one and some injuries. And we see better than we hear. Let’s talk about it. You are Locked On Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked On Bengals podcast. Part of the locked on podcast network your team every day. I’m Jake Lisco. He’s James Rapin and we are locked on Bengals. We’ve been covering the Cincinnati Bengals here on this podcast since 2016. And if you’re looking to become an everydayer, shout out to all of you who already are. Make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube or anywhere you get your podcast to make sure you don’t miss an episode of this show. and you can make us your first listen to get into all those great listening habits. Today, James, we’re going to dive into all the movement on the Cincinnati Bengals depth chart as they react to some injuries, namely Gino Stone at safety and what we’re seeing with the shuffle on the offensive line after preseason game number one. A lot of movement as we’ve watched two Bengals practices now after that first preseason game in this episode brought to the people by Game Time. You can download the Game Time app and when you’re looking for tickets, use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. James, what stood out to you the most as we’re catching up on injuries? I think it probably starts with Gino Stone. Joseph Osai also missing time after dealing with an injury in the first play of 11 on 111 on Saturday. He did not practice on Sunday. Between those two spots, are you thinking safety first? Well, bigger question, Mark. Absolutely. I I I think it’s interesting because in a way, and I guess you could sell this on both positions, but for the Joseph Osai injury, it forces Shamar Stewart to get a ton of reps and reps and reps and reps, and he was exhausted after Saturday’s practice. Sunday was a bit lighter from a team standpoint. They still did do a competitive period, but it was a lot of special teams. But that’s good for Shabbar Stewart. You want him out there. you want him tired and really pushing himself and and getting reps against Amarius Mims, getting reps against Orlando Brown Jr. in that first team offensive line. So, in a way, as long as Osai is okay, you don’t want anything to be serious, but I could totally see that being beneficial in a way uh because you’re getting extra reps for your first round pick. And we can dive more into that. on the other end of this at safety, man. It’s Yeah, you’re getting Dejon Anthony and Tyson Anderson in there and you can kind of see what you have, but boy oh boy, one of them better be good on defense. And we know Tyson’s an elite special teamer. We don’t know much beyond that outside of preseason where where he’s played and had some success there. And and the same thing with Dejon is like what what does he bring? How does he bring it? I think we’ve all had our questions about Gino Stone, but one injury and you’re looking at that room and you’re like, “All right, well, who is it? What is it? How is it going to be?” And and so there are a lot to me, there are a lot more questions, assuming Gino Stone is out for a few weeks, and that’s how it feels like it’s going to be. We’re less than a month away from the start of the regular season. So, what what does it look like without Gino out there? Even if he thinks it’s minor, these soft tissue injuries are something the Bengals are going to take slow. they’re not going to push it. And so maybe it’s a positive and it leads to them finding out what they have in in Tyson and Dejon and those are good answers. At the same time, it I think worries a lot of people about their depth in an area that we were questioning anyway. Yeah, this is a spot where fans have been looking for that signing since free agency. We were talking about safety options during March in in the brunt of free agency and a lot of those guys, Julian Blackman did sign, but a lot of those guys are still out there. Justin Simmons still discussed a lot as far as I can see by Bengals fans on social media. Justin Simmons doesn’t really do a whole lot for me personally, James, but he probably does more for me than some of the the waiver options that you might have in a month as as teams have to cut down. he at least has experience even if he is a little bit diminished from his peak I I think or or maybe significantly diminished from his peak when he was one of the best safeties in football but there are a number of options out there I remain unconvinced that there’s going to be a a move here in the Noah Fant realm of things was a player that they aggressively pursued when he became available the guys that are out there’s no newly available cap casualty safety option out there so it’s not think they’re going to move aggressively here unless they decide that this is something that is a yeah, we we need a starter badly situation. Sounds like it’s a hamstring for Gino Stone. Happened early in that preseason game. Hopefully, it doesn’t keep him out for long regardless of what they do here in the way of a move. But if I were handicapping it, from my perspective, James, I I don’t think there’s a move that’s going to be made here in in that, like I said, in that Noah Fant world of things. if they’re really dissatisfied with what they see and PJ Jules is getting in with the once after he made a play with the twos on Saturday. We can talk about that as well and whether that continued into Sunday. But even if they’re really dissatisfied there, I don’t think there’s like a a $5 million signing coming at Safety, you’re talking probably like a less than $2 million signing if they feel like they really need somebody. Yeah, I you’re probably right. I I think I think they’ll tell you how they feel about their guys by their actions and they believe in their guards more than we do. That’s why they haven’t they didn’t make a sub substantial clear-cut free agent addition that is definitely going to start and maybe they feel like Lucas Patrick is that that’s the guy who’s probably going to start at or right guard but at safety go to a pay cut. They could have went after Blackman who would 1,000% of the time signed with the Bengals over the Saints. Like that’s wouldn’t have been a debate, right? you would have done that and probably get the to start push for a starting job like all of those things with a team that has real playoff deep playoff run type of of aspirations and Blackman got $3.2 million just for the record. Yeah. Yeah. And so like that money is not the issue either. So it’s I think that’s what they’re going to do is they’re going to see what they have in Deja and Tyson and that’s how they’re going to view it. And I don’t it’s twofold. One I would have signed someone before now, right? But now saying that at this point, do I think because Gino Stone, like if you feel good about your safety depth, which maybe they don’t feel good about it anymore, but they were comfortable with it. If you’re comfortable with your safety depth, you’re not going to be like, “Oh, well, Gino Stone tweaked his hamstring. Now we have to go get Justin Simmons.” Like, that’s they don’t one, they don’t operate that way. I’m not sure they should. What I would say is they should be operating in well Gino Stone was bad last year. Jordan Battle is a question mark. Tyson Anderson on defense is a question mark. Dejan Anthony is a question mark. Go get more experience and do it four months ago. Right. So that’s where it comes back to. But I I think that they’re going to play this out and see what these two guys can bring. And who knows, maybe one impresses, but it just leaves us uneasy. Uh certainly uneasy in a in a key area after watching the the first team defense, at least most of the first team defense get torched a little bit by the Eagles. And PJ Jules is in the conversation on Saturday because he makes a great play, picks off Jake Browning with the second team, stays in with the first team. Did you see PJ Jules in there with the ones on Sunday? James, is he still rotating in with those guys? I did not I did not notice him, but they only did literally they did one team period. So, so who So, who is the safety today? I saw Tyson and Dejon. Those are both rotating. Uh, at one point Jordan came off, one point Jordan was on with Tyson, and then one point Jordan was on with Dejon. So, and so it’s uh the next four practices and they have four more practices. They don’t practice Monday and then they have four more before that commander game going into the commanders game. That’s going to determine a lot. And and I’ll be honest, if if I was Dejan or Tyson, my mindset would be 22 isn’t getting his job back. Doesn’t doesn’t mean that’s going to happen, but that would be my mindset is that’s always that should be every player. We’ve talked about this before. That should be every player’s mindset at all times whenever they have an opportunity. Easy easy mentality for any NFL player. And so hopefully they do take it and run with it, right? It’s It’s not like Gino Stone was so entrenched like that that he has all this equity built up. No, like they made him take a pay cut. He he he had to prove himself. It’s the other way. So, it’s uh it’s just uneasy that we’re talking less than a month from the the start of the season and it’s like all right, guy who underachieved last year that you’re hoping bounces back, hamstring injury, two unproven guys on defense with a guy in Jordan Battle on the other other ele and we’ve talked about this stuff at various positions for the last including this year three years last year before that and then they don’t make the move and then it’s an issue all year and then we’re sitting there talking about it in the middle of the season like remember when we were talking about this in August and March and in April, you know, it’s deja vu there as well. I will say this, it’s nice that Tyson’s getting some some run here. I thought that the coaching staff preferred Dejan Anthony. That’s been their preference for the last couple of years. So, it’s nice that at least Tyson is in the mix. We’ll keep the conversation going as we shift our focus to the offensive line as some changes happening on the depth chart there as the Bengals have resumed practice getting ready for preseason week two coming up next. This episode is presented by Yahoo Fantasy. It’s the best time of the year. Fantasy football time. I love Yahoo Fantasy. By the way, shout out to Yahoo Fantasy for tweeting out a clip, my clip of T. Higgins just mossing DJ Turner the second on Sunday. DJ was in perfect position and it didn’t matter because T. Higgins moss reign supreme. You can reign supreme in your fantasy league with Yahoo Fantasy. Of course, I’ll be playing Yahoo Fantasy and you should too. Whether you’re a first-time or a veteran making your millionth league to celebrate 28 years of fantasy football greatness, Yahoo Fantasy is dropping 28 big new features over 28 days throughout August. They just dropped Yahoo Fantasy Guillotine Leagues, a killer new way to play fantasy football on Yahoo, where the lowest scoring team gets eliminated each week until there’s only one team left standing. The season around the corner, now’s the time to get your league together. I’m going to try a guillian league for the first time this year with Yahoo Fantasy. And you can, too. And if you’re more into the classics, that’s fine. You can still play head-to-head private leagues or join a public league right now at yahoo fantasy.com/lockton NFL. Again, that’s yahoo fantasy.com/lockedon. Stay tuned for more killer announcements and start playing Yahoo fantasy football today. Before we get to the offensive line, just last thing here. Yeah, I I am glad that they’re giving both guys a shot here because it you’re right, it didn’t necessarily feel that way. And this is probably Tyson’s lone chance, I would say. I mean, he’s not in year two like like Dejan. This is Tyson’s chance to show that he can be a a a safety, a regular safety in the league. Contract year for him, everything that goes with it. He’s going into year four. Like, now’s the time. And so, we’ll see if he can do it. But, uh, yeah, they need someone to emerge there. And you’re right, they’ve they’ve done this with all these positions, including offensive line, and now we’re seeing it now. And even if you feel all right about Lucas Patrick, you can’t feel great about what’s behind him. Even you like Amarius and you like Orlando, I’m not sure you like what’s behind him. The the depth is certainly a concern at this point with, like I said, I’ve said it a bunch of times on the show already, the regular season breathing down our necks less than a month away. And I don’t think that’s uncommon. So there is that. We we should bear in mind that a lot of the things that are impacting the Bengals right now impact a lot of teams in the NFL. And a lot of teams in the NFL had an opportunity to make the same moves. The Bengals had an opportunity to make and some teams will get lucky and they’ll have a couple nice depth pieces on their offensive line. Philadelphia appears to be one of them. Jeff Stlin, best offensive line coach in the league right now. He does a great job. But it’s not like the these are exclusively problems to the Bengals. What’s frustrating about it is that we can all see this stuff coming and often predict and have for the last couple years these these areas where they’re going to have issues. They had to make a mid-season trade for a running back last year. All all that sort of stuff. So hopefully it does work out with one of those safeties. But you know, we’re talking about hope again. On the offensive line, I thought there were a couple of interesting things that happened as the Bengals resumed practice. one damn pitcher talked to you guys that the media down at practices. I’m no longer there. So I say you guys referring to James and the rest of the media on Sunday after practice. So he weighed in on Lucas Patrick and Dylan Fairchild. And I think that’s interesting. But let’s start with the big change which is Jaylen Rivers has moved to right guard with the second team where he had been working at tackle and Cody Ford for two practices has been working at the tackle spot instead. So now your guys competing for the the backup tackle job appear to be Cody Ford who I would assume would be in the lead if this is indeed the competition and Devin Cochran. And Devin Cochran was the the better of the second team tackles that played in in preseason game number one. But Jaylen Rivers now working at guard which is where some people thought he would be best suited in the NFL anyway. Unfortunately that comes with a side switch for him. He played on the left side of Miami. is playing on the right side with the Bengals now. But it could be as simple as the Bengals watch that first preseason game and they decided we we can’t go into the season like that. Our best bet is probably to get Cody Ford reps at tackle and to see if we can get Jaylen Rivers to develop a guard. Could be as simple as that. And if that’s the case, you might as well make the change as soon as you can to get those guys as many reps as possible from here on out. That sure would feel better if they signed Brandon Sheriff. Yeah. Well, that’s it because then then you have a guy that you feel comfortable starting that can back up multiple spots in Lucas Patrick. You you and that’s that’s it right there is one. If Brandon Sheriff suits up this year, it should be in stripes. Like they should be proactive with that. It would be such a good fit. He’s not coming off the ACL like Will Hernandez was. he’s looking for a ring. All those like if he comes back that’s certainly going to be on his mind. And so I’ll throw that out there. But even so, like how and and Dan mentioned that they they planned on doing this, giving Jaylen Rivers snaps and doing, but it felt really reactionary. Jake, that’s what I’m saying. Like it could be as simple as they watch it and they’re like, “We better make this change.” Yeah. I I don’t know how much I bought like because I was asking about guard for Jaylen. Yeah. Three weeks ago and it was like ah yeah, you know like and so you’re trying to figure it out. I hope he does figure it out. There are a lot of people that thought that guard from the jump and NFL evaluators when it came to Jaylen Rivers. But that’s why it’s tough to bank on rookies and to bank on guys to come in in a fifth round pick at an offensive line spot to come in right away and be a quality backup to be your swing tackle on a pass first offense. Like that’s that’s not easy. That’s a rookie year in this rookie. That’s pretty tough and or or or to battle for a top eight spot, right? You have five and then you have three three activives after that. Like it’s just tough. Maybe he gets there. Maybe he gets there by week one. But I just I I don’t like it. And I I believe most of our listeners and viewers would say the same thing. Like why didn’t you just add one more guard? Like that’s really it. Why don’t you still just add one more guard? It still doesn’t I asked you this in person. We had left practice probably 10 days ago. I was like, do you think they know? I I don’t think they know. I think they’re pretty comfortable with with where they’re at guard-wise just because there’s a lot of dudes, and I keep saying dudes, there’s a lot of humans in that room that can play guard, and they’re more confident in those guys than we are. I remember we did an episode talking about this a couple months ago where we were talking about where’s the move they’re going to make. And I think we mentioned tight end as a dark horse. Yeah. If somebody became available, but we were looking at how many players they had on the roster on the offensive line. like they’re I I don’t think they’re doing it unless there’s somebody they’re really really excited about that suddenly became available like what we saw with Noah Fan, but but that’s not really happening with offensive linemen in this league. That that’s so rare and it’s rare anywhere in the trenches. You might mention Christian Wilkins here who remains out there and remains a bit of a mystery, but if Lucas Patrick were your swing interior guy. Yeah. And Cody Ford was your swing tackle. I mean, we’d still probably be talking about swing tackle here, but you feel better about it about your interior depth. On that topic, have you seen any any progress from Matt Lee, Seth McLaclin this week as far as their participation level? Seth McGloin, I saw you had an article up about him expecting to play in the preseason at some point. Yeah. Yeah. Jay’s been all over at Bengals.com. Uh Seth Mclofflin started to take some team reps. He’s starting to get there and uh doing some 11 on 111, so that’s good. Uh we’ll see, but I definitely feel like he’s going to play some preseason reps and and it’s just a matter of what they what they do as far as position wise. I assume it would be center, but do they just go to guard? I I don’t know. I mean, that’s a depends on Matt Lee to me like, you know, if it’s if Matt Lee can play, then maybe you give him some guard reps. But if it’s Andrew Rain, you you want a center out there. Yeah. Yeah. I Any any progress for Matt Lee today in the last couple days? Uh I’m trying to think. I don’t think I’ve seen him in team drills. No. But okay. I don’t think I think this is very much a let’s not push it because we don’t need to push it type of thing. Um but at some point you want to see him out there. Put it that way. Yeah, I want to see a center out there. I don’t know. Let’s continue the conversation here fight. I think they’re thinking like we know him. Let’s not make this injury let’s not put him at risk right now. I think that’s the I’m not saying to rush him if if he’s if he needs time to recover from whatever he’s dealing with, but I would like to see a center that they plan to play center this year, you know. Regardless, let’s uh guard. I would love that. Let’s get to Lucas Patrick, Dylan Fairchild, some defensive line depth chart changes. Mentioned Joseph Osai earlier in the show to finish up coming up next. Today’s show is brought to you by Game Time. We’ve all been there, logging on early, waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale only to lose your spot. That’s where Game Time comes in. I mentioned Jay Morrison uh a few minutes ago and well, he’s a big concert goer. Guess what? Jay should absolutely use the Game Time app. He was trying to get to that VA country fest on on Saturday night. 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Dan Pitcher weighed in on the performance of the offensive line in preseason game number one. He was asked specifically about Lucas Patrick and Dylan Fairchild. Sounded very pleased with Dylan Fairchild. specifically called out a nice stunt that he and Orlando Brown handled on a third down. Also mentioned a free runner that he said they should not have had. That was a touchdown pass from Joe Burrow to Jamar Chase. Said that there should not have been a a free runner up the middle on that play. So curious to know what uh protection adjustment was not made correctly there. I like it when Dan Pitcher talks though, James, because he he doesn’t mince his words when something isn’t good. He’s going to call it unacceptable. Can’t have that. and he mentioned that about Lucas Patrick losing one rep a little too easily, falling off of some plays at the end of the play, but did say that he was generally pleased with Lucas Patrick outside of those couple of plays. It’s just a limited sample size. as we potentially see these starters more against Washington. And Lucas Patrick seems to have taken more than pole position, like leader in the clubhouse for that right guard job at this point, especially if they feel like Cody Ford needs the reps to tackle. would like to see a little bit more consistency from Lucas Patrick playing against a better level of competition because he got beat up a little bit by a guy named Gabe Hall who was on the Eagles pack practice squad for all of 2024 and is is pretty down on that Eagles depth chart. Need to need to be a little bit better than that against that caliber of player if you’re going to be starting in front of Joe Burrow. Yes. You had to go so deep in the depth chart that you’re like, “Wait, who is this guy?” Sorry. I think Gabe Hall had a really good game against Lucas Patrick, which should not be a sentence that I’m saying. I I think Gabe Hall is someone that everybody went to high school with. Like that sounds like a guy like you remember Gabe from high school? Gabe Hall. Yeah, that’s not good. I uh that that’s the uneasiness. I would be comfortable with Lucas Patrick on game day being a backup at all three interior spots, right? And and like he can be that he can be what they wanted Cody Ford to be at both guard spots theoretically coming into camp. And then you have Ford being a guy that could back up both tackle spots if that’s how you view it and then one more. But he’s not. He’s the starter. And if he’s the starter, you’re probably on good days getting average right guard play and on bad days not. And losing to Gabe Hall and that well and that sucks. If that’s like your your ceiling is like average, well then you’re asking Joe to be Superman and we’re sick of watching Joe get hit. And so that’s why again again and by the way, happy birthday Mike Brown. Believe it’s today. Uh if not, whatever. All the players Oh, yeah. All the players went up to him. Yeah. I believe it was Sunday. Uh for your birthday, pay a guard. It’d be great. It’d be great to say, you know what? For my birthday, I’m going to gift myself Brandon Sher if he’s avail or if he’s uh wanting to sign. And maybe not. Maybe he’s just done, right? But it it just it it feels like they’re they’re a piece away in that room. And if it doesn’t impact them right now, it feels like it already is, but if it doesn’t impact them right now, it’s going to impact them at some point this season, whether we like it or not. Gabe Hall is going to be around. We have beaten the dead horse on the right guard conversation. Let’s shift gears, talk defensive line a little bit here. Shamar Stewart obviously working in with the ones in the absence of Joseph Osai since he was nicked up a little bit on Saturday. It doesn’t again sound severe, but they’ve got a lot of these kind of minorish sounding injuries between Mike Casseki, between Gino Stone, between Joseph Osai at this point. Dax Hill not practicing, they’re still working him back in. BJ Hill not practicing on Sunday, still easing him back in. And it was a special teams focused day. So that makes sense. But uh beyond that, what remains interesting to me, James, is what’s going on at defensive tackle where it looks like Howard Cross is still repping with the twos quite a bit. Tavven Bryan moving around a little bit and he did this in the game as well. I didn’t notice it live, but Tav Bryan playing a fair bit of edge in that game and and doing it in practices it sounds like still. So they see him as a pretty versatile piece. They’re moving guys around quite a bit, but the the Howard Cross McKinley Jackson depth chart conversation is is a weird one to me. I I don’t know what they’re seeing with Cross that they like more than what McKinley’s done because obviously in the game McKinley Jackson was one of their better players on defense and Howard Cross was not. Did that continue over the weekend, James? Was Howard Cross still repping with with the twos and tavern Bryant? I saw him. Yeah. Yeah, because it’s 95. Yeah, he I want to say he was in the Burough Scramble. Hold on. See, hold. Let me pull the the tape here. And I tweeted this play out for those wondering. I think he was. I’m pretty I’m pretty sure. Yeah, he’s in the the Burough Scramble to Chase Brown. Yeah. So, he was He was definitely getting those reps. Number 95 for those wondering. Yeah. So it it’s there were a lot of people pre-amp and and right after the draft when he signed as an undrafted free agent like ah this guy’s going going to push and maybe he is because he’s he’s in he’s on the field going up against Joe Burrow in a really competitive intense moment of practice on Sunday. I guess they think he well I don’t guess. I’m sure they think he’s got a little bit more pass rush juice than McKinley Jackson, who they probably still see as as more of a nose tackle, run defense, base down kind of player, but I don’t know, maybe it’s just because BJ Hill isn’t practicing and that’s that’s shuffling everything around. But Howard Cross definitely something to keep an eye on there is is where he’s playing, where McKinley Jackson is playing. Is McKinley Jackson’s roster spot in danger here? And we can we can start speculating a little bit about who is on the roster bubble after a preseason week. And this will change throughout the preseason. That’s how this works. But that might be a project for tomorrow, James. And the conversation could be Mckenley Jackson, Howard Cross, Isaiah Williams, five tight ends. Which which tight end might find themselves the odd man out? What are they doing at safety? The the cornerback depth, all these different spots. even linebacker where I think my perception of of their hierarchy at linebacker is different today than it was going into training camp. A lot of those conversations to be had. And well, there’s an off day tomorrow, so what better time than to look at this roster bubble a little bit, huh? Yeah. And that is what you want. You want guys one playing their way onto the bubble, not on onto the bubble in a good way like ah we didn’t have them making it when we did our last 53. Howard Cross would be one of those guys potentially, but you don’t want it to be the other way either. And what’s interesting, you mentioned McKinley Jackson. Like there’s more to that conversation, but he was really productive the other night. So what’s the issue? We’ll figure it out. But yeah, that’s it’s going to be fun to look at this roster. You don’t really get a ton of time to do that during camp. We’ll get some time to do that tomorrow during camp where you get to really reflect and look at it and make some projections that I do think are going to be a tad different than they were a month ago when we did this exercise. Yeah, I think that based on the game there there’s some guys that need to show up in games. I think that have been showing up in practice and then there’s some guys that showed up in the game that it sounds like need to be more consistent in practice. So, it’s balancing those aspects of all the coaches exposure to these guys as they’re making these decisions that informs our projections and thinking about well, who is on the bubble at these different spots. So, we’ll dive in to that thought process and project most likely tomorrow unless something else comes up that we have to cover that. That’s the plan right now. Tomorrow. Just kidding. But I would love it. Trey. So until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Locked on Bengals podcast who day and have a good one. You want me to say Trey again?

The Cincinnati Bengals’ depth is being tested after suffering injuries to Geno Stone and Joseph Ossai.

James Rapien and Jake Liscow discuss both injuries, the fallout for both, Dan Pitchers comments about the right guard battle and so much more!

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31 comments
  1. There's five safeties in camp. No matter what the Bengals do, the two of you are going to find something to stress out about. What else would you have to talk about.

  2. Ownership is cheap b/c Mike Brown refuses to sell even 1% of his 97% equity in the $3.5B team, so ownership's method of making money instead is to cut costs. Our only hope is that Katie Blackburn is secretly waiting until Mike Brown dies to sell off a slice of the team and profit hundreds of millions. If that happens, ownership will no longer have a reason to be cheap.

  3. Cross made a play, but otherwise looked like crap. He'll be practice squad material at best. You never count a guy out though if he works hard

  4. They have a 275 mil qb and they wanna start a guard that has been backup quality, also throw a o line coach in there and they think it's gonna turn him into something he has not been thus far I'm his career. And then throw in a rookie guard that has promise for sure, but is still a rookie. That's a big gamble to protect the best qb in 2024. And the debth is a even bigger problem. We need to sign someone a-sap. Shireff or someone.

  5. There is no depth on this defense. Even worse, the starters aren’t even guaranteed! The Bengals based their entire offseason on hope. Like Mike Tomlin says, can’t risk success on hope, you must be intentional!

  6. Depth? What depth? The defensive starters would be special teams players in winning organizations. If you don't already have a natural ability, we can't develop players defensively. In the last 10 seasons what "homegrown" Bengal on the defensive side of the ball has been successful?
    Fun Fact: We only got about 3 players who have made it into the HOF.
    This team cannot develop talent.

  7. I am absolutely confident Mike Brown & the Front Office will do nothing to improve the defense. I seen nothing in the preseason game that would indicate the defense has improved from last year. Here goes another wasted season.

  8. Geno Stone was at his best when he was in Baltimore.
    He won't even be a Bengal next season.
    Baltimore knows how to actually scheme, and knows how to tailor talent to where they utilize what the player does best.
    Is Trey Hendrickson still there?
    Man! Either trade him or pay him. Why are we keeping him around and he's not even practicing?!?
    This is utter incompetence when it comes to managing a franchise.

  9. It’s a shame that the bengals management is unwilling to spend on the best opportunity this franchise has had in decades to win. It’s like they don’t want to win. It’s just a darn shame for us life long bengals fans.

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