Bengals Beat Podcast: Bengals 2025 Schedule
Bengals Beat Reporter Kelsey Conway discusses the upcoming 2025 Bengals schedule.
Joe Burrow finally entered a minicamp fully healthy, the Cincinnati Bengals had a great offseason and are positioned for a fast start and getting back to the playoffs this season.
That should be the major storyline amid what should be a flood of positive news coming out of the Bengals’ mandatory minicamp this week.
Instead, it’s doom-and-gloom about how the Bengals could blow it with a generational quarterback.
That’s not necessarily been the screaming headline. But that is undoubtedly the overarching narrative for those who pay close attention to the Bengals and NFL, fallout from ownership playing stupid contract games with league sack leader Trey Hendrickson and first-round pick Shemar Stewart.
Off the field, meanwhile, ownership is playing selfish, penny-pinching games with Hamilton County over a new stadium deal. What does a stadium deal have to do with winning the on-field product? It ultimately factors into how much money ownership is willing to pay players. There’s one, big bottom line in this mom-and-pop, family-owned operation.
All of this is avoidable. Of course. It’s all ownership’s fault. Of course.
The Bengals have the money. They always have the money. Ownership’s insistence on winning every negotiation has cast a dark cloud over the franchise. Actually, the cloud has just gotten darker. There’s always a cloud of varying degrees of darkness looming over this franchise – and it is ownership’s decision to keep it there.
The cloud is getting darker. The clock is seemingly ticking faster. The window to win a championship with Burrow is gradually closing.
Tick, tick, tick.
Take, take, take.
From player contracts to stadium negotiations, the Bengals are being the takers they always are.
No good thing this franchise does goes unpunished by this franchise. The Bengals signed wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to massive contract extensions in March. The Bengals – the Bengals! – spent a combined $276 million on two players who don’t play quarterback.
Maybe, just maybe, the Bengals were changing and willing to spend money. It keeps the NFL’s best quarterback and league’s top receiving duo together for several seasons to come. How exciting is that?
All the Bengals then had to do is sign Hendrickson to an extension, draft a stud pass rusher in the first-round and sign a solid veteran safety and offensive guard in free agency to complete what many fans were calling the most critical offseason in franchise history after back-to-back playoff misses.
They had the money to do all of it.
They did none of it.
All they’ve done since the Chase-Higgins extensions is pinch pennies. Ownership has to make up for that $276 million somehow, so they made safety Geno Stone and offensive guard Cordell Volson take pay cuts in addition to the negotiating drama with Hendrickson, Stewart and the county on the stadium deal.
The Bengals did draft a guy who’s supposed to be a pass rusher. But Stewart had 4½ sacks in his college career. And now he’s sitting out of minicamp and instead sitting at his locker calling out ownership for nitpicking language in his proposed contract that boils down to how much guaranteed money the Bengals would have to pay Stewart if he got hurt or in trouble with the law. More penny-pinching stuff at the expense of doing everything possible to try to win a Super Bowl.
It’s typically not a good idea to call out your employer. Please excuse Stewart, though. The Bengals deserve to be called out. It won’t change how ownership does things.
Hendrickson has skipped minicamp and seems heading for a training-camp holdout. Stewart has yet to practice with the team. The key defensive players need to maximize every chance they can get to be on the field with new defensive coordinator Al Golden. But the incompetent defense that cost the Bengals a playoff spot last season remains in limbo. Tick, tick, tick.
Everyone learned the Bengals can’t consistently outscore opponents and make the playoffs – and no way can a team be considered a serious Super Bowl contender with a dynamic offense and awful defense. Well, almost everyone learned that. They didn’t learn it inside the ownership bubble.
All it should take for the Bengals is to have an average defense this season. Burrow, Chase and Higgins should do the rest if the quarterback stays healthy.
It’s really that simple. But the Bengals can’t get out of their own way. And with each day Hendrickson is absent and Stewart sits out, the window on Burrow’s career inches closer to slamming shut.
Contact columnist Jason Williams at jwilliams@enquirer.com