{"id":178624,"date":"2025-07-03T16:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T16:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/178624\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T16:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T16:17:13","slug":"bengals-podcast-catching-up-with-the-2025-afc-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/178624\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals Podcast: Catching up with the 2025 AFC North"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been a lot of negativity in this fan base recently, and I get it. Why can\u2019t they just sign Trey Hendrickson already? What is going on with their first-round pick? Why haven\u2019t they signed a top-end guard?<\/p>\n

I get it! Believe me, I get it. <\/p>\n

Let me tell you a little something: The grass isn\u2019t always greener, and if you take a look around the AFC North, that is what you\u2019ll find. <\/p>\n

So, the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> haven\u2019t been as active. Neither have the Ravens nor the Browns<\/a>. In his 2000 classic On the Grind, Nelly said, \u201cAll money ain\u2019t good money, but no money ain\u2019t good.\u201d While the aforementioned teams may be making \u201cno acquisitions,\u201d not all acquisitions are good acquisitions. *cough, Aaron Rodgers<\/p>\n

The Steelers<\/a> are usually very consistent. They have a consistent approach to team building, but it seems they have lost their way. <\/p>\n

They just recently made a \u201cBlockbuster trade.\u201d I capitalized \u201cBlockbuster,\u201d because I assume the reason they gave the trade that title is that it would have been much more relevant years ago. They may have acquired Jalen Ramsey, but Minkah Fitzpatrick was the best player in that trade, and he\u2019s out the door. They brought in DK Metcalf, who is an upgrade on George Pickens for obvious reasons, but it would have been a much better idea to pair him with Pickens. <\/p>\n

Oh yeah, and their best pass-rusher didn\u2019t show up to minicamp either.<\/p>\n

The Ravens haven\u2019t done much this offseason and have a mix of aging vets and big projections in key places. Jaire Alexander is a name, but he has not been able to stay healthy. DeAndre Hopkins is not the man he was in Houston. Did they really move the needle at all?<\/p>\n

The Browns are frankly confusing. Seriously, what are they trying to do? They drafted two quarterbacks in the mid-rounds. They spent a bunch of money on a guard they probably don\u2019t need. They made some good picks, but it almost seems like they are building depth for the future and not trying to win games now. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m starting to feel a little better.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Be sure to subscribe to Bleav in Cincy to hear the latest from the whole crew on everything Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>! In addition to Matt and Willie Know Ball, you\u2019ll hear from the Orange and Black Insider, Bengal Jim and Friends, and Three-and-Out.<\/p>\n

Who Dey!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been a lot of negativity in this fan base recently, and I get it. Why can\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[115,228,14775,227,256,4228,2296,1559,1563,7,29,1560,6,1587,9431,24,619,717],"class_list":{"0":"post-178624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-afc","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-catching","11":"tag-cincinnati","12":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","13":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-podcasts","14":"tag-cincinnatibengals","15":"tag-cincy","16":"tag-exclude-from-stn-video","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-front-page","19":"tag-jungle","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-north","22":"tag-podcast","23":"tag-the","24":"tag-up","25":"tag-with"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114790206734510014","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}