Contrarian optimist here. Ravens game is must-win, and a loss might mean missing the playoffs for a team I predicted to win the SB. Would we be better this year with Bates and Bell? No doubt. But…Bengals will be very good next year, and the year after that, etc. Front office clearly agrees with Burrow. Over the past two years the team has loaded the WR room and the secondary with young quality talent. They will only get better. We’ll see them address OL/DL in the next 2 drafts. I respect the all-in approach, but this team refuses to mortgage the future. Bengals will be SB contenders every year for the foreseeable future. I can live with that.
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Counterpoint: Missing the Playoffs with Joe Burrow at QB is a crime.
I’m hoping and praying to all the gods I don’t believe in that what we really saw was not just safeties not covering well for a game here or just one team’s offense able to use our scheme against us there, it was more a rare instance where one side of the ball couldn’t carry the other as much as necessary in that specific game as it unfolded.
NFL pundits and fans are always looking for trends, here’s one: The Bengals are 3-1 since Burrow has been what we could consider to be “fully healthy”. There ya go.
On to the next.
They didn’t have to “mortgage” anything to bring at least Vonn Bell back. They had 12 million in cap room left over this year and have a butt load for next year. They chose to cheap out and didn’t “value” the position enough to spend on it. Hence, Nick Scott.
Lou told us before the season. “I don’t want to imagine what this defense looks without both Jessie and Bell.”
Lou told you how it would be before the season even started.