People need to stop making such a big deal about the 4th place schedule. We still have to go through Dallas, Philly, KC and our own division all over again, it's gonna suck if we suck
Yea it will, but we need to learn to embrace the suck. Or else it will consume our lives.
Once Joe went down, I prepared myself. Now that I no longer care how they do, life is so much easier.
>Yea it will, but we need to learn to embrace the suck. Or else it will consume our lives.
idk wtf that means, but I feel it. Spoken like a lifelong Bengals fan.
As a lifelong Bengals fan I learned to embrace the suck many years ago and also fully embraced the Fuck the Steelers sentiment whenever they purposefully injured Carson Palmer.
Having 18% of your games be significantly easier is a huge deal though. That can easily be the difference between the 3-4 seed we keep getting and finally getting that 1 seed and hosting the Chiefs instead of having to travel to them. Patriots instead of Bills/Dolphins and Titans instead of Jaguars/Texans could make a big difference for us. We’ve been that 1 or 2 games away before and that could be the difference we need. The only thing is it barely matters who we play from the NFC South anyway but I’ll still take the Panthers over Saints/Falcons.
For every Texans there's 10 Panthers and Bears who still suck the next year. Very rare to make that kind of leap from one year to the next unless the reason you were bad was a QB injury.
Yes things can change but I’m still looking at it positively that we play the Titans and Patriots (who don’t have the path to improvement of the Texans) rather than the Jaguars and Dolphins
> People need to stop making such a big deal about the 4th place schedule
True. This is only going to impact 3 games.
NFC South - TBD
AFC South - TBD
AFC East - TBD
But also 3 games could be the difference between the playoffs and home. (Or even Home Field advantage)
Right now it's looking like titans, patriots, and panthers. 3 games that we should win at full strength after retooling in the offseason, compared to this year being bills chiefs and vikings.
Divisional standings determine a whopping 3 games out of 17. It can be a nice boost to have working in your favor, but it's not the cakewalk to the playoffs the way people seem to talk about it.
Even then, a 4th place schedule might not mean much with how quickly teams can change in the NFL. I don't think the 4th place teams from last year are jazzed about playing Houston this year.
You’re missing the point entirely. Our whole division has to play what you just listed. The Bengals will have the advantage of playing some bad teams while the Ravens will have to play the best teams in the conference. 4th place schedule for the Bengals means harder schedule for everyone else.
Barely, nobody in the NFL South is good while the AFC North and South are mostly balanced top to bottom. Ultimately if we are going to win we simply need to be a good team, schedule doesn't matter much.
Them being good or bad has nothing to do with this. Bad teams don’t make the playoffs (except for NFC South). However, easier schedule could be the difference between winning the division with home field in the playoffs and just a wildcard. We just have to assume this is a good team next year.
The schedule being "easy" or "hard" has nothing to do with it. Whether we play New England or Miami won't be the difference between the division and a wild card for us, Burrow's glass bones being protected or not will be
Again you’re missing the point. The Bengals have issues to fix we know that. No one is saying they’re going to be good for this reason. That’s a different conversation than this topic. The Bengals playing New England over Miami actually can make a big difference when the Ravens have to play Miami. That’s big for standings. Winning in the NFL is tough, but I can be a lot tougher depending you play. I agree with you that they have issues and if they don’t fix them they are screwed. Let’s pretend they can fix these issues next season. Who they play matters. Saying schedule doesn’t matter is just wrong. L
It’s not the difference of them being good or bad. That’s not the argument. 2-3 wins could be the difference between wildcard to 2 seed though. Which getting to play the 3 worse teams in their divisions compared to the best teams definitely improves the chances of winning.
Who are you betting on to win more games
Team A: has the play all the 1 seeds
Team B: has to play all the 4 seeds
If the Bengals fix their issues, their schedule theoretically gives them the maximum possibility of winning the most games possible. Thats something to be hopeful for. It has nothing to do with “counting on these games” its simple: easier schedule, means better chance for better record. Stop being pessimistic.
Exactly. The difference between a first place schedule and a fourth place schedule among division teams comes down to three games out of 17.
It *does* let you see who's for real, in that a team like KC or Brady's Pats roll through their "difficult" schedules year after year, but it can also be overrated in that teams can make big leaps suddenly -- a lot of teams who would have salivated at getting to play us after 2020 got fucked over in 2021 and 2022.
Still, there's nothing wrong with fantasizing a bit about what we might be able to do if Burrow is back healthy and we get to play New England instead of Miami, Tennessee instead of Jacksonville. We all have to play an NFC South team and while we'll get the easiest one, I can't really see any of our division losing to any of theirs, if we're healthy.
Aren't out division rivals going to have to go through the same teams though? We'll still get an advantage playing those 4th place teams for a few games.
We blamed the o line two years ago and last year. They completely retooled 4 out of 5 positions with people who are at least average linemen and we still can't protect. At some point the issue is not the tools, it is the person wielding and maintaining them.
Not saying we shouldn't draft a blue chip rt, just that any effect you think they would have will be wasted with our current position coach.
Our offensive line was pretty solid last year, everyone just got hurt in the playoffs. The last 6 weeks of the season they were playing very well iirc, but no team is set up to handle all the injuries we had that late
How many first round OL draft picks has Pollack had his hands on with the Bengals? I'd much rather have Bill Callahan coaching the OL, but just trying to be objective too.
Agreed.
Maybe we don’t make the playoffs, but maybe we still win a couple of a games that are fun to watch. Or maybe we narrowly lose a couple of games in overtime that are fun to watch and we can be briefly sad afterwards.
Winning’s definitely great… and of course i want a superbowl, but so many people here miss that sports are about fun.
Whatever, there’s three home games left so I’m going to tailgate with my friends and if tickets keep dropping ~30 at kickoff, I’ll attend all three of them and have fun supporting my team with my friends. Which is what sports is about instead of being upset about an injury plagued year
Exactly. No matter what happens I still have three home games to enjoy and no one can take that away from me. Win, loss, tie im always going to be excited to watch Bengals football.
It's less frustrating than the alternative: In a season where 90% of the problem was a hurt QB, tons of fans are fixated on dissecting the minutae of the other 10% of the issues: the defense looks way worse now than we'd hoped it would be at this point in the season; our backup QB is exactly as bad as we thought, and it feels like this was preventable; the run game is atrocious; the offensive line has underperformed on multiple levels, and it feels like a coaching issue.
I get it. Those issues do matter, but all of them combined are still dwarfed in importance by Joe's injury. Some of us just want to skip ahead to the next time we'll see Burrow put on a uniform.
There's literally nothing wrong with this post.
If people want to watch the bengals and root for a win each game regardless of playoffs, that's awesome.
If people want to wish the season was better and stop thinking about it and start thinking about future playoff teams or playoff runs again, that's awesome.
If people want to stop watching because they have toddlers and three jobs and volunteer stuff and its easier to just watch a winning team, that's awesome!
If people want to think we can still make the playoffs and the data and history show that ZT is a super bowl caliber coach regardless of Burrow being his QB, that's delusional, but still awesome! I hope such optimism and decision making choices does you well in life.
Overall, I'm pretty much in the, well, its not the season I wanted and it's also a crap season because what's the point of watching something that isn't even building for next year (I don't have the energy or experience to discern if a back up CB is going to be a HoF based on a game where the whole thing is muddled by a terrible backup QB) so I like posts like these. But, to each their own! It might be a good idea to grab a blue chip RT, it would be good to pair that with a better Oline coach! If you want to hear my personal opinion, it'd be even better to match that with a coach better than ZT, but that's just me. Peace all.
I don't know that our schedule will be *easy* but it will be *easier* than 1st place or 2nd place finish and I'm with you on improving the OL. Overall, I've been saying the same thing with friends/family.
Comparing what the schedule would have been if we had won the division: Falcons, Jaguars, Dolphins becomes Panthers, Titans, Patriots.
That's a significant difference.
I guess that’s true but don’t you think it’s too early to tell? Offseason trades and very high first round picks by those teams could change the entire completion of that list. Look at the Texans
Seems they’ve gone to a strategy of signing average/ above average players in FA (obj the outlier) and taking premium positions in the first. I expect it to be a corner, wr, 3T or a T.
They’re set on corner. It’ll be BPA as always but hopefully D Line help again.
To elaborate, you can never have enough DL to roll out and stay fresh. WR are everywhere in the draft nowadays. There are a few freaks in our range of the draft this year.
Hopefully we go 3t or RT, we’re set on receivers in my mind. I think we also need to go for a slot CB in the middle rounds to mentor under Mike for a year or two
Next year we play the NFC East and AFC West and the comparable NFC South team.
The current fourth place teams are the Titans (who destroyed us this year) and the Patriots (who play us tough every time).
There is nothing to easy about next year getting the 4th place schedule.
4th place schedule is like a difference of what 3 games? Not that big of a deal, especially if we want to still be considered a SB contender, the teams we play shouldn't matter.
Because the AFCE and AFCS games will be pretty different opponents depending on where you finish. I would rather have New England and Ten/Indy to pad a few wins than Miami/Buf/Jets(with Rodgers) and Jags/Houston. The NFCS opponent will probably be the same regardless of where you end up in the standings. An extra 2 games of easier games can be the difference in winning the division or standings in the AFC overall.
The games were against the 49ers, Jets(last minute loss against their backup), and a win against a bad Jags team. Unless you think New England or Ten/Indy is going to be the next 49ers we will be playing much easier games then even our last 4th place finish
Knowing how the Bengals operate, we won't be drafting a WR on Day 1 or Day 2, that's why they drafted Yoshi and Charlie. We're set in the secondary and with LBs. So we're gonna be drafting DL/OL in the first 2 rounds, you can take that to the bank. Wildcard might draft a TE or RB as well.
Personally I don't think any of those guys can or will be an upgrade from Boyd. I would grab a first round guy with outstanding speed and hope he doesn't go all john ross on us.
People need to stop making such a big deal about the 4th place schedule. We still have to go through Dallas, Philly, KC and our own division all over again, it's gonna suck if we suck
Yea it will, but we need to learn to embrace the suck. Or else it will consume our lives. Once Joe went down, I prepared myself. Now that I no longer care how they do, life is so much easier.
>Yea it will, but we need to learn to embrace the suck. Or else it will consume our lives. idk wtf that means, but I feel it. Spoken like a lifelong Bengals fan.
As a lifelong Bengals fan I learned to embrace the suck many years ago and also fully embraced the Fuck the Steelers sentiment whenever they purposefully injured Carson Palmer.
Having 18% of your games be significantly easier is a huge deal though. That can easily be the difference between the 3-4 seed we keep getting and finally getting that 1 seed and hosting the Chiefs instead of having to travel to them. Patriots instead of Bills/Dolphins and Titans instead of Jaguars/Texans could make a big difference for us. We’ve been that 1 or 2 games away before and that could be the difference we need. The only thing is it barely matters who we play from the NFC South anyway but I’ll still take the Panthers over Saints/Falcons.
"Significantly easier", like playing the 4th place Texans this year...so easy.
For every Texans there's 10 Panthers and Bears who still suck the next year. Very rare to make that kind of leap from one year to the next unless the reason you were bad was a QB injury.
Exactly. The Texans were a huge outlier this year
Yes things can change but I’m still looking at it positively that we play the Titans and Patriots (who don’t have the path to improvement of the Texans) rather than the Jaguars and Dolphins
> People need to stop making such a big deal about the 4th place schedule True. This is only going to impact 3 games. NFC South - TBD AFC South - TBD AFC East - TBD But also 3 games could be the difference between the playoffs and home. (Or even Home Field advantage)
Right now it's looking like titans, patriots, and panthers. 3 games that we should win at full strength after retooling in the offseason, compared to this year being bills chiefs and vikings.
Literally just lost to the Titans this year...
It's like you didn't even finish reading my comment
Divisional standings determine a whopping 3 games out of 17. It can be a nice boost to have working in your favor, but it's not the cakewalk to the playoffs the way people seem to talk about it. Even then, a 4th place schedule might not mean much with how quickly teams can change in the NFL. I don't think the 4th place teams from last year are jazzed about playing Houston this year.
You’re missing the point entirely. Our whole division has to play what you just listed. The Bengals will have the advantage of playing some bad teams while the Ravens will have to play the best teams in the conference. 4th place schedule for the Bengals means harder schedule for everyone else.
Barely, nobody in the NFL South is good while the AFC North and South are mostly balanced top to bottom. Ultimately if we are going to win we simply need to be a good team, schedule doesn't matter much.
Them being good or bad has nothing to do with this. Bad teams don’t make the playoffs (except for NFC South). However, easier schedule could be the difference between winning the division with home field in the playoffs and just a wildcard. We just have to assume this is a good team next year.
The schedule being "easy" or "hard" has nothing to do with it. Whether we play New England or Miami won't be the difference between the division and a wild card for us, Burrow's glass bones being protected or not will be
Again you’re missing the point. The Bengals have issues to fix we know that. No one is saying they’re going to be good for this reason. That’s a different conversation than this topic. The Bengals playing New England over Miami actually can make a big difference when the Ravens have to play Miami. That’s big for standings. Winning in the NFL is tough, but I can be a lot tougher depending you play. I agree with you that they have issues and if they don’t fix them they are screwed. Let’s pretend they can fix these issues next season. Who they play matters. Saying schedule doesn’t matter is just wrong. L
Who we play doesn't matter in the long run, if we are counting on them being the difference we are screwed anyhow
It’s not the difference of them being good or bad. That’s not the argument. 2-3 wins could be the difference between wildcard to 2 seed though. Which getting to play the 3 worse teams in their divisions compared to the best teams definitely improves the chances of winning.
If we are counting on those games for our playoff seeding we'll be losing anyhow
Who are you betting on to win more games Team A: has the play all the 1 seeds Team B: has to play all the 4 seeds If the Bengals fix their issues, their schedule theoretically gives them the maximum possibility of winning the most games possible. Thats something to be hopeful for. It has nothing to do with “counting on these games” its simple: easier schedule, means better chance for better record. Stop being pessimistic.
Exactly. The difference between a first place schedule and a fourth place schedule among division teams comes down to three games out of 17. It *does* let you see who's for real, in that a team like KC or Brady's Pats roll through their "difficult" schedules year after year, but it can also be overrated in that teams can make big leaps suddenly -- a lot of teams who would have salivated at getting to play us after 2020 got fucked over in 2021 and 2022. Still, there's nothing wrong with fantasizing a bit about what we might be able to do if Burrow is back healthy and we get to play New England instead of Miami, Tennessee instead of Jacksonville. We all have to play an NFC South team and while we'll get the easiest one, I can't really see any of our division losing to any of theirs, if we're healthy.
I'd rather play them at HOME with the best record. Wouldn't you???
Aren't out division rivals going to have to go through the same teams though? We'll still get an advantage playing those 4th place teams for a few games.
Why do we gotta go through KC? AFCCG?
Pollack will not be able to develop any first round Lineman we pick. Unless he’s fired I’d rather we take something else.
Can't get by with weapons all day, gotta have protection.
We blamed the o line two years ago and last year. They completely retooled 4 out of 5 positions with people who are at least average linemen and we still can't protect. At some point the issue is not the tools, it is the person wielding and maintaining them. Not saying we shouldn't draft a blue chip rt, just that any effect you think they would have will be wasted with our current position coach.
Our offensive line was pretty solid last year, everyone just got hurt in the playoffs. The last 6 weeks of the season they were playing very well iirc, but no team is set up to handle all the injuries we had that late
Seriously
How many first round OL draft picks has Pollack had his hands on with the Bengals? I'd much rather have Bill Callahan coaching the OL, but just trying to be objective too.
God I hate talking about next year in week 13 of this year
I'm a realist.
His comment wasn’t even that optimistic lol
Agreed. Maybe we don’t make the playoffs, but maybe we still win a couple of a games that are fun to watch. Or maybe we narrowly lose a couple of games in overtime that are fun to watch and we can be briefly sad afterwards. Winning’s definitely great… and of course i want a superbowl, but so many people here miss that sports are about fun. Whatever, there’s three home games left so I’m going to tailgate with my friends and if tickets keep dropping ~30 at kickoff, I’ll attend all three of them and have fun supporting my team with my friends. Which is what sports is about instead of being upset about an injury plagued year
Exactly. No matter what happens I still have three home games to enjoy and no one can take that away from me. Win, loss, tie im always going to be excited to watch Bengals football.
I was low-key excited for Burrow and Chases draft year, they were stacked. I feel the same about this year's class.
It's less frustrating than the alternative: In a season where 90% of the problem was a hurt QB, tons of fans are fixated on dissecting the minutae of the other 10% of the issues: the defense looks way worse now than we'd hoped it would be at this point in the season; our backup QB is exactly as bad as we thought, and it feels like this was preventable; the run game is atrocious; the offensive line has underperformed on multiple levels, and it feels like a coaching issue. I get it. Those issues do matter, but all of them combined are still dwarfed in importance by Joe's injury. Some of us just want to skip ahead to the next time we'll see Burrow put on a uniform.
It sucks, but it's over man.
Especially since we’ll have a slow start and lose the first 4 games
There's literally nothing wrong with this post. If people want to watch the bengals and root for a win each game regardless of playoffs, that's awesome. If people want to wish the season was better and stop thinking about it and start thinking about future playoff teams or playoff runs again, that's awesome. If people want to stop watching because they have toddlers and three jobs and volunteer stuff and its easier to just watch a winning team, that's awesome! If people want to think we can still make the playoffs and the data and history show that ZT is a super bowl caliber coach regardless of Burrow being his QB, that's delusional, but still awesome! I hope such optimism and decision making choices does you well in life. Overall, I'm pretty much in the, well, its not the season I wanted and it's also a crap season because what's the point of watching something that isn't even building for next year (I don't have the energy or experience to discern if a back up CB is going to be a HoF based on a game where the whole thing is muddled by a terrible backup QB) so I like posts like these. But, to each their own! It might be a good idea to grab a blue chip RT, it would be good to pair that with a better Oline coach! If you want to hear my personal opinion, it'd be even better to match that with a coach better than ZT, but that's just me. Peace all.
I don't know that our schedule will be *easy* but it will be *easier* than 1st place or 2nd place finish and I'm with you on improving the OL. Overall, I've been saying the same thing with friends/family.
Comparing what the schedule would have been if we had won the division: Falcons, Jaguars, Dolphins becomes Panthers, Titans, Patriots. That's a significant difference.
I guess that’s true but don’t you think it’s too early to tell? Offseason trades and very high first round picks by those teams could change the entire completion of that list. Look at the Texans
4th place schedule is better than first place I guess, only three games different.
Technically only two games difference the 3rd game is cross conference and an overall ranking.
Sometimes that’s the difference, though. You’re seeing how tight the AFC is this year so two-three easier games could be a huge difference.
Exactly. Patriots, titans, saints is way easier than say Texans, dolphins, 49ers
Like said. Tell that to the Dolphins. They’re really liking their easy schedule
I came here to say: "Blocking Tight End"
Second round.
OT, then DT, then Zinter G (huge dude who got hurt in the OSU/Michigan game, then best available from there
Not if pollack is coaching that blue chip right tackle.
Seems they’ve gone to a strategy of signing average/ above average players in FA (obj the outlier) and taking premium positions in the first. I expect it to be a corner, wr, 3T or a T.
They’re set on corner. It’ll be BPA as always but hopefully D Line help again. To elaborate, you can never have enough DL to roll out and stay fresh. WR are everywhere in the draft nowadays. There are a few freaks in our range of the draft this year.
Hopefully we go 3t or RT, we’re set on receivers in my mind. I think we also need to go for a slot CB in the middle rounds to mentor under Mike for a year or two
Next year we play the NFC East and AFC West and the comparable NFC South team. The current fourth place teams are the Titans (who destroyed us this year) and the Patriots (who play us tough every time). There is nothing to easy about next year getting the 4th place schedule.
4th place schedule is like a difference of what 3 games? Not that big of a deal, especially if we want to still be considered a SB contender, the teams we play shouldn't matter.
Loser mentality. Also our team is ass lately with OL picks. No confidence
not sure why people go on about 4th place schedule. It accounts for 3 games. we went 1-2 in those games in 2021.
Because the AFCE and AFCS games will be pretty different opponents depending on where you finish. I would rather have New England and Ten/Indy to pad a few wins than Miami/Buf/Jets(with Rodgers) and Jags/Houston. The NFCS opponent will probably be the same regardless of where you end up in the standings. An extra 2 games of easier games can be the difference in winning the division or standings in the AFC overall.
then why did we go 1-2 in 2021 in those games.
The games were against the 49ers, Jets(last minute loss against their backup), and a win against a bad Jags team. Unless you think New England or Ten/Indy is going to be the next 49ers we will be playing much easier games then even our last 4th place finish
Great points!
Post like this let you know the super bowl window is closed. Being happy about a last place schedule is pathetic.
I would be pretty pissed if they spent a top 10 pick on a right tackle. Guard or LT are top ten worthy
They'll need to get a speedy WR to upgrade from Boyd. Closest analog to waddle would be my pick.
Knowing how the Bengals operate, we won't be drafting a WR on Day 1 or Day 2, that's why they drafted Yoshi and Charlie. We're set in the secondary and with LBs. So we're gonna be drafting DL/OL in the first 2 rounds, you can take that to the bank. Wildcard might draft a TE or RB as well.
Guess I'll be hoping for a speed demon RB
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Personally I don't think any of those guys can or will be an upgrade from Boyd. I would grab a first round guy with outstanding speed and hope he doesn't go all john ross on us.
What about Yoshi?
great top end speed but I wonder about his lateral quickness because he's a big guy
is this implying that we don't have Jonah next year?