Tag: Bengals

Bengals get Tony Romo on the call again for showdown vs. Chiefs

The Bengals and Chiefs again get Tony Romo in the booth.

When the Cincinnati Bengals take on the Kansas City Chiefs for their Week 2 matchup of the 2024 regular season, fans will hear a familiar voice on the call for the 4:25 p.m. kickoff on CBS.

Yet again, the Bengals game against the Chiefs will feature Jim Nantz and Tony Romo in the booth along with Tracy Wolfson, and Bengals fans are growing even more tired of hearing Romo call their games, especially big ones against Kansas City.

The last time the two teams matched up late last season, the same broadcast crew called it. Romo and Nantz have also been in the booth for both of the AFC Championship games the two teams played against each other, as well as a game on Jan. 2, 2022, when Ja’Marr Chase had 11 catches for 266 yards and three touchdowns.

The Bengals are coming off of an ugly Week 1 loss to the New England Patriots, and with Ja’Marr Chase still without a new contract and Tee Higgins out with an injury last week, fans of the team likely have more important things they are worried about than who will be the voice they hear during that game, but it still wasn’t welcome information when Jay Morrison revealed it on Twitter.

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Trent McDuffie recaps Little Caesars ‘Love Kitchen’ event, discusses Chiefs’ gameplan for Bengals

Kansas City #Chiefs CB Trent McDuffie recaps Little Caesars ‘Love Kitchen’ event, discusses gameplan vs. #Bengals w/ @EdEastonJr

The Kansas City Chiefs’ defense excelled in its Week 1 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, due in no small part to the exceptional play of cornerback Trent McDuffie.

After the unit knocked off Lamar Jackson to start the 2024 regular season, critics are no longer questioning the effectiveness of Kansas City’s secondary after the departure of L’Jarius Sneed earlier this year.

McDuffie has continued to improve each game he plays, further solidifying his place at the summit of the league’s best cornerbacks lists.

Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. spoke to the All-Pro cornerback after McDuffie hosted the Little Caesars’ Love Kitchen’ event at Arrowhead Stadium. He recapped the fantastic event with Little Caesars, the NFL’s Official Pizza Sponsor, spreading love to Kansas City and looking ahead to Week 2 against the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Man, it was awesome,” McDuffie said. “I kept saying my favorite thing was the actual ‘Love Kitchen,’ knowing that they served over 4 million families was honestly inspiring to me. The event overall was dope, the fans that were out here, the military families, signing autographs, taking pictures, they had music playing right in front of the stadium, and it was just an overall positive atmosphere.”

https://twitter.com/McKenzieMNelson/status/1832459458322010305

The Cincinnati Bengals will visit Arrowhead Stadium next Sunday with questions about the availability of their star wide receivers, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. McDuffie doesn’t believe this will affect the Chiefs’ game plan or focus heading into Week 2 against their AFC rival.

“I don’t know if it’s going to change the overall game plan,” McDuffie explained. “Still, I think it definitely makes the preparation a little bit more tedious, just because now you have to account for backup receivers and maybe play backup tight ends and maybe different personnel. But the overall game plan and how you approach the game, I’m thinking both of them are going to play, and we’re going to have a battle and a challenge, and it’s going to be a really good game on Sunday.”

For more information on Little Caesars, the Official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL, log on to the website littlecaesars.com

Bengals free-agency signings boast stunning impact on win-share projections

A few specific Bengals signings swung the win projections in a big way.

With the NFL season officially beginning, there is still a lot of uncertainty about what lies ahead for the Cincinnati Bengals, but Cynthia Frelund, an analytics expert at NFL.com used data from the past 12 NFL seasons to try to make that picture a little more clear.

Using a model that went through 1,000,000 simulations of every single regular season game, Frelund projected win totals for every AFC team in the 2024 season, while also vetting those totals with “real football people” like coaches and front office members.

Here’s what Frelund had to say about the Bengals, noting that their free agency efforts this offseason seem to have been a very big success.

I told you earlier that Cincinnati’s fourth-place schedule drove value in what I calculate to be the most challenging division in the NFL. Ahead of the preseason, the Bengals were my model’s pick to win the division. This tells you how much Ja’Marr Chase’s hold-in impacts this team.

One of my favorite notes on the Bengals is that adding DT Sheldon Rankins and safeties Vonn Bell and Geno Stone this offseason drove the win-share projection for the whole defense up three games.

The average win total for Cincinnati over all of those projections was 10.4 wins, which wouldn’t be a bad record in what should be a strong AFC North yet again. She also included the ceiling for the Bengals (12.6 wins) and the floor (7.5 wins).

Their ceiling was higher than every other team in the division, although the Baltimore Ravens average total (10.5) and floor (8.5) were slightly higher. However, if everything goes right for Cincinnati, the model seems to think they can get back on top of the division after a disappointing fourth-place finish last year.

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Joe Burrow gets an MVP nod from NFL expert

Joe Burrow…the next NFL MVP?

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow missed half of the season last year due to a wrist injury after not even being at full strength for most of the time he actually was on the field, dealing with a calf strain that had been nagging since the preseason.

However, now he enters the 2024 season seemingly with no issues and should be back to his old self. Sports Illustrated NFL reporter Albert Breer recognizes that Burrow is back, and he has some high expectations for the signal-caller.

In a tweet that linked to an article he headlined, “Bengals QB Joe Burrow Is Back and Better Than Ever,” Breer predicted that Burrow would win the MVP award this season.

“Joe Burrow’s been through a lot the last year,” the tweet read. “But he never wasted a minute trying to get back to being himself. And now, he’s on the doorstep of it.”

In the article, Breer predicted that not only would Burrow win MVP, but he would also take Cincinnati back to the Super Bowl. He believes that Burrow was at his best after he had healed from his calf strain and before he injured his wrist, and due to his drive to improve, he will be even better when he gets back on the field for a full season.

While it will be a while before anyone can see whether Breer’s prediction comes true, the journey for Burrow to try to get there begins on Sunday against the New England Patriots, and he is ready to get back out on the field.

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Bengals breakout candidate requested HOF-level film to improve his game

This Bengals player is doing the right things to help a breakout happen.

The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver room has been one of the better groups in the league for the past few years with Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd leading the way.

Now with Chase’s current status up in the air, Higgins possibly leaving after the season ends and Boyd already gone in free agency, there are some targets – now and in the future – to go around from Joe Burrow.

Andre Iosivas, who the Bengals drafted in 2023, wants to be the guy to earn those, and he has apparently been looking toward one of the all-time great wide receivers to try to improve his game after he made the move to the slot in training camp.

Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic wrote that Iosivas has been requesting film of Larry Fitzgerald and Keenan Allen, two players who are of similar stature to the 6-3, 205-pound slot receiver, from the Bengals video staff.

“Guys in the slot that have been Hall of Fame guys, and also (Tyler Boyd),” Iosivas said to The Athletic. “Keenan and Larry are both bigger dudes, if I can play to that skill set and see what works for them, I can try to incorporate it into my game as well.”

In 16 appearances last season, Iosivas had 15 catches for 116 yards and four touchdowns, but now he is going to have a chance to break out in what should be a strong Bengals offense, and he is going to the right places to look for tips.

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Bengals praised as ‘finally serious about protecting Joe Burrow’

One analyst sees a new approach from the Bengals when it comes to protecting Joe Burrow.

After the Cincinnati Bengals‘ final roster cuts were made as the season approached, Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report wrote about what he thought was the biggest takeaway for each team based on their rosters going into the year.

The big thing he took away from the Bengals cuts is something that Cincinnati football fans have likely been waiting to see since the first pick of the 2020 NFL draft was announced.

Here’s some of what Knox wrote:

The Cincinnati Bengals are finally serious about protecting Joe Burrow.

This is the biggest takeaway to be made from their wave of cuts, which included 2021 second-round pick Jackson Carman. Teams don’t like to give up on high draft picks after only a few seasons, but the Bengals did exactly that after the 24-year-old repeatedly struggled to get on the field.

The former Clemson tackle made six starts as a rookie and started two playoff games in 2022, but he only appeared in five regular-season games over the last two seasons.

Cincinnati has taken a lot of swings at the offensive line over the past few offseasons, most recently signing Trent Brown and using a first-round pick on Amarius Mims. It’s also become increasingly clear that the Bengals aren’t going to hang onto linemen who can’t contribute, regardless of the investment.

Knox went on to talk about how the Bengals also released La’el Collins just over a year into his three-year contract with the team since he was still recovering from his knee injury, and how they let Jonah Williams walk in free agency after replacing him at left tackle with Orlando Brown Jr. during the 2023 offseason.

It’s an important shift in the philosophy of the Cincinnati front office that has been very deliberate over the past couple of years. Protecting its franchise quarterback has become priority No. 1, especially after he has dealt with season-ending injuries in half of the seasons he has played in the NFL.

Those injuries have been direct results of taking too many sacks due to the amount of pressure he faces in the backfield, and now it’s obvious that they are trying to fix that.

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Bengals rookie’s comeback story hyped by NFL expert

Bengals fans are going to love this story and player.

The Cincinnati Bengals season is almost here, and the rookies taken in the draft will be playing their first professional snaps in the coming weeks.

For tight end Erick All, it won’t only be his first time playing professional football but the time in a while that he’s going to be injury-free, and one NFL expert believes the Bengals might have found themselves a very good tight end for fairly cheap.

Louis Riddick of ESPN tweeted before the draft that All can be great in the NFL if he can stay healthy.

“If the medicals (knee rehab, past back issues) are behind him, he is a starting caliber TE in the league that will be a problem as a route runner, and a very solid, versatile run blocker,” Riddick’s tweet read.

All suffered a back injury in 2022 when he was at Michigan, missing the rest of the season before he transferred to Iowa. Then he tore his ACL with the Hawkeyes in 2023, getting ruled out for the rest of the season.

But now he comes into this season in seemingly good health, and despite some good NFL veteran presence ahead of him on the depth chart in his rookie season, he could earn some playing time and show off what it was that made him a fourth round draft pick in April.

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Key stat shows just how bad Jackson Carman pick was for Bengals

The Bengals ended the Jackson Carman era…and this says it all.

The Cincinnati Bengals officially cut ties with former second-round draft pick Jackson Carman when they cut the roster down to 53 last week.

The Bengals took him in the 2021 NFL draft with the 46th overall pick and despite being given the chance to start in six games in his rookie season, he never was able to work his way into consistent playing time.

Jay Morrison, the Bengals beat reporter for Pro Football Network, posted a graphic that listed every second-round pick from the same year Carman was drafted, along with how many games those players have started in the NFL, and it didn’t look good for Carman.

He was 26th of the 32 players taken in the round with the six games he started in three seasons, ahead of only Day Odeyingbo, who started five games, Kelvin Joseph, who started three games, and four players tied with zero starts. They are the only seven players to start fewer than 10 games.

Leading the list are Creed Humphrey with 51 games started, Tre’von Moehrig with 47 games started and Landon Dickerson, who has started 46 games.

Whatever Carman’s problems might have been on the field, Morrison showed how bad that draft pick ended up being for the Bengals in retrospect.

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Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is implied as the player Ja’Marr Chase refuses to name in the NFL Top 100

Kansas City #Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is implied as the player Ja’Marr Chase refuses to name in the NFL Top 100 | @EdEastonJr

The annual countdown of the ‘NFL Top 100′ players is underway, and players’ responses to their peers are bulletin board material for the new season. The Kansas City Chiefs are expected to have multiple players on the list this year, with the top spot assumed to be going to their star quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver appears in a viral clip, giving his option of who the top player is on this year’s list. He makes it well known that he’s refusing to say a particular player’s name due to an ongoing rivalry.

“I’m not saying i give credit when it is due, but I’m not saying his name,” said Chase with a smirk. “I’m sorry, Joe Burrow, I’m not saying that guy’s name. He’s good. He’s amazing, he’s good, not gonna lie. Two years in a row, I’m putting Burrow first.”

The Chiefs and Bengals have met several times over the last few seasons, including a split of two AFC Championship games. The two teams are scheduled to meet at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 2, and this clip could be seen making the rounds well before game day.

Devontez Walker has a bone to pick with Bengals after not being drafted by Cincinnati

Devontez Walker thought he’d be drafted by the Bengals

Ravens rookie wide receiver Devontez Walker has circled two dates on the season schedule. Baltimore travels to the Cincinnati Bengals on October 6.

The reverse fixture is a nationally televised Sunday night affair on November 7. Walker will be especially amped for both games as he feels the Bengals snubbed him.

“I got a bone to pick with Cincy,” he said on the team’s official podcast The Lounge.

“That’s where I thought I was going but they took another receiver at that spot. … Cincinnati, that game is going to get rough.”

“I thought it was going to be the Bengals; I thought it was going to be me. I met with them the most pre-draft…The Bills and the Bengals [are who] I had a real good feeling about, but the Ravens were not on my mind at all.”

The Ravens drafted Walker out of North Carolina in the fourth round with the 113th overall pick.

The Bengals WR draft pick he’s referring to is likely Jermaine Burton of  Alabama. Cincy took Burton with the 80th overall pick in the 3rd round.

The Charlotte native took the Bengals, passing him up extra hard because of who his player role model was.

Walker grew up modeling his game after A.J. Green, arguably the greatest wideout in Cincy history. So you can see why he’ll bring extra juice to these two divisional games this season.