Tee Higgins is tagged

Welcher?

paid back

The Bengals are spending an average $125M per year on these three superstars...

Joe Burrow: $55M per year
Ja’Marr Chase: $40.25M per year
Tee Higgins: $28.75M per year

That's an impressive trio on offense you kept together. Very expensive!
The Bengals better hit on all their defensive players in the draft though.

I get it. The Texans will soon be paying Derek Stingley Jr. (this summer) CJ Stroud and Will Anderson Jr. (next year) top market value.

But I've never seen a team win the Super Bowl with a crappy defense. You can still feed off an elite defense. More times than not anyway.

Indy won in 2006 with a shit defense.
23rd points allowed, 12th yards allowed, 32nd rush yards allowed (worst in league since merger 5.33 ypc allowed, 2768 yards/20 tds allowed).
Their defense just played well during the playoff run

This post was edited by straightedgerevenge on Mar 17 2025 03:40am

Indy always beat the Texans twice a year forever. I've tried to erase that from my memory.

But didn't that Colts team have Dwight Freeney and Bob Sanders anchoring their defense?
A Hall of Fame and generational pass rusher and a First Team All-Pro safety. Great foundation.

To be honest with you I don't know if the Bengals even have two guys on D to lean on like that.
They have a stud in Trey Hendrickson. If they keep him that's a start. But who else do they have?

I guess I'm spoiled by the Texans defense in 2025. If they keep their linebackers healthy it should be the best defense in the NFL.

They had Sanders, Freeney and Robert Mathis but other than those 3 studs everyone else was just a body. Our defense was almost always bad with Manning as our QB. Most of the reasoning behind Indy only winning 1 Bowl during his tenure (also because of people like Brady, Roethlisberger, Rivers — all of which had good defensive teams as well as offensive teams)

I forgot about Robert Mathis also! The most underrated pass rusher of all-time. He had 19.5 sacks one year.
You could put Mathis at outside linebacker or defensive end opposite of Freeney. It was a sack party for them!
You're taking about three superstars on defense with Bob Sanders. If the Bengals had that I'd be impressed.

This post was edited by MADmartigan on Mar 17 2025 06:20am

We better hit on our defensive draft picks

Glad we kept Higgins tho