Strictly Stripes: A Cincinnati Bengals podcast

The Cincinnati Bengals are about to begin building their 2023 roster. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin will embark on this week's NFL Combine in Indianapolis. There will be different areas of need the Bengals will look to tackle and focus on throughout the week in the Hoosier state. Tobin, who rarely speaks to reporters, will address those concerns and area...

Special teams are not on the Bengals' priority list of draft concerns. But are there some possible names that they could look at to compete with Drue Chrisman at punter? Next week's NFL Combine features several big-name punters the Bengals should keep their eyes on. One of them is Bryce Baringer out of Michigan State who had a strong showing at the Reese's Senior Bowl a few weeks ago. Although he...

The Cincinnati Bengals must make it a mission to keep Vonn Bell. With veteran safety Jessie Bates likely on his way out of the door in Cincinnati, the Bengals will probably put more effort toward keeping fellow veteran Vonn Bell. Bell, who played in a contract year like Bates, has a better chance at staying in Cincinnati. Bell, who is closer to the age of 30 and isn't as highly valued of a target...

The Cincinnati Bengals will have some sorting out to do at cornerback this offseason. Three different corners will hit free agency next month, including starting cornerback Eli Apple. Reserve nickel corners Jalen Davis and Tre Flowers are also set to hit the market, leaving a possible void at the slot for the Bengals. Flowers and Apple each have a projected market value of around $11 million, whic...

Free agency will likely have an impact on the Bengals' linebacker room. Germaine Pratt, set to hit free agency this offseason, may have likely played his last game in a Bengals uniform. With the Joe Burrow extension era in effect, the Bengals may opt to let him walk with fellow linebacker Logan Wilson entering a contract year next season. Reserve linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither seems like the likel...

How much did the Cincinnati Bengals' defensive line leave on the table in 2022? Edge rusher Trey Hendrickson made back-to-back Pro Bowl appearances while his sidekick, Sam Hubbard, played one of the better seasons of his career all while both playing with missed time due to injuries, respectively. Defensive tackle D.J. Reader missed seven games to a knee injury but returned and played as one of th...

The Bengals still have questions to answer at the offensive tackle position. Despite improvements from left tackle Jonah Williams and La'el Collins, who started over the Bengals' 2021 starter, Isaiah Prince, both Williams and Collins each respectively battled their own injuries. Williams missed the Bengals' final two playoff games with dislocated kneecap. Collins tore his ACL in Week 16 against th...

Hayden Hurst hasn't shied away from expressing his love for Cincinnati. The hurdling, tackle breaking Bengals tight end once said early last season that he felt like he "died and went to heaven" after scoring his first ever touchdown as a Bengal. In just his first season with Cincinnati, he delivered an immediate impact and built a strong relationship with Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and head c...

The Cincinnati Bengals’ wide receiving trio of Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd made another strong case in 2022 as to why they might be the best receiving trio in the NFL. After Chase and Higgins both finished with over 1,000 yards each, while Boyd didn’t trail far behind with 762 receiving yards, those efforts helped lead the Bengals back to yet another AFC Championship game. Even while...

Don’t underestimate the value of coaching continuity. Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor brings back both of his coordinators for the fifth straight season. Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo and offensive coordinator Brian Callahan aren't going anywhere for now. After the Arizona Cardinals opted to pick former Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon as their new head coach, that leaves...

The Cincinnati Bengals have the fourth-highest odds to win the Super Bowl next season. After falling just short of returning to football's biggest stage, the Bengals continue an offseason that will focus on figuring out how to get bag to the big game. The team that kept them from claiming back-to-back AFC championships, the Kansas City Chiefs, meanwhile, is now football's newest world champion. Th...

Bengals QB Joe Burrow didn't get a single first-place vote in Thursday night's NFL Honors ceremony. Although he was named the FedEx Air Player of the Year, he did not earn any first-place votes for the NFL MVP award. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes got 48 out of the 50 total votes. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and Bills quarterback Josh Allen respectively split the other two votes. Bengals de...

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins have each made their intentions clear: They want to play together. Despite playing just two combined seasons together, the trio has already helped lead the Bengals to a Super Bowl, consecutive division titles for the first time in franchise history and back-to-back conference championship game appearances. They’re not...

There’s no guarantee that either Joe Mixon or Samaje Perine will be back under center for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2023. Perine is set to become a free agent. There’s a possibility that Mixon could be released to save cap space to pave way for other signings and extensions, most notably for Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. The duo is more than familiar with one another; they both played college fo...

The future is bright for Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. After following up his Super Bowl campaign in 2021 with a return to the AFC Championship this past season, Burrow not only remained mostly consistent, but even showed signs of growth. Despite a shaky start to the first half of the season, Burrow led the Bengals on a 10-game win streak en route to their first back-to-back conference title gam...

The future is now in Cincinnati. Longtime Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green officially announced his retirement from the NFL on Monday after 12 seasons, officially marking the near end of an era that includes players from his 2011 draft class retiring, including future Hall of Fame defensive end J.J. Watt. Green, who played with current Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow during Burrow's rookie season,...

Big decisions looming for the Cincinnati Bengals this offseason will make an impact in years to come. If free agency wasn't enough, the Bengals are also set to likely give Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow a contract extension that could reset the market for quarterbacks. All of that plays into how the Bengals will head into free agency and what that means for their potential draft decisions this Apr...

The Joe Burrow contract extension era is officially underway. With the Bengals set to likely negotiate a contract extension with their star quarterback, that means there will be tough decisions to be made with key players on both sides of the ball, particularly the defense. Safety Jessie Bates and linebacker Germaine Pratt have likely played their final games in a Cincinnati uniform. Bates was fra...

The Cincinnati Bengals' championship window has tightened up just a bit after last weekend's AFC Championship game loss. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow has said that his championship window is his entire career. That reflects the team's standard of not just reaching but winning the Super Bowl after coming up just short in last year's Super Bowl. But Sunday's loss to the Chiefs was an opportunity t...

A historic run for the Cincinnati Bengals comes to a painful end. After winning a franchise-record 10 straight games that features a rare wire-to-wire road playoff win against the Buffalo Bills, the Bengals begin their offseason two weeks earlier than planned. Cincinnati’s season comes to a halt following a 23-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. Much like their last thr...

The Kansas City Chiefs have few flaws, but one of them is the fact that they can't seem to find a way to beat the Bengals. For as much praise as the Andy Reid-led Chiefs have received for their play style that earned them their fifth-straight AFC Championship game appearance - all at home - the Bengals have somehow found a way to play spoiler. One of Kansas City's three losses this year came in Ci...

The Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes meet yet again. Mahomes beat the Bengals in his first ever meeting against Cincinnati during a Sunday Night Football showdown at Arrowhead in Week 7 on the 2018 season. He lit up the Bengals' defense by leading the Chiefs to a 35-point victory as that year marked Mahomes' first-ever AFC Championship game appearance. Times ha...

The Kansas City Chiefs just haven't seemed to figure out Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. Despite possessing a late lead in each of their last three matchups with Cincinnati, the Chiefs haven't been able to finish the job. Part of that is due to Burrow finding a way to keep the Bengals in the game, including last month's 27-24 win in Cincinnati even though the Chiefs possessed a fourth quarter lead...

Another matchup between the Bengals and the Chiefs, another AFC Championship matchup. Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, depending on who you ask, the Bengals are back in the AFC Championship game and they're doing battle with the same Chiefs team they faced last season. And they're heading back to Arrowhead Stadium. This Sunday's tilt will be the fourth meeting between these two foes in just the las...

And then there were two. The Cincinnati Bengals are back in the AFC Championship almost exactly one year from the day they made it to the big game following a commanding divisional round victory on the road against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon. Unsurprisingly, the Bengals will head back to Arrowhead Stadium to rematch the Chiefs after defeating them in last year's title game in overtime....