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ESPN's Mina Kimes Names Bengals NFL's Most Disappointing Team, Questions Front Office

Valid points.

Russ Heltman

Feb 27, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Cincinnati Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin talks to the media at the 2024 NFL Combine at Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
Feb 27, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Cincinnati Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin talks to the media at the 2024 NFL Combine at Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
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CINCINNATI — ESPN's Mina Kimes is surprised the Bengals' front office isn't taking more heat from national voices amidst one of the most disappointing seasons in team history.

Cincinnati has woefully underperformed expectations, especially defensively, where they've spent a ton of resources for little impact.

"I'll probably go the Cincinnati Bengals there," Kimes said on DraftKings GoJo and Golic. "And I said this before, but I really believe if the Bengals were in a different city, like, I don't know if they were the Jets or something, there would be a bigger outcry over this season from Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase being wasted on offense. I believe it's close to historically unprecedented, right? Like what they're doing respective to the team's win record. But throw out the stats when you watch every week. It is jarring to me, the ways in which this defense has let them down. 

"And it's a defense that clearly has not been built well, and they've thrown resources, it's a very expensive defensive line, and they have drafted and they have continuously tried to address it, and it's been an obvious failure, not just this year but going forward. I don't look at this defense and see like cornerstones per se, and I really feel like the front office deserves so much more heat for that than they've been getting—because it's been such an unbelievable let down this year."

"Obvious failure" is spot on from Kimes.

The Bengals have spent a whopping 23.87% of its salary cap on the defensive line this season (the next closest NFL team spent 20.76%), for basically nothing outside of Trey Hendrickson's All-Pro caliber year.

It's impossible to predict an illness like the one Sheldon Rankins has dealt with, but that among other issues has completely crushed the team's ceiling this season.

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Russ Heltman
RUSS HELTMAN

Russ Heltman is a contributor for AllBearcats and AllBengals. He is the morning host and producer for 89.3 WMKV in Cincinnati, OH.  Russ can be found on Twitter: @RussHeltman11 or you can reach him by email at Heltmandm@yahoo.com.

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