Bengals' cheap reputation returns after empty chair noticed during Patriots-Steelers

Let us know if you’ve heard this before. “The Cincinnati Bengals are cheap.” It is shocking to see someone say that about Cincy’s C-suite. After all, we have never heard that before. 

Just when we thought that the ‘cheap’ talk was out of our system, at least for this season, it pops its head up again in the most revisited way possible. So let us know if you’ve heard this one before. “Cincinnati’s scouting department is too small.” 

This time, the criticism feels like a reenactment of Clint Eastwood giving a speech to thousands of people while staring at an empty chair. Only this time, a Boston reporter played Eastwood, and the audience was Twitter. 

Reporters send familiar shot to Bengals front office

Massachusetts sports reporter Chris Mason posted something relatively innocuous, saying that during the Patriots-Steelers game, the Jacksonville Jaguars had an advanced scout watching New England. Yet, no one from the Bengals was watching Pittsburgh.

Mason’s Tweet was simply an observation that, where there are usually two people present, this time there was only one. Perhaps the Jaguars’ employee won the Highlander quickening battle over Cincy’s scout. 

Still, we had to wade into the comments below the initial post. Unfortunately, when you dig, you might eventually hit some, um, mess. Let’s call it "mess." 

Mason would respond to a comment saying that maybe he just didn’t see Cincinnati’s scout with, “In my experience, they've had seats in the press box. Usually listed on the seating chart. Easier to work there (and free). Dunno about a requirement though.”

Mason would continue, “FWIW, Bengals also have the smallest scouting staff in the league,” with a link to a Paul Dehner article discussing Cincinnati’s scouting department. 

There it is! (Insert the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing, whistling meme here)  

Then Henry McKenna of Fox Sports jumped into the fray, unable to help himself from dunking on the Bengals with a critique you’ve probably never heard when he reposted Mason’s with a Tweet of his own writing, “Good catch from Chris. This also lives up to the Bengals' reputation -- which is that they're notoriously cheap in terms of staffing and traveling scouts.”

Never once did Mason or McKenna consider that maybe the Bengals' scout wasn't there because he ate clam chowder that didn't sit right in their tummy. Or, heaven forbid, what if the scout had a last-second family emergency?

Perhaps, as someone pointed out in the comments, the Bengals did have a scout there, but not where Mason expected. 

Also, if the Bengals did not send anyone, we would love to know whether they are the only NFL team that did not send an advance scout to their next opponent’s game.

Is that unique to Cincinnati’s front office, or is it only an issue because it is the Bengals, like the Shemar Stewart contract dispute from a year ago?

Furthermore, how did all those 16 teams that won in Week 1 do so without advanced scouting? Did they send someone to videotape a practice? 

Did the Bengals send an advance scout ahead of the matchup against the Houston Texans?  Where did they sit?

And how dare the Buccaneers and Texans lose to Cincinnati, weakening every national and apparently local narrative associated with the Bengals organization. 

The immediate jump to the ‘Bengals are cheap’ narrative is crazy work. Especially after the previous three offseasons, when they threw money at players. So much so that some who cover the NFL were all of a sudden criticizing them for spending on two top-end receivers and possibly overpaying to acquire Dexter Lawrence, who the Bengals also gave an extension to. 

Bengals won’t ever shake 'cheap' narrative

At this point, it is fair to assume the Bengals organization can't do anything to shake the cheap moniker. However, they can make every team that loses to them feel even worse, knowing that they lost to the front office with the smallest scouting department in the NFL. 

That began with victories over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Houston Texans in Weeks 1 and 2, respectively. Hopefully, that will continue with a Week 3 victory over the Steelers.

Unfortunately, the Bengals don't have the New England Patriots on the schedule, so we won't know whether Cincinnati would have sent an advance scout to one of their games. We will have to rely on the transitive properties of common opponents until their potential playoff meeting.

In the meantime, Manson should hope that the Patriots sent multiple advance scouts to watch the Jaguars as New England is 1-1 and heads into Jacksonville as an underdog. 

And perhaps one of McKenna’s future stories will examine how the Bengals keep winning with such a small scouting department, even without having an advance scout in a particular building that one time. 

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