Bengals news: Mike Hilton's revenge game, drama on draft night

As we await the release of the Cincinnati Bengals 2023 regular-season schedule (and those belonging to the other 31 NFL franchises we guess), Mike Hilton still wants all the smoke, every last ounce of it. For Cincy to make it back to football's biggest stage, they'll have to prove their mettle during the 18-week, 17-game grind that will determine if they again qualify for postseason play, but Hilton has a game circled, one versus the Kansas Chiefs. He has even announced when he'd like to play them. He wants them straight out of the shoot.

How about we just call this his revenge game? It kind of has a ring to it, right?

Bengals news: Mike Hilton hasn't been shy about stating he wants to play the Chiefs in Week 1.

If casual fans of pro football didn't know who Mike Hilton was prior to the Bengals' AFC Divisional Round win over the Buffalo Bills last season, they most certainly knew who he was once the outcome was decided as 'Burrowhead' hashtags flooded social media.

In the end, things didn't work out as we would have hoped. This time the AFC Championship Game would be won by the Chiefs. This time, they found their way back to the grand stage which is the Super Bowl, but Mike hasn't backed down. Mike is looking to open the coming season on a high note.

As winners of the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the Chiefs will play at home on opening night of the football season. Recently, Hilton spoke with select members of the Cincy media, and he informed them that he's hoping his team is their opponent.

We didn't have to wait long to see if he got his wish. The NFL Network will air their official schedule reveal on Thursday, May 11th at 8 p.m. EST, but CBS gave us a spoiler. They announced a game they intend to feature on New Year's Eve. It looks like revenge will have to wait.

Regardless of when the game happens, let's hope the right team comes out on top. No one would complain if a few 'Burrowhead' signs pop up at Arrowhead.

More Bengals news: Did you hear teams were calling Cincinnati about the 28th-overall selection?

The Cincinnati Bengals entered the most recent NFL Draft knowing they had to add some punch to their pass rush and secondary. Adding former Clemson Tigers standout Myles Murphy with the 28th-overall selection was most certainly a step in the right direction.

His final run with the Tigers produced a First-Team All-ACC nod after he racked 116 tackles and 18.5 sacks in 35 career games that spanned three seasons. The hope is that production transfers to the NFL level because there was most certainly temptation to trade the pick.

Bengals Director of College Scouting, Mike Potts recently made an appearance on Hear That Podcast Growlin', and it appears Cincy received calls from some interested parties that wanted to acquire the draft capital.

"We probably had, I would say, upwards of five offers to move back off of that 28th pick, but if a guy like Myles, we knew if he was there, we were in all likelihood, unless we were blown away by an offer, we were gonna stick and pick a high caliber guy like that. If we felt like we were dropping down a level of player, we would have probably moved back and taken the best of those multiple offers that we had there. We got a guy that we didn’t feel like we were dropping down a level of player. It was a guy that we targeted."

Let's settle this. The road may have been winding. There may have been drama, but Murphy is home now. Selecting Myles was most certainly the right choice. He adds a potentially elite player at a position of need, and regardless of how much success your team has had of late, those are the guys that you don't allow to get away.

Add Myles Murphy to a pass-rushing rotation that includes Trey Hendrickson, Joseph Ossai, and Sam Hubbard. If everyone stays healthy, these guys can make some noise.