We can acknowledge that the Cincinnati Bengals took a more proactive approach to free agency than usual, and that they managed to somehow botch that goodwill all at once.
Many Bengals fans out there — surely not you, dear reader — don't have a single critical thinking brain cell when it comes to how the front office does business. They make apples to oranges comparisons to other teams, lament the so-called "media narratives" about how cheap the Bengals are, and don't take into consideration the bigger, holistic picture.
I get it. Bengals fans are in a perpetual state of emotional precariousness.