Florida PG Boogie Fland (hernia) out after surgery
Gators coach Todd Golden said Fland had the surgery on July 3 and missed the last three weeks of summer workouts.
"He'll be back when school starts," Golden told reporters. "He could have played through it, but it made more sense to get it taken care of so he didn't have to worry about it during the season."
Fland is a transfer from Arkansas and was in the midst of a strong freshman campaign before he sustained a right thumb surgery in January. He underwent surgery and missed two months.
He entered both the NBA draft and the transfer portal after a season when he averaged 13.5 points and 5.1 assists in 21 games (18 starts).
Fland, a former five-star recruit, fills a need after the Gators lost star point guard Walter Clayton Jr. to the NBA after winning the national title.
Fland was a McDonald's All-American in high school who committed to Kentucky while John Calipari was head coach.
When Calipari departed the Wildcats for the Arkansas gig, Fland requested his release from Kentucky and later committed to Calipari and the Razorbacks.
--Field Level Media
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In a vacuum, those decisions made sense; both Chase and Higgins are excellent players. But in context, the deals mean that roughly 35% of the team's salary cap this season is tied up in the quarterback and two receivers, making it tough to upgrade other areas of the roster this offseason. A smart franchise would have said no to Burrow. They would have let Higgins walk, taken the inevitable fire-storm on the chin, and reinforced their offensive line or improved their defense. The Bengals don't need an electric second receiver to win. It's a luxury. Burrow is good enough to turn so-so options into viable second bananas. But Cincy spent the offseason caving to Burrow's demands. That's great news for the fantasy crowd – not great for parade planners. In summary: The Bengals' offseason work boiled down to re-upping household names, throwing Anarumo under a bus, and hoping recent draft misfires would kickstart their careers under new leadership. Some of that reasoning is sound. The Bengals' defense was a disaster under Anarumo last year. They couldn't rush the passer. They couldn't cover. Anarumo's greatest strength is creating distinctive, one-off gameplans that confuse opposing quarterbacks. But the foundations of last year's group were so shaky that no amount of schematic voodoo could cover the holes. The Bengals finished in the bottom third in the league in pressure rate, pass-rush win-rate, and defensive run efficiency. Strip Hendrickson out of those metrics, and they fall to the bottom of the pile. Even the Panthers – the 2024 Panthers! – had a more effective four-man pass-rush than the Bengals. The gameplan is to offset the pricey offensive stars by getting young or cheap players on defense. But the execution has been bungled. Cincy wound up fielding the most expensive defensive line in the league last season, pouring cash and draft picks into trying to engineer a four-man pass-rush that could complement Burrow's bomb's away offense. To do that, they cheaped out on the secondary. When that pass-rush fell on its face, the entire defense was exposed. Outside Hendrickson, only one player (BJ Hill) had more than 20 pressures last year. The Bears, Saints and Jets, all five-win teams, all had at least four players notch 20 pressures. Other than ticking off Henderson, the Bengals have done little to improve their pass-rush for this year. They drafted Stewart in the first round, a developmental pass-rusher who missed the early part of training camp. Their only free-agent addition was TJ Slaton, an early-down run stuffer. They allocated more resources to fixing their linebacking corps than addressing the pass-rush needs. And now, the team's title hopes again rest on the right shoulder of their quarterback. That's no bad thing. Burrow finished last season fourth in the RBSDM composite, which measures the value of a play and how much the quarterback can be deemed responsible for the value. No single quarterback was more valuable to their team last season. Last season, however, proved that won't be enough. There isn't another level for Burrow to ascend to. Even at his best, he couldn't carry a lackluster roster to January by himself. This will no doubt be the millionth consecutive year the Bengals preach diversifying the offense, and the millionth consecutive year in which they run one of the league's three most predictable offenses. Throughout Burrow's time, they have struggled to efficiently run the ball or tie the run game to play-action. When they put the ball in Burrow's hands in the gun, they're effective. Everything else is a risk. The Bengals were dead last with 3.7 yards per play and 29th with a minus 18.1% DVOA from under-center formations in 2024, according to FTN. Unless Burrow is playing point guard, the Bengals struggle to move the ball. In 2025, that's no way to build a sustainable offense. The hope is that they can squeeze one more season out of that offensive ideology while Golden patches something together on defense. If Hendrickson is traded away, the whole plan could cave in before the season even kicks off (though there is hope that won't happen, with Hendrickson reporting to training camp on Wednesday even as he says he won't participate fully until a deal is done) 'The [championship] window is my whole career,' Burrow said last year. He is not wrong. But championship windows are perilously short. Burrow may have more time, in Cincinnati or elsewhere. But the current Bengals corps is on to its last dance.
