How much has this team really improved this off-season?

[Shake n Blake]

We didn't really improve on paper. That's what happens when you ignore free agency, then your first round pick gets injured. We also lost Boling and Burfict. We'll have to rely on good health and Zac Taylor being a major find.

[Luvnit2]

(07-19-2019, 07:20 PM)Circleville Guy Wrote: It’s obviously always better to be healthy. I’m honestly just worn out as a fan shuffling excuses year in and year out.  I’ve finally set it right in my heart that if the Bengals suck this year specifically because of the Oline that I’m finally done going through it. It seems like an obvious black hole to someone uneducated about football compared to many on here. It feels like the team should be scratching and clawing by any means to improve this hole before the season starts. If It proves to be the case and they didn’t care to fix it, I’m finally out. I’ve went decades of being laughed at by friends because of the Bengals, I can handle that. I can’t handle supporting a team that won’t try anymore though.  I’ve been a diehard since the late 80’s but something is changing in me. It’s almost like a form of mental abuse that I’m about done putting myself through. I can only handle rooting for one absolutely pathetic organization and I’ll drop the Bengals before I do the Reds. Maybe I’m way off though and the line will be decent. I can understand struggling with coaching transition but this line should have been fixed a few years ago.

I dropped the Reds about 7 years ago. Tonight was an example of why I dropped them. Blow a 7 run lead in 1 inning, they are a joke, owner is a joke and worse than MB.

Talk about rebuild, Reds until 2019 sent talent away, Frazier, Chapman nd kept guys like Votto (worst defensive 1st basement in league and Homer Bailey.

But i digress. Yes injury year like one suffered by Bengals in 2018 is a legit excuse to lose. They won 6 games in spite of it. So it is realistic to think a healthy core of offensive players, improved play from Bates, Lawson, Hubbard and an infusion of rookie LB Pratt may get us talent wise equal to playoff teams. Then, it becomes coaching, is Zac the answer. Can he take ML's players and win. If he is  great coach, should be yes

[Circleville Guy]

(07-19-2019, 11:34 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: I dropped the Reds about 7 years ago. Tonight was an example of why I dropped them. Blow a 7 run lead in 1 inning, they are a joke, owner is a joke and worse than MB.

Talk about rebuild, Reds until 2019 sent talent away, Frazier, Chapman nd kept guys like Votto (worst defensive 1st basement in league and Homer Bailey.

But i digress. Yes injury year like one suffered by Bengals in 2018 is a legit excuse to lose. They won 6 games in spite of it. So it is realistic to think a healthy core of offensive players, improved play from Bates, Lawson, Hubbard and an infusion of rookie LB Pratt may get us talent wise equal to playoff teams. Then, it becomes coaching, is Zac the answer. Can he take ML's players and win. If he is  great coach, should be yes

You know what I’m talking about then. Both organizations are terrible, I’m just a bigger baseball fan than I am a football fan. I do get that they should gain from the younger guys becoming more seasoned and hopefully guys being healthy. Talking about the Reds, I’m worried that the Father Time Votto thing will start to happen to the Bengals with their stud WR, DT and DE. Mostly, I’m just having a hard time seeing how the Oline won’t be crazy bad... and that’s if they all stay healthy.

[t3r3e3]

The short answer is, on paper, it hasn’t improved. The status quo has been maintained. Another 5-11 or 6-10 season is in the offing.

[Socal Bengals fan]

QB Lawrence is halfway here.

[Luvnit2]

(07-20-2019, 07:53 AM)Socal Bengals fan Wrote: QB Lawrence is halfway here.

Nope, we will be just good enough to have the second or 3rd worst record the next 2 years.

I never play anything to lose, but losing and getting stud Lawrence (yes he will be a top 5 QB in the NFL) would be a great consolation prize. The Bengals have zero HOF QB's in their history, one close in Anderson, but none. Sure would be fun to get one finally.

[Hammerstripes]

This offseason has been very frustrating for a few reasons:

1. Health. I thought the team did a very good job of upgrading the MOST important parts of the roster. The changes to the O-line were great (other than keeping Hart around). Getting AJ and Dalton healthy is a big upgrade. This team started out pretty good last year.

2. The O-line. The failed trade up in the 2nd round is really killing us now. I'm not sure who the target was, but Cody Ford would have come in handy at OG right now. Jawann Taylor or Dalton Risner would have also helped.

3. Free agency. Free agency sucks all the way around. Decent players get great contracts and great players get stupid money. It makes it damn near impossible to upgrade the roster with a starting caliber guy unless you pay him 2x what he's worth.

In the grand scheme of things, losing Jonah and Boling may be the best thing for the franchise long term. It may finally get this team to a top 2 or 3 slot in the draft and get us a legit QB star caliber QB that we haven't had since Palmer.

[Shake n Blake]

(07-20-2019, 10:56 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Nope, we will be just good enough to have the second or 3rd worst record the next 2 years.

I never play anything to lose, but losing and getting stud Lawrence (yes he will be a top 5 QB in the NFL) would be a great consolation prize. The Bengals have zero HOF QB's in their history, one close in Anderson, but none. Sure would be fun to get one finally.

Agreed. 

[THE PISTONS]

IF Taylor and the staff really flop, we could be a 3 win team. We'll likely win 6-8 games though.

Not acceptable. But not bad enough to get a real impact player that we need.

[XenoMorph]

we were a 6 win team with most of the team on IR.... Didn't lose to many major contributors from last season... (boiling)

Unless we get the IR Waive again im saying at least 9 wins... Which may or may not be enough for the playoffs.

We are playing a 4th place schedule this year which will help

[grampahol]

I'm always tempted to predict gloom and doom for this team, but that goes against all my previous predictions of winning the super bowl year after year. Now I'm not claiming they've ever won the super bowl because they haven't, but I kind of like being optimistic even when their's little to zero evidence it's even remotely warranted. 
IDK.. I just have a feeling this team will exceed expectations just enough to disappoint us all at seasons end as usual. That much we can typically count on.. In the never mentioned words of Marvin Lewis, "You won't have Lewis to kick around anymore." That's now Taylor's job.

[Luvnit2]

(07-22-2019, 11:10 AM)grampahol Wrote: I'm always tempted to predict gloom and doom for this team, but that goes against all my previous predictions of winning the super bowl year after year. Now I'm not claiming they've ever won the super bowl because they haven't, but I kind of like being optimistic even when their's little to zero evidence it's even remotely warranted. 
IDK.. I just have a feeling this team will exceed expectations just enough to disappoint us all at seasons end as usual. That much we can typically count on.. In the never mentioned words of Marvin Lewis, "You won't have Lewis to kick around anymore." That's now Taylor's job.

Impressive use as half full and half empty thoughts in the same post. You are a legend. 

[fortyyearfan]

(07-22-2019, 11:14 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Impressive use as half full and half empty thoughts in the same post. You are a legend. 

I personally do not trust our qb to get it done and make the playoffs for his team.He has made his money,has three kids and is sittin pretty and to me he is not going to take any chances with his body to make the plays a top qb needs to do when it is crunch time. Yes ,he is capable of winning 10 games,but the playoffs is a whole different game and to me he has not figured that part out and why should he risk his body for anyone.I think he looks out there and if he sees trouble for him,he bales. If I were in his shoes I do not know how I would handle being the qb.Never been there.I just do not trust the guy.For one,he is not a leader of men and the key players will see that.Hope I am wrong.Zac may be replacing him sooner than he wants.

[masonbengals fan]

I'm afraid losing both Williams and Boling will overshadow any major improvements we had made. Really a killer blow. None the less I'm looking forward to a new era. Long over due...

[Catmandude123]

(07-19-2019, 06:49 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote:  AD may not be elite, but he is solid and our backup was not good in his absence.

So losing all those injured players held Andy back but our backup QB should have exceled with even more injuries? Driskel was a back up because he was< AD. No one ever wants to hold AD responsible for any shortcoming of this team but will boil a backup in oil for not winning.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(07-17-2019, 09:47 PM)BengalChris Wrote: When I look at the roster overall I find it hard to locate any position that has been improved much. Here's the project starters.

QB Dalton - no change
RB Mixon - no change
LT Glenn - no change
LG Jerry - change from Boling, but is he any better really? Or is it going to be Westerman stepping in?
C Price - no change, but he's coming in healthy and has a year under his belt. I expect improvement.
RG Miller - upgrade over false start guy (whatever his name was)
RT Hart - no change where an upgrade was very warranted
TE Eifert - coming in healthy, as usual - How long will he last? Uzomah ended up starting last season and may very well be the guy this year, so no change here either.
WR1 AJ Green - no change
WR2 Boyd - no change
WR3 ???? - any consistency would be an upgrade, but did we acquire that consistency? Will anyone show up as a consistent WR here or do we just move Eifert out to WR as his starting role and start Uzomah at TE? Personally, I believe Eifert moved outside as a WR and Uzomah as starting TE puts our best hands on the field and creates the best kind of mis-matches.

Has the offense been upgraded? Or are we counting on people not being injured in 2019 as our upgrade?


Projected defensive starters:

LDR Dunlap - no change
DT Atkins - no change
NT Billings - no change
DE Hubbard - an upgrade over MJ, but was here last season.
DL rotation - several guys are returning from injuries and that depth should improve the DL's performance overall.
LB Vigil - no change
LB Brown - no change. Are we counting on him being healthy as the upgrade over last season's tackling void?
LB Pratt - Hopefully he'll be an upgrade over how Burfict played last season.
CB Willie Jackson - no change
CB Kirkpatrick - no change
CB Dennard - no change, Webb isn't better than Dennard but he could help out if a starting corner misses a game or two.
FS Bates - no change
SS Williams - no change

Again, I have to ask, are we counting people not being injured in 2019 as our upgrade?

A ton of these positions should be an improvement over what we saw last year. Especially with adding Sample and Pratt at the TE and LB positions. Sample is a great blocker who was underutilized at Washington, Pratt was my 2nd favorite LB in the Draft, dude can cover, tackle and he can run the Defense from what we are hearing. Pratt should be a major upgrade over all of our LB's last season and he might actually have a decent LB coach which should help everyone.

Glenn was injured last season, should get much better if healthy. I liked the depth signing of Jerry but I think Westerman takes the LG spot and he has looked good nearly everytime I have watched him play and had a good PFF rating. Price should improve immensely with more experience which also equals an upgrade, Miller is better than Redmond. Hart could improve under Turner here and wasn't as bad as people made out last year and is a decent run blocker.

Players who are young and were studs last year should only get better in Mixon, Bates and Hubbard.

Traveon Williams was a major steal and could be an upgrade over Gio, we will see.

But the #1 thing that upgrades this team is new coaching as this has been our biggest problem here for years.

[Luvnit2]

(07-22-2019, 08:47 PM)Catmandude123 Wrote: So losing all those injured players held Andy back but our backup QB should have exceled with even more injuries? Driskel was a back up because he was< AD. No one ever wants to hold AD responsible for any shortcoming of this team but will boil a backup in oil for not winning.

Did I say that? I had issues with Driskel's accuracy short, medium and long. A QB throwing the ball 5 feet high has nothing to do with hos target, it is mechanics. AD had the issue for a while, Palmer had as well, both corrected it.

So when AD had Burkhead as a WR in the Indy playoff game on the road did you say not AD's fault due to injury. I see you and other touting his 0-4 playoff record, yet ignore he lost first 2 on the road at Houston as a young QB, then lost a 3rd at Indy when we had no WR's or TE's. 

Please at least be consistent. You are not!

[Catmandude123]

(07-23-2019, 04:43 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Did I say that? I had issues with Driskel's accuracy short, medium and long. A QB throwing the ball 5 feet high has nothing to do with hos target, it is mechanics. AD had the issue for a while, Palmer had as well, both corrected it.

So when AD had Burkhead as a WR in the Indy playoff game on the road did you say not AD's fault due to injury. I see you and other touting his 0-4 playoff record, yet ignore he lost first 2 on the road at Houston as a young QB, then lost a 3rd at Indy when we had no WR's or TE's. 

Please at least be consistent. You are not!

you need to be more consistent yourself. How can you excuse AD for poor performance saying its the lines fault for not giving him time but a back up without AJ , Boyd and with third string TEs should have set the world on fire . I think you are the one who is being unfair.

[Luvnit2]

(07-23-2019, 06:49 PM)Catmandude123 Wrote: you need to be more consistent yourself. How can you excuse AD for poor performance saying its the lines fault for not giving him time but a back up without AJ , Boyd and with third string TEs should have set the world on fire . I think you are the one who is being unfair.

I have tons of posts keeping it real on AD. AD is great or bad, seems no in between. You on other hand hold him accountable to win a playoff game on the road with no weapons and have more empathy for the back up than AD.

I know 0-3 in playoffs versus 0-4 hurts your negative narrative, but to be fair whether 0-3 or 0-4 in playoffs, he is one of few to get team to playoffs 1st 4 years in the league and did lead an injury riddled team at Indy in playoff loss. That is fact.

[*jason*]

(07-22-2019, 07:45 PM)fortyyearfan Wrote: I personally do not trust our qb to get it done and make the playoffs for his team.He has made his money,has three kids and is sittin pretty and to me he is not going to take any chances with his body to make the plays a top qb needs to do when it is crunch time. Yes ,he is capable of winning 10 games,but the playoffs is a whole different game and to me he has not figured that part out and why should he risk his body for anyone.I think he looks out there and if he sees trouble for him,he bales. If I were in his shoes I do not know how I would handle being the qb.Never been there.I just do not trust the guy.For one,he is not a leader of men and the key players will see that.Hope I am wrong.Zac may be replacing him sooner than he wants.

So you don't think a guy who has twice had his season ended by injury by giving up his body is gonna go all out?

Cam Newtown didn't do that in the Super Bowl...