Punching Bags and their Replacements

[bengals67]

(05-02-2021, 01:06 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I would not say "several positions" but I agree with the overall point you are making.  Good teams have decent back ups, but even they struggle when they have to start guys at the margins of the roster.  LeShaun Simms is a perfect example.  He started 10 games for us. It hurt to lose Waynes before the season even started, but we still would have had decent talent at CB if we had not lost Alexander for 3 games, Jackson for 2, and Phillips for 4.

Same at DT.  Geno is one of my all-time favorite Bengals, but when he tried to come back and play injured last year he was useless.  Billings was no big star, but he was good enough to get $4million a year from the Brows in free agency.  When we lost Reader we had scraps at DT.  If Reader and Ogunjobi can stay healthy this year we will go from some of the worst to one of the best duos in the league.  It will be by far our most improved position.  And even though DTs usually don't put up big sack numbers it is very hard for edge rushers to get sacks when the QB can just step up into the pocket.

I hope that Geno is healthy and comes back and is good enough to make the team.

Might be a pipedream.