Coach Pollack Speaks

[*ochocincos*]

(05-09-2021, 01:53 PM)Isaac Curtis: The Real #85 Wrote: Prior to the 2020 season, the Browns signed Jake Conklin as a FA from Tenn. He had been all-pro once in TN. They also drafted Jedrick Willis, OT, with their first round pick.

They prioritized improving the OL. They did. They made the POs. What a coincidence! Callahan deserves some credit, no doubt. Conklin was all-pro again. 

Now, I was firmly on team Sewell, but that is done, now. Adding Reiff & Carman will help. Adding Pollack will help. How much? I guess we will have a year to see. 

One way to look at it is that the Burrow, Mixon, Chase, Higgins, and Boyd have the skill positions set for a couple years (or hopefully, more). We could use more depth, but in terms of high draft picks or big ticket FAs, we are probably looking at other positions in the near future.

Turner was a disaster. Don't trust what you saw of guys with Turner at the helm. Give Pollack a year with the guys we had (Jonah, Hopkins, XSF, Spain, Price, Johnson, Jordan, Adeniji) + a solid vet OT in Reiff + his choice on some new guys (Carman, Smith, Hill) & we can then have a real idea of what our needs are and what those guys can do.

Yes, I realize that is 12 guys and we likely only keep 10. Hopefully 2 go to the PS and our PS level guys migrate off the roster altogether (Prince, Sutherland).

If Pollack can make these guys shine, fantastic. Maybe Jonah turns into a perennial pro-bowler at LT and Carman is a homerun at RG and Price plays like a first rounder and Spain & XSF play the best they've ever played and Smith looks like the steal of the draft and Jordan becomes a monster.

But that is coming up roses an awful lot. I tend to doubt it. Unless Pollack cheats like Bob Baffert. If our OL makes the jump to average, that is a HUGE improvement. And speaks well of Pollack. 

But I am still of a mind to emphasize OL next year as well. If our O-line was good, or very good, or, great, what do you think Burrow, Mixon, Chase, Higgins, and Boyd could do? What could Pollack do with A level talent? I think we'd be contenders. Pronto.

The Bengals' approach to the OL really isn't THAT far off from what the Browns have done, it's just not quite there yet.
Each team drafted a new LT in the 1st round.
Each team picked up a former 1st rounder in FA.
Each team drafted a 2nd rounder for one of their OG spots.
Each team picked up a good pass blocker but just ok run blocker outside of the team to play their other OG spot (Teller was just ok at run blocking until last year).
Both teams got a new OL coach after their previous one underwhelmed.

The only difference really now is the Browns signed a proven C in FA whereas the Bengals turned a bad OG in Hopkins into a decent C.

If the Bengals can get a similar turnaround with XSF and/or Spain that CLE got with Teller, and if Carman can turn into something similar to Bitonio, they could end up having a decent OL.