05-15-2021, 12:32 PM
(05-15-2021, 11:30 AM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: But the man was here entirely way too long. He would have been fired anywhere else about a decade earlier.
I think this is true. But it doesn't mean he should have been fired earlier imo (certainly not by a decade). I don't know how many of those years were spent trying to re-legitimize the Bengals' brand, where stability was as important as success. Would he have been fired earlier in Green Bay/Dallas/Denver/KC, etc.? Yes. Does that mean anything for the Bengals given the decade-plus that preceded him? Not so much.
Even in hindsight, I don't know what the "right time" would have been to fire the man. He deserved some credit/margin for this franchise's unique context, but just how much is the question- to which I still don't have an answer. I could have seen it backfiring even worse had they let him go too soon. And it might even be moot if we're in the same spot now after having waited too long. The situation in Cincinnati was always more sensitive than any other team's.
In the end, the cards were stacked against him from the day he got here. I'm as grateful for the things he managed to accomplish as I am disgusted that he couldn't win a single playoff game. It's hard to side with either extreme imo.
