01-25-2023, 11:48 AM
(01-25-2023, 09:12 AM)Sled21 Wrote: This is such a tired argument. Did Marvin Lewis not have Carson Palmer? Though he's now labeled quitter by some, and some others probably do not remember when he was drafted, when he came out of USC, he was the arguably hottest QB around, and Mike paid him a record breaking salary. That's why the Stealers had to injure him to continue their glory days.
Yep. It's like ZT has had nothing to with Joe and his development. That argument comes from people that really have no clue what actually goes on outside the 3 hours of football every week each season in that complex. I'd add that it's even more remarkable the job ZT has done because:
1. He had to actually sell the organization to JB prior to drafting him and that required building a relationship and a vision especially when the rest of the world is is telling him it's the worst place to be. Joe could have easily been a prima donna had he wanted to and not put every ounce of effort into the team like he has.
2. Putting JB behind what had been damn near the worst OL in football in prior years and during JB's first couple years. Again, a vision.
3. Dealing with Joe's injury and making him still believe when,again, the rest of the world was pointing fingers telling him I told you so.
4. Remolding an entire offense this past season due to a myriad of reasons and going from a strict vertical offense to what we see now at a critical juncture when the team was 0-2 coming off what we know can be very short windows of success in this league.
Again, Joe is a cool cat, likes ZT alot, will probably be very fair in contract negotiations to ensure future team success, etc. but Joe is also human and it's not as if the Bengals had anything close to recent success to sell to him. It took a great sales job and personal connection from ZT to Joe. If anybody doesn't believe that then they need to listen to joe just in the past couple weeks saying he wants to remain a Bengal forever especially with ZT as the coach.
