03-13-2023, 09:22 PM
(03-13-2023, 09:03 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Yeah, sure, those guys will be swell..
Many Bengal fans thinking that keeping Joe, Jamarr and Tee together somehow = Super Bowl Win, when the reality couldn't be further from the truth. The old saying is that offense puts butts in the seats, but Defense wins championships. It's still true today.
The Bengals made this great run the past two years on the strength of a defense that was predicated by the strong play at the Safety position. Having one of the premier Safety duos in the NFL allowed the Bengals to go cheap, really cheap by NFL standards at one of the "premium" positions in the league, CB. Does anyone for a minute feel like the Bengals CBs can even remotely appear to be as good as they did the past two years, by rolling out a second year Safety that had more screw ups than noteworthy plays teemed with some guy that wasn't even part of the team as the Free Safety?
If anyone thinks that the Bengal defense is going to come out and perform business as usual like the past two seasons, had better get their football IQ checked, because even if Awuzie comes back stronger than before the injury, they will be woefully undermanned in the secondary. Also, anyone thinking that "the offense will just score so many points that other teams won't hang", unless they make wholesale improvements at Tackle, and develop a rushing attack that can chew clock and keep the defense off of the field, y'all will be in for a rude awakening.
Letting both starting Safeties leave for greener pa$tures will definitely come back to haunt this team. Just when we thought that management had turned a corner, welcome to the good ole days where mediocrity is good enough, as long as fans are still buying tickets!
Well, I still think there's a chance that this can pan out. There's some logic to the road they're going down. Jesse's deal was a non-starter here. He just wasn't a guy they were ever going to sink that kind of coin into. It's another symptom of having a lot of really good players and not being able to keep all of them forever. On a shittier Bengal roster, he'd have been a must-sign. Well, idk. His agent was kind of a prick.
I'm a huge Bell fan, but if you told me it would take 10 mil per to retain him I'd have passed too.
I feel like the best path might be for Hill to replace Bell. Find a free safety to fill in Bates' role, and move forward. Dax may not be on Bell's level yet, but I think his ceiling is much higher than Vonn's.
On a less positive note, this sucks for Lou Anarumo. He's tasked with replacing both safeties while already being saddled with good but not great corners, the best one being a huge question mark due to injury. He'll have his work cut out for him getting the new-look secondary up to speed vs a loaded AFC.
His stock as a head coaching candidate could take a massive hit if this defense drops off and the magic isn't there anymore. They don't exactly generate a ton of pressure, so they will need whoever steps in to cover extensively.
