Four consecutive years

[Shake n Blake]

(10-16-2017, 01:54 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Yes. Basically the way we 1) Don't sign Tier 2 and 3 free agents and 2) Don't retain some of our core free agents letting them walk for Comp Picks...makes us have to have a Good to Great draft EVERY YEAR to maintain a talented roster.

I've posted all the guys we've lost over the past 2 years. We clearly have not replaced them all. Yes - Someone will start that we likely drafted...but that doesn't mean that they are a quality starter.

For instance, people see Nick Vigil's tackle stats and think he's awesome. He's rated 47.6 by PFF. https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/players/nick-vigil/10721. Vigil is a TERRIBLE LB.

Andrew Billings: ranked 50.0 or Poor. Billings has been a TERRIBLE DT. https://staging.profootballfocus.com/nfl/players/andrew-billings/10756

Yep. You, me, Wyche and a few others have been harping on this for years. I knew we were treading water by avoiding FA and relying 100% on the draft, but some didn't want to hear about it. They bought into the Hobspin nonsense about "model model" and how the Bengals were doing things the right way.

This team still has a good core with Andy, Green, Atkins, Dunlap, Burfict and a solid secondary...but the rest of the roster has fallen off a bit...mainly the o-line, which has been criminally neglected. That core is still good enough to make us competitive even with the o-line, but it's obvious we're not going anywhere even if we manage to scrape our way to the playoffs. 

So basically that great core of players will eventually be remembered as good teams that always disappointed in the end. Similar to the core of Carson, Chad, TJ, Rudi, Justin Smith, Simmons, Deltha and Tory James. That core had the same problems. (1) Marvin is synonymous with choking and (2) Mike wouldn't spend to bring them help. In the end, the defense never got the help that Chad and (probably) Carson wanted, the o-line fell apart and that was that. 

Lather, rinse, repeat. Here we are 9 years later in the exact same scenario.

For some reason, most fans blame the players. Which enables the teflon GM to keep being a stubborn idiot.