01-31-2020, 12:41 PM
(01-31-2020, 11:57 AM)jj22 Wrote: There hadn't been a legit free agent signing since Bryant. No Dalton didn't get the help once the contracts of players who were here before him ran out (the oline, Sanu/MJ etc).
**correction** Sanu/MJ weren't here before him, but the FO never tried to keep them for him.
A probowler hadn't been drafted since 2012 (maybe 2013 can't remember when Eifert was drafted). No Allpro since 2011.
They did nothing to put those playoff teams over the hump. Nothing.
We just had good experienced coaches (which we don't have now on Offense to help Burrow, and again they did nothing to change that).
Unless you are referencing the over-aged linebackers they signed each offseason under Dalton.........
I never heard folks claiming that was building a team around Dalton before now.
Well Im not arguing how they did it, but they did it. We shouldnt have needed anything more to get over the hump in both 2005 and 2015 in particular. The Carson/Kimo thing was just what it was. Nobody not even Mike Brown in this organization had a thing to do with what happened, but if Carson didnt get hurt, we were poised to beat the eventual SB bound Stealers with a team the Bengals built. 2015, imo we even had a better overall team, and one could argue if Dalton didnt get hurt, we may have beat the Steelers, but someone will always counter argue that Dalton already proved he was a choke artist before that. None of that matters because we beat the living crap out of the Steelers that day, but with very marginal QB play and a slew of lame mistakes, we couldnt seal the deal. An elite QB and we win by 2 TDs at least and have a shot at making the SB. We didnt need anything to get over the hump that year except better QB play.
Maybe a big name like Bryant who made very little impact is what we need more of, but I look at FAs like Gilberry who actually made our team better and would like to find more contributers like that.
Marvin, the LB whisperer was the worst LB builder ever. I blame him for the lack of really good LBs except when he sort of got lucky with Burfict. We shouldve had better LBs forever ago, but Marv thought he could always develop raw project type guys and tweaners. That definitely held us back. Pratt already looks like the best LB we've drafted in yeeeears. Sad but true.
