09-22-2020, 10:15 AM
There have been a lot of comparisons made about Cincy's coaching staff. Here are my full thoughts on the matter.
Zac Taylor was a highly questioned hire, especially with him coming rather late into the off-season, you know about all of this if you have followed the team closely recently. I think it was an interesting one, and while it was highly-panned by some because of the "talked to Sean McVay while in line" joke, this has become a trend as of recently with the Giants hiring Joe Judge as HC and perhaps is better than a simple retread hires to some which many fans of this team were afraid of. As for retreads, I think that Rivera could have worked better for the team, considering that he is a defensive-minded coach and could have done a Peyton Manning type situation where the QB virtually runs the offense. From what I have seen, without JB improvising the offensive play calling is very conservative and sometimes predictable. I also don't know how much of Rivera's defensive success is due to inheriting a good defense and drafting one of the most vaunted defensive prospects in recent memory. Yes, I know RR wasn't available but I also think the Lewis firing was a bit rash and they could have waited another year for better "retreads" to become available.
Rivera also seems to be changing the culture of an organization that is known for having a bad owner, but I think that MB is not that bad compared to Snyder, but I don't know how much of the disdain for Snyder as a person is just social media pearl-clutching and plain made-up stories people got from Redditors who wanted to seem cool. Keep in mind that this was one game and off-season with Rivera though, and many others have tried to fix WFT to no avail. Taylor has had similar reports, with players talking positively about him and the positive atmosphere team events have had since he came to Cincy. I think this is more than talk, with how little the team has been penalized during his tenure (during a 2-14 season, no less!) shows something. One should also note that coaches with cultural issues and lost teams commonly have that dirty laundry aired, see Gase, Jay Gruden from last year, and the entire Jaguars organization having so many issues that the PA had to get involved although I am not sure how much of that was due to the VP because even though Marrone is a bad coach, players seem to enjoy playing for him.
Now onto the elephant in the room, 2-16. Yes, that is an awful coaching record and there is a lot of public calls for his jobs on social media, The Bengals Board (which is even more of a funeral than social media in terms of pessimism), and even on here. I don't agree with this, I think that a coach should get at least three years, hell or high-water especially when there are so much new personnel and things to overcome regarding culture and staffing. Consider that Bill Walsh did not get a winning record until his third year. I am not saying that ZT is Bill Walsh but time is necessary to see who he is considering the situation he was thrown into, with the Lewis era's roster bottoming out and our best players being injured and AD looking broken.
I am however not a fan of our coordinators, especially Anarumo. Even though most of our defense is new, and desperately missing Geno, the defense just looked plain soft, unwilling to tackle, and unable to manufacture pass-rush. Especially with how much investment there was in the D, it is almost certainly his fault. There is also some excuse about rust from no preseason though. I feel that he is the only one that should be fired sooner rather than later, with the OC being uninspiring but there are concerns about the line and some of the WRs that should (and under this regime, probably will) be addressed before fully judging the OC. It is rather uninspiring that a so-called offensive guru's offense is this conservative and somewhat predictable so far however but he has some benefit of the doubt while the DC has none. I don't even mind the suggestion of paying Tez to practice with the D to get some physicality.
So far, ZT has been a mixed bag and has a lot to be both pessimistic and optimistic about. I think he should be given the rest of the season before getting canned but stuff has gotta change on the offensive side of the roster and the coaches of the defensive side of the ball. And this is my couch GM opinion that is shared by at least one commentator, if Burrow is getting absolutely murdered out there and the season is already lost, just put Finley out there and trade a lot of veterans. If we secure the first overall pick again, trading it and still getting either Sewell and Leatherwood is possible, with that and FA, ZT and BC will have no excuses. (Although the offense wasn't terrible Thursday, I'm not convinced, the Browns have trash defense).
Zac Taylor was a highly questioned hire, especially with him coming rather late into the off-season, you know about all of this if you have followed the team closely recently. I think it was an interesting one, and while it was highly-panned by some because of the "talked to Sean McVay while in line" joke, this has become a trend as of recently with the Giants hiring Joe Judge as HC and perhaps is better than a simple retread hires to some which many fans of this team were afraid of. As for retreads, I think that Rivera could have worked better for the team, considering that he is a defensive-minded coach and could have done a Peyton Manning type situation where the QB virtually runs the offense. From what I have seen, without JB improvising the offensive play calling is very conservative and sometimes predictable. I also don't know how much of Rivera's defensive success is due to inheriting a good defense and drafting one of the most vaunted defensive prospects in recent memory. Yes, I know RR wasn't available but I also think the Lewis firing was a bit rash and they could have waited another year for better "retreads" to become available.
Rivera also seems to be changing the culture of an organization that is known for having a bad owner, but I think that MB is not that bad compared to Snyder, but I don't know how much of the disdain for Snyder as a person is just social media pearl-clutching and plain made-up stories people got from Redditors who wanted to seem cool. Keep in mind that this was one game and off-season with Rivera though, and many others have tried to fix WFT to no avail. Taylor has had similar reports, with players talking positively about him and the positive atmosphere team events have had since he came to Cincy. I think this is more than talk, with how little the team has been penalized during his tenure (during a 2-14 season, no less!) shows something. One should also note that coaches with cultural issues and lost teams commonly have that dirty laundry aired, see Gase, Jay Gruden from last year, and the entire Jaguars organization having so many issues that the PA had to get involved although I am not sure how much of that was due to the VP because even though Marrone is a bad coach, players seem to enjoy playing for him.
Now onto the elephant in the room, 2-16. Yes, that is an awful coaching record and there is a lot of public calls for his jobs on social media, The Bengals Board (which is even more of a funeral than social media in terms of pessimism), and even on here. I don't agree with this, I think that a coach should get at least three years, hell or high-water especially when there are so much new personnel and things to overcome regarding culture and staffing. Consider that Bill Walsh did not get a winning record until his third year. I am not saying that ZT is Bill Walsh but time is necessary to see who he is considering the situation he was thrown into, with the Lewis era's roster bottoming out and our best players being injured and AD looking broken.
I am however not a fan of our coordinators, especially Anarumo. Even though most of our defense is new, and desperately missing Geno, the defense just looked plain soft, unwilling to tackle, and unable to manufacture pass-rush. Especially with how much investment there was in the D, it is almost certainly his fault. There is also some excuse about rust from no preseason though. I feel that he is the only one that should be fired sooner rather than later, with the OC being uninspiring but there are concerns about the line and some of the WRs that should (and under this regime, probably will) be addressed before fully judging the OC. It is rather uninspiring that a so-called offensive guru's offense is this conservative and somewhat predictable so far however but he has some benefit of the doubt while the DC has none. I don't even mind the suggestion of paying Tez to practice with the D to get some physicality.
So far, ZT has been a mixed bag and has a lot to be both pessimistic and optimistic about. I think he should be given the rest of the season before getting canned but stuff has gotta change on the offensive side of the roster and the coaches of the defensive side of the ball. And this is my couch GM opinion that is shared by at least one commentator, if Burrow is getting absolutely murdered out there and the season is already lost, just put Finley out there and trade a lot of veterans. If we secure the first overall pick again, trading it and still getting either Sewell and Leatherwood is possible, with that and FA, ZT and BC will have no excuses. (Although the offense wasn't terrible Thursday, I'm not convinced, the Browns have trash defense).
