09-28-2020, 08:01 AM
(09-27-2020, 11:37 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: My answers to Mike:
Not everyone wanted Taylor. Some thought hiring a position coach was a bad idea. Many wanted Bieniemy. Myself included.
Yes you spent money in FA but all on the defensive side of the ball. How could you, Tobin, and Taylor feel comfortable putting a rookie QB behind this OL?
It's worth remembering that the way Tobin and Taylor tackled the O-line in the off-season was to cut Cordy Glenn and John Miller. I know those two aren't great and that they weren't the answer but they had two of our best 3 grades on O-line according to PFF. We actually got weaker (and cheaper) at O-line than we were going into last season.
(09-28-2020, 02:16 AM)WestCoastBengalsFan Wrote: The only shot we have at winning in Oct is next weeks game at home against Jax. After that we have the Ravens, Colts, and Browns again. At this point I'm less concerned about wins and more concerned about the future. A few concerns/comments below:
1. Burrow not getting hurt or burnout on the lack of commitment to winning. Realistically the Bengals weren't going to do anything this year but without seeing the commitment to making meaningful changes, i.e. fixing the Oline and holding people accountable, then I don't see how Burrow doesn't look around and wonder if he did make a big mistake coming here. Enough talk from Zac/Duke, it's time for action, he's going to lose the team if he doesn't do something soon. Trade draft picks for an Oline asset, you've got to do something.
2. Zac and the coaches he brought in to surround him. Realistically Zac was just a guy with big talk, positive attitude, and pushing for change. Something that the Bengals desperately needed to revive the narrative around mediocre (at best) teams, thought process, and public image. He was nothing more than those things and the Bengals needed them after 16 years of Marv and Mike running things "old school". What is happening is the execution is not matching the theories, talk, and they're losing any credibility extremely quickly. Not because they losing but because of HOW they are losing. Zac is in way over his head, he doesn't have excellent coaches (other than Darrin) to make up for his inexperience that he can lean on. He's going to lose the team and fans if he doesn't try to make immediate changes. Not sure who he could get to come help out but they should be pulling out every trick in the bag to make it happen. Again, I'm not as concerned about wins as I am about improvements and building something for the next few years.
3. I gave Zac last year as a new HC, late start, didn't have his guys, etc. Hell I was prepared to give him this year too as long as there was actual commitment to change in execution, accountability, and not just talk. So far Zac has been nothing but a "paper tiger" (no pun intended, it's an actual phrase, google it), he has not backed up any of his talk about accountability. What he needs to be doing are revolutionary changes and not evolutionary. From his words/actions thus far he's stuck in the latter and that's not going to cut it to fix the Bengals problems. It's like the story of the chicken and the pig when talking about eggs and bacon for breakfast. Sure the chicken is involved but the pig is committed. We need a pig or we're going to be stuck in this misery all season. Be a pig Zac...be a pig.
End rant.
I don't think that is entirely accurate: Fred Johnson was benched mid-game yesterday; top ten pick John Ross was made inactive after offering nothing first two games; Preston Brown was cut midway through last season; the D was revamped in the off-season including major FA acquisitions in Reader and Waynes; he moved on from Dalton; all last year's free agent signings (Miller, Webb etc) were cut or not re-signed et cetera.
I'm confident that if he's Head Coach next year we'd see him do to the O-line what they did to the D last off-season. I'm not sure how much you can change an O-line before then (ie mid-season) though. Any street free-agent or trade isn't going to know the play-book and you'd have to query why they were available. Like personnel changes any coaching changes are likely to be in-house replacements.
The question is why wasn't this done in the off-season?
The second question is then are Duke Tobin and Zac Taylor the men to fix it?
