12-29-2020, 02:51 AM
(12-28-2020, 02:32 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: We love our Bengals but sometimes this means using TOUGH love.
It’s time for some tough love, just in time for the last game of the season, and no one wants the Bengals to wreck the Ravens more than I.
Sometimes familiarity becomes TOO familiar if you know what I mean. While the Bengals will win four or five games this year we need to think seriously about how to get to the playoffs consistently again. I’ve mentioned this before but “Cincinnati good” and “NFL good” are often mutually exclusive. If you watch other games not involving the Bengals you’ll see exactly what I mean. We love our particular players and we get emotionally involved in their success but we need to get real.
VERY real!
How many players on the Bengals’ roster could honestly make the roster of a Super Bowl team? Jessie Bates? Gio Bernard? Sam Hubbard? Tee Higgins? Maybe Joe Burrow?
I don’t use PFF grades but right now there is a dearth of championship caliber players on the current Bengals’ roster. Let’s start making some smart personnel decisions and look to the near future. There is deadwood which needs to be cut, players whose potential turned out to be less than anticipated, and those who would make for a good trade bait.
I think lots of responses questioned about which Bengals would make a championship roster. I think the real issue is how few Bengals are elite level players. The type of players that elevate others around them, beat their man consistently one on one, require double teaming and gameplanning or just plain old make things happen.
Bates is the only player on this roster that deserved discussion about being an All-Pro. Burrows may get their one day. Many of the Bengals current players would be better if the guy beside them was better. Lawson and Hubbard would benefit from an interior pass rush or dominant blitzing linebacker. Burrowns and Mixon would excel if they had time or holes. There are a few weak spots for sure --but I think the biggest problem is the lack of dominant players. How many players on GB, Seattle and KC are elite? How many Bengals are?
When this team went to the playoffs it had more players who were near the top for their positions and forced teams to account for them every play.
