Frank Pollack back?

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(01-09-2024, 06:02 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote:  
yay

I'm not blaming him for everything, but I have been underwhelmed with all involved with the OL for more than awhile, Pollack, Tobin, McNally, Taylor, Callahan and Brown.

I wanted the Bengals to trade the Joe Burrow pick to Carolina at 8 and then trade down again, picking up future first round picks with each trade down and then focus on OL. Not because I didn't have faith in Joe Burrow, I didn't have faith in the Bengals and I didn't want him to be Andrew Luck'd out of the league. So far, I'm neither right or wrong.

Here is the OL for Burrow's rookie season - Holdovers from 2019 at LG, C and RT
LT Jonah Williams - Fred Johnson - Hakeem Adeniji 2019 LT Andre Smith - John Jerry - Cordell Glenn each with 5 starts apiece
LG Michael Jordan - Xavier Su'a-Filo - Shaq Calhoun - Keaton Sutherland
C Trey Hopkins - Billy Price - BJ Finney
RG Alex Redmond - Quentin Spain 2019 RG John Miller 13 starts
RT Bobby Hart

Now let us look at their OL activity since Joe Burrow's knee injury.

2021
Reilly Rieff FA - I actually thought that he played great until injured, but maybe it was still from me suffering from a severe case of Bobby Hart
2nd round Carman
4th round Smith
6th round Hill

2022
Karras FA
Cappa FA
Collins FA
4th round Volson

2023
Brown FA

Only one o-lineman drafted in the last two years. I honestly think that they'll look at FA more than the draft to replace Williams at RT. FA is a crap shoot, but it's been a much more reliable crap shoot than their attempts at drafting and developing OL. Often, the Bengals like to fill almost every hole in FA before the draft to leave them with BPA. They may still go RT at 18, but it's a long time until draft day. Many players will rise and fall as the scouts and draftniks get more time to look at film on the guys that slipped through the cracks.

Who knows? Maybe D'Ante Smith or Jackson Carman will step up and claim RT. Not holding my breath on that one.

My biggest issue is the oline has been a problem since 2016. I'm certainly far from circling the wagons for Frank, but this problem predates him, and Zac for that matter. It's a front office problem to me at this point. I think people forget the downfall of Andy Dalton started opening day 2016. He was sacked seven times at NYJ. It went downhill fast from there. The alarming part is, this year's line is the best we've seen in quite some time.