O line struggeling

[Whatever]

(08-08-2017, 05:41 PM)Hoofhearted Wrote: How can anybody - NFL coach or not - tell when or if someone's play will drop off? I never said anything about a tag. Had they really wanted to keep Whit, you structure a deal almost identical as Rams did. Gives you options after his first year to cut without a huge penalty. Simply put: they preach being "a family", but can't sit down and come to terms with a legend over a year or two of shoddy play? The Rams said we'll work with you on a deal where we can give you some years while also putting outs in place if you do crap down your leg. It's ridiculous how people can in any way defend this move. The Bengals really screwed this one up and further proves the point that MB is cheap and IMO proves he also has very little interest/knowledge in forming a SB caliber team.

And the Brady reference was strictly based on the premise we should of walked from Whit because of his age. The NFL is very smart in protecting their assets. Ask a old time NFL player what it was like 10-20 years ago. Practices were bush league and violent. Go to an NFL camp and practice now. Some don't even hit each other or an extended period of time. Some tackle robotic tackle dummies. Shits way different now and rules are put into place for these players to play longer. We can't use past time in service vs current because it's not an accurate comparison

Whit still played very well last year, but he did drop off a bit from previous years.  He is already starting to slide.  In the NFL, you want to move on before the bottom totally drops out.  

Contract talks go both ways.  Could the Bengals have offered more money to Whit?  Yes.  Could Whit have given the team that had given him numerous extensions and made him a very rich man a bit of a hometown discount to stay?  Yes.  There was no reason for the Bengals to go over what they thought was fair when they had already drafted a replacement, and they offered him well over $10 million.  People act like the Bengals should start handing out blank checks every time one of their favorite player's contract is up.  They could also not just structure a multi year deal so he could easily be cut due to the Willie Anderson fiasco.  Willie was highly paid, oft injured and not that good anymore when they had to cut him, and the fanbase went ballistic.  Same thing would've happened with Whit.  

The unspoken part of the Whit deal is he was a lot of people's favorite player, and those people think the Bengals should have paid him whatever he wanted for as long as he wanted for him to retire a Bengal.  As much as you can call the Bengals cheap for letting Whit walk over a few million, on the flip side, it wasn't worth that few million to him to retire here.  Vince Wilfork, Revis, Welker, Vinatieri, etc were all beloved Patriot players who had tread left on their tires when they parted ways.  It sucks, but it's part of the business now if you want to be successful.