At what point will fans admit we're rebuilding?

[Bengalbug]

(09-15-2017, 12:18 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Over the past 2 free agency periods we lost a bunch of experienced, quality starters.

1 ) Jones - Starting WR2 (Lafell has replaced his production last year)
2 ) Sanu - Quality WR3 (Boyd replaced his production last year)
3 ) Nelson - Starting Safety and great against the pass (outside of a play here or there, the secondary hasn't been an issue)
4 ) Whitworth - Starting LT, perennial Pro Bowl player, and Team Leader (Big miss)
5 ) Zeitler - Starting Guard - Nearing Pro Bowl caliber (big miss)
6 ) Peko - Team leader and run stuffer (from all accounts he was garbage and one of the worst tackles, not a top 1/2 of the roster player as you say)
7 ) Maualuga - Run stuffing LB but terrible against the pass (not missed and minter/vigil/rey are fine replacements)
8 ) Leon Hall - Good CB with experience who was used to cover mainly slot receivers his last year here. (Again, secondary has been fine since hall lef)
9 ) Dansby (was terrible last year, vigil, minter, Rey are all adequate replacements)
10 ) Lamur (see above)
11 ) Andre Smith when he was starting RT. (He came back as a backup G.) When he was our starting Tackle...he was pretty good. (He is back on the team now so I don't know why he is here. It hurt us last year but if he can't crack the starting OL rotation, he clearly isn't good)
12 ) Burkhead (only played bc of injuries. He is a dime a dozen running back and he wouldn't sniff the field with mixon, gio, hill)

The 1st wave of losses pushed us down to a 6.5 win team. Then we lost our 2 best offensive lineman this past offseason and so far are 0-2.

We don't really sign more than bargain bin free agents so these guys weren't replaced much there. Lafell was a good signing. Minter appears to be.

Then our drafts haven't been producing a lot of impact. In time they may, but they haven't produced enough impact to negate these losses.

Plain and simple we're rebuilding. On offense alone we need 4 starting caliber lineman. Possible a starting TE depending on Eifert. On defense, we may need upgrades at DT, DE, and LB.

Probably too many holes to fix in one offseason...especially since we only sign bargain bin free agents.

See my comments above for each position. The bengals have done a great job of liking in adequate replacements except for whit and zeitler. If you want to argue Nelson I will give you that as well.

But you also need to mention the bengals added a ton of speed with LB/De over the last two years in the draft. William Jackson looks like a good player. Boyd and Lafell might be better than Sanu and jones.

The biggest difference in this team over the last 3 years, is losing Hue, and then losing whit and zeitler. That's all

This team isn't rebuilding, it's coaching plain and simple.