05-24-2018, 10:09 AM
(05-23-2018, 06:49 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: X2 !
A bunch of these preseason articles are all hype and end up not panning out come September. But there's a whole lot more to be optimistic about this time around. If the line can gel and all the play makers can stay healthy it could be dynamite.
AJ, Ross, Eifert, Gio, Mixon all on the field at the same time would give the opposing D a nightmare to cover.
For some of the old timers on the board, there has never been a better hype piece story than the "Nasty Nate" article HobSPIN came out with years back. This is the time of year the flowers are blooming, optimism is in the air and everyone is ready for football, so fluff pieces are easier to get by with.
With that said, I too, am a little more pumped for this training camp, not really the season yet until we see how some of these younger guys look against each other, not other teams. As others have said, we need the younger guys to step up big time this year.
A lot of people in the thread have said that it isn't the drafting lately that caused the last few years, and I'm not sure thats true. I think its a mix of the drafting being pretty poor the last few years, injuries to some of those draft picks exasperating the bad drafts (WJaxIII), bad coaching philosophy and not getting young guys more reps, and ultimately not replacing the talent we lose in free agency. We've signed guys like Dre K, while letting extensions come and go for guys like Zietler. Duke doesn't get a pass for having no back ups and putting all of his eggs in Ced and a few other players, S. Williams cough cough, Vigil cough cough, Billings cough cough, Fisher...... the list goes on and on. We could have signed free agents but this front office hand cuffs Tobin a lot as well.
To blame this all on drafting is kind of a "madden" mindset. This is a perfect shit storm of the whole organization. Hopefully as others have said, this will finally be the year that a different mentality and philosophy is what changes, which has been the biggest hiccup in this franchise for years.
