Billy B has 'tremendous respect for the way Mike runs his organization'

[*psychdoctor*]

(01-11-2020, 10:24 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: I only made it to your response and I figured everything after yours would follow suit so I just went ahead and replied to yours.  I do not mean for any of what follows to sound like a personal attack, but just a counterpoint to the general "Mike Brown sucks" and how the team will never win a Super Bowl rhetoric:

Friends, the Brown family is frugal, yes.  But they have not, in recent memory, offered a very competitive contract to any player that was a solid piece of their franchise unless that player was nearing the end of their career and they had already drafted a replacement. (Whit).  The money they have offered those players has been fair, and unlike many teams, they honor that contract the vast majority of the time...FAR more than the average NFL team.  If I am a player, I would have great appreciation for the team that actually paid me the escalated contract value (something they actually tend to avoid in design) at the end of the contract, instead of releasing the player to avoid paying the dollars that made the contract seem large in the first place.  

Does anyone think Gio is worth what they are paying him?  You could say it is how he is being utilized, but any other team would have moved on by now.  So, if you are going to cry cheap, you have to give credit here.

Where the Bengals got a lot of insults over their frugality stemmed from things like only having tiny locker room towels.  Esiason made a famous gesture of buying towels for the team that were actually big enough to cover a big man.  And in typical Boomer fashion, he made that information public.  This frugality stemmed from a different era.  Paul Brown coached in an era where players didn't wear earrings, they made what a good business man could make, and they never questioned anything because they were simply glad to be in the league.  The Bengals carried that "don't baby these guys, make them tough" mentality in to an era where owners like Mark Cuban had special lounges for players to hang out, sleep, play video games, etc before games.  I can't say that I agree with how the Bengals were handling things, but I understand it.  That has changed over the years.  They now have nutritionists, better food service, recovery drinks (fresh smoothies with protein and creatine, etc).  

The Bengals also don't have a mega-stadium.  They have a below-average venue.  I think some fans hate the Brown family for what they see in Dallas, Minnesota, and the pending stadium in Las Vegas.  However, look at the area between the stadiums.  Anyone around to see what it was like when they played at Riverfront?  Think the downtown has done a bit better of late?  

And it isn't just the Bengals stadium being funded largely by taxpayers...the Reds were a part of the deal as well.  I guess since they actually won a championship in 1990 they get a pass.

I will likely get hammered for this entire post anyways, so why hold back on this opinion?  They Bengals should have won the Super Bowl in 2005, and perhaps even more likely, 2015.  That is twice in as many decades.  I am not saying they should get a pass for the playoff failures, but who doesn't think they had a really good chance if Palmer was there in 2005 and Dalton in 2015.  Love Peyton Manning, but that year the Bengals damn near beat Denver in Denver, in primetime, with McCarron as their QB.  

The Bengals were doing well since the 90s (where the only fun was a few years of a high-flying Blake to Pickens show) relative to the draft and having a competitive team on the field.  In the past five years, however, their draft picks were some pretty big failures:  Ogbuehi and Fisher set this team back, and Billy Price looks like a massive whiff.  It happens, but you can't deny that they were drafting pretty well in the Marvin Lewis era and had a really nice run of coaches as well.  I think last year's draft was a dud, but with the pending Burrow draft and what I see as a critical time to pay for their mistakes with a couple key free agent selections, the team could rebound quickly.  

I personally think a lot of the hate-fire stems from all these years without a playoff win.

I was mad, for the record, that Marv was retained over someone like Zimmer after the SD playoff loss, but I digress.

I believe the Reds stadium is more fun and has a better food/drink choice than PBS by far, but you can't blame the Bengals for spending the bulk of their money at PBS in the so-called Club Lounge.  They were trying to cater to businesses and not your average Joe Fan, and make more money from corporations than individuals.  It is largely a disappointment, though, since you can't see the field from the club lounge.  It is a nice venue, though... I traded seats once so my dad wouldn't be so cold at a game.  

You can say their failures in the draft of late have been to a minimalist scouting department, but they were actually drafting better when the scouting department was even smaller.  Their recent failures are well-documented, but I don't think it has to do with money.  Billy Price was a consensus first round pick, as was Ogbuehi.  There have been massive failures by other teams picking even earlier in the draft.  The difference seems to be other teams (afforded now by the rookie wage scale) will cut bait while the Bengals honor the contract and try to hold out hope the player can be developed.  Criticize that decision all you want, but it doesn't mean they are cheap.  They are likely listening to their coaches and hearing "we can win with this guy, but we need help here...".

Regardless, this post is not typed by a direct descendant of the Brown family.  I am a simple fan that sees the team for what it is and there has been a lot of bad fortune.  I don't put it all at the feet of the owners.  Some key injuries at bad times, and some poor draft choices have created the current spiral.  I think they will work very hard to rebound and I think it will first be seen with a couple key free agents prior to the draft.  

If I remember correctly, it was either the Reds or Bengals but one team had to buy their own sodas and paper pens....