Sweet Lou, Louie Cioffi, Mark Duffner, Al Golden, Marion Hobby, Steve Jackson, Jordan Kovacs, Robert Livingston, Ben Martin.

Most of those names we never hear or talk about, so I wanted to give them all a shout-out. We've all heard the complaints about Lou, starting with "Taylor only hired him because no one else would take the job" to he "flat out sucks". There are still several posters who want him gone. There is still a poster who insists the defense is only good because Mike Brown bought this defense. But let's look at that. Our much improved Linebacker corp. is mostly all due to players we drafted and developed here under Lou and Al (Big shoutout to Al Golden), so take them out of the equation if you will, and that leaves the D-line and Defensive Backfield where we brought in this "store bought" defense. Here are the Free Agents:
DJ Reader
Larry Ogunjobi
BJ Hill
Trey Hendrickson
Vonn Bell
Chidobe Awuzie
Mike Hilton
Trae Waynes
Eli Apple
Ricardo Allen
Trey Flowers
Vernon Hargraeves

Take Waynes out of the conversation, because he can't get on the field due to injuries. In my opinion there are only two players who came in and performed "as advertised" and that's Mike Hilton and DJ Reader. And that's because both of these players came in and were already performing at an elite gangster level making them one of the best at their respective position. How Pissburgh could not value Mike Hilton is incomprehensible. We knew what we were getting when we paid Mike and DJ. While Larry O, Bell, Chido and the rest were very good players when they got here (Larry O was being played out of position), every single one of them on this list has prospered and become better at their position under this system and under these coaches. Chido is now in the conversations about best corner in the league. And for players like Apple, the improvement has been drastic. He's gone from 1st round bust label to someone QB's better be hesitant to throw ar.  I don't know if there is an award for "Best defensive staff" but this crew would definitely get my vote.

Hendrickson?

(02-01-2022, 11:45 AM)SladeX Wrote: Hendrickson?

Who? 

Lou and his guys have DEFINITELY stepped it up in the playoffs, and they've honestly played well all year, save for a couple of laid eggs.

try to sign the first 7, let the bottom 5 walk.

(02-01-2022, 11:45 AM)SladeX Wrote: Hendrickson?

What about him?

(02-01-2022, 12:55 PM)Sled21 Wrote: What about him?

He didn’t perform as advertised? I’d say he exceeded expectations.

(02-01-2022, 12:37 PM)basballguy Wrote: try to sign the first 7, let the bottom 5 walk.

Get out of here with your nonsense.. Flowers and Eli have played lights out..
Or as my old man would say, "I don't know, it might be so. It sure sounds mighty quear. Tell your jokes to other folks, don't bring your bullsh*t here.." LOL  

(02-01-2022, 04:26 PM)grampahol Wrote: Get out of here with your nonsense.. Flowers and Eli have played lights out..
Or as my old man would say, "I don't know, it might be so. It sure sounds mighty quear. Tell your jokes to other folks, don't bring your bullsh*t here.." LOL  

Well aren't you a dick?

Lights out?  We aren't watching the same football games. 

Let's use the last one as an example....Eli was targeted 8 times and gave up 6 receptions....had a stupid PI call and plays with more cushion than anyone we've ever seen.  He was a direct reason as to why we were down 18.  

Light's out indeed.  

(02-01-2022, 04:19 PM)SladeX Wrote: He didn’t perform as advertised? I’d say he exceeded expectations.

All of them did. That's the point. They all came in good players, and have improved their game while here. I say all except Reader and Hilton, because they were tops at their positions when they got here. It's a compliment, not a shot to say they got here and improved under these coaches. We knew Trey was going to be a beast coming in from NO, and he has put up even better numbers than he had there. Same with Larry O and the rest.

(02-01-2022, 12:37 PM)basballguy Wrote: try to sign the first 7, let the bottom 5 walk.

No way we let Apple and Flowers go out the door.

(02-01-2022, 04:46 PM)Sled21 Wrote: No way we let Apple and Flowers go out the door.

My thought is there are probably 2 dozen DBs better than Apple also on FA and we should try to upgrade....either through FA or the draft.  I feel less passionately about Flowers than i do Apple.  :)

(02-01-2022, 05:02 PM)basballguy Wrote: My thought is there are probably 2 dozen DBs better than Apple also on FA and we should try to upgrade....either through FA or the draft.  I feel less passionately about Flowers than i do Apple.  :)

Apple Came up big for us several times this season....

Id keep most of what we can from this defense...

(02-01-2022, 05:02 PM)basballguy Wrote: My thought is there are probably 2 dozen DBs better than Apple also on FA and we should try to upgrade....either through FA or the draft.  I feel less passionately about Flowers than i do Apple.  :)

We may very well bring in an upgrade, but Apple will be kept for depth.

(02-01-2022, 05:03 PM)Sled21 Wrote: We may very well bring in an upgrade, but Apple will be kept for depth.

I have less of an issue with Apple if he's a role player.  :)

(02-01-2022, 05:03 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: Apple Came up big for us several times this season....

Id keep most of what we can from this defense...

Apple needs to go. You can’t erase 45 minutes of subpar play and DPI penalties every game that kill the team with 3 clutch plays all season. You upgrade that position and maybe we are not in a position to rely on getting that clutch play to have a chance to win.

Playoffs are something else this year. Regular season Defense was definitely hot or cold. A lot more bending than it should have. Defense got exposed by Mayfield and a scrub from a very very bad Jets team. For every clutch play Apple has had he’s also had multiple dropped interceptions that would have ended a couple games for us and these were very catchable interceptions. BJ Hill has better hands than Apple.

(02-01-2022, 10:42 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Sweet Lou, Louie Cioffi, Mark Duffner, Al Golden, Marion Hobby, Steve Jackson, Jordan Kovacs, Robert Livingston, Ben Martin.

Most of those names we never hear or talk about, so I wanted to give them all a shout-out. We've all heard the complaints about Lou, starting with "Taylor only hired him because no one else would take the job" to he "flat out sucks". There are still several posters who want him gone. There is still a poster who insists the defense is only good because Mike Brown bought this defense. But let's look at that. Our much improved Linebacker corp. is mostly all due to players we drafted and developed here under Lou and Al (Big shoutout to Al Golden), so take them out of the equation if you will, and that leaves the D-line and Defensive Backfield where we brought in this "store bought" defense. Here are the Free Agents:
DJ Reader
Larry Ogunjobi
BJ Hill
Trey Hendrickson
Vonn Bell
Chidobe Awuzie
Mike Hilton
Trae Waynes
Eli Apple
Ricardo Allen
Trey Flowers
Vernon Hargraeves

Take Waynes out of the conversation, because he can't get on the field due to injuries. In my opinion there are only two players who came in and performed "as advertised" and that's Mike Hilton and DJ Reader. And that's because both of these players came in and were already performing at an elite gangster level making them one of the best at their respective position. How Pissburgh could not value Mike Hilton is incomprehensible. We knew what we were getting when we paid Mike and DJ. While Larry O, Bell, Chido and the rest were very good players when they got here (Larry O was being played out of position), every single one of them on this list has prospered and become better at their position under this system and under these coaches. Chido is now in the conversations about best corner in the league. And for players like Apple, the improvement has been drastic. He's gone from 1st round bust label to someone QB's better be hesitant to throw ar.  I don't know if there is an award for "Best defensive staff" but this crew would definitely get my vote.

Nice. Yes, these guys all deserve major props for what they have done with these players.

Where are you guys coming up with these ideas Apple has played terrible most of the season, 45 minutes of what? Just 3 clutch plays what?  He had a rough start, but has more than made up for it and Flowers is probably the first CB in ages to shut down a TE against the Bengals.. You get it in your noggins that a player is trash and that's it. They can never improve and no amount of steady good play will ever be enough to convince you otherwise..  But that's my opinion.. I don't root against our own players...period...even those I would like to see gone. 

Anarumo and crew do deserve some credit. Reader, Hendrickson, Ogunjobi, and Hill really revamped a porous DL.
The additions of Awuzie and Hilton were sneaky good.

About the only thing though is that the Bengals spent the 3rd most on defense in 2021 ($82 mill - 42% of adjusted cap).

One should expect to have a good defense when dropping that much $$.

On the flip side, Bengals only spent $69 mill on offense in 2021, which is 35.4% of the adjusted cap. 14th most in the league.
Goes to show much the offensive draft picks have turned the offense into a quality unit.
Not a single offensive player making $10+ mill a year.
Maybe (hopefully?) that changes this offseason when they add some OL.

(02-01-2022, 05:03 PM)Sled21 Wrote: We may very well bring in an upgrade, but Apple will be kept for depth.

I'd be perfectly ok with keeping Apple as the slotted outside starting CB going into the draft and then draft a CB on Day 1 or Day 2.