Burrow, Chase, and Trey are elite. Top of their position lists in the NFL. (When healthy Tee is a good WR too. We just haven't seen him healthy much this year unfortunately.)

But, other than these 3/4 players, the rest of the roster is average or less.

Our defense is bad at every level. The defensive line is bad even with Trey.

The LB's are slow and get out of position a decent bit. I don't know. I thought we had good LB's a couple years ago, but now I don't.

And the secondary is very bad. CTB is probably a #3 CB on a good defense. Here's he's #1. The safeties are bad. Our #2 CB might not get any snaps on like the Steelers.

The draft picks on defense have been flops. Carter is out of the league. Murphy/Ossai/Jenkins just aren't making many plays.

Speaking of average or lesser talent, and feel free to rip me for being a bad Bengals fan if you must, I legit had no idea who #85 Grandy was when he caught a pass from Burrow last night.

1 catch for 0 yards.

(11-08-2024, 10:15 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Burrow, Chase, and Trey are elite. Top of their position lists in the NFL. (When healthy Tee is a good WR too. We just haven't seen him healthy much this year unfortunately.)

But, other than these 3/4 players, the rest of the roster is average or less.

Our defense is bad at every level. The defensive line is bad even with Trey.

The LB's are slow and get out of position a decent bit. I don't know. I thought we had good LB's a couple years ago, but now I don't.

And the secondary is very bad. CTB is probably a #3 CB on a good defense. Here's he's #1. The safeties are bad. Our #2 CB might not get any snaps on like the Steelers.

The draft picks on defense have been flops. Carter is out of the league. Murphy/Ossai/Jenkins just aren't making many plays.

This is it in a nutshell. Great post. Our fans overvalued the talent, then look for a scapegoat. I still think Wilson is a good, not great LB, and Pratt just has flashes here and there. Also, some of the players would be on most teams' practice squads and they're getting meaningful reps here. 

After watching a Super Bowl run dismantled and fumbled away by this front office, I changed my perspective on Marvin and I think I overrated some of his talent. 

(11-08-2024, 10:36 AM)TecmoBengals Wrote: Speaking of average or lesser talent, and feel free to rip me for being a bad Bengals fan if you must, I legit had no idea who #85 Grandy was when he caught a pass from Burrow last night.

1 catch for 0 yards.

Don't feel bad, I only knew about him because I saw someone mentioned him on here yesterday, lol.

The issue with the defense is the one elite guy we had we let walk years ago and we haven’t hit on ANY star draft picks on defense for a long time

So we’re in a weird spot where the whole defense is just ass

(11-08-2024, 10:45 AM)Wyche Wrote: Don't feel bad, I only knew about him because I saw someone mentioned him on here yesterday, lol.

I understand why jersey #s don't get retired in the NFL, but to see Grandy wearing #85 made me cringe a bit on the inside.

(11-08-2024, 10:49 AM)TecmoBengals Wrote: I understand why jersey #s don't get retired in the NFL, but to see Grandy wearing #85 made me cringe a bit on the inside.

Ha ha, no doubt. Even Tyler Eifert has had his number soiled.

(11-08-2024, 10:49 AM)Housh Wrote: The issue with the defense is the one elite guy we had we let walk years ago and we haven’t hit on ANY star draft picks on defense for a long time

So we’re in a weird spot where the whole defense is just ass

Agreed 

(11-08-2024, 10:44 AM)Wyche Wrote: This is it in a nutshell. Great post. Our fans overvalued the talent, then look for a scapegoat. I still think Wilson is a good, not great LB, and Pratt just has flashes here and there. Also, some of the players would be on most teams' practice squads and they're getting meaningful reps here. 

After watching a Super Bowl run dismantled and fumbled away by this front office, I changed my perspective on Marvin and I think I overrated some of his talent. 

I think Marvin would get way better results with this team.

He made the playoffs with Andy as his QB 5 years in a row. And I feel like the Bengals spend more money in free agency for Zac.

(11-08-2024, 10:49 AM)Housh Wrote: The issue with the defense is the one elite guy we had we let walk years ago and we haven’t hit on ANY star draft picks on defense for a long time

So we’re in a weird spot where the whole defense is just ass

Bates covered up for a lot of mistakes on defense.

(11-08-2024, 10:49 AM)TecmoBengals Wrote: I understand why jersey #s don't get retired in the NFL, but to see Grandy wearing #85 made me cringe a bit on the inside.

The funny thing is we're throwing to this guy in like the 3rd quarter of a close game. WHAT?!?!?!?

(11-08-2024, 10:56 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: I think Marvin would get way better results with this team.

He made the playoffs with Andy as his QB 5 years in a row. And I feel like the Bengals spend more money in free agency for Zac.

Oh good grief, Marvin was here for a century it seemed and never sniffed a playoff win and rarely ever won in Primetime. If it wasn't a 1 PM game, they folded. Absence makes the heart grow fonder I guess.

(11-08-2024, 10:56 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: I think Marvin would get way better results with this team.

He made the playoffs with Andy as his QB 5 years in a row. And I feel like the Bengals spend more money in free agency for Zac.

Certainly a fair assumption. Offensively, the team is playing well, I'm not sure if Marvin could do better with this defense or not. In theory, he should. Let's not forget though, he had a RB fumble away a critical game too. That's not on him, but it's just another Bengal fail.

(11-08-2024, 11:01 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Oh good grief, Marvin was here for a century it seemed and never sniffed a playoff win and rarely ever won in Primetime. If it wasn't a 1 PM game, they folded. Absence makes the heart grow fonder I guess.

With Andy Dalton as his QB.

Zac is 4-6 this season with Burrow playing at an MVP level.

Tired of watching my god damn QB go insane and still lose

Just makes you not want to play or watch

Cody Ford at Tackle is going to get Burrow hurt. He already got hurt last night. When you can't pick up a helmet with 1 arm, something is off.

I wonder if we lose another couple games if they'll shut him down?

(11-08-2024, 11:03 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: With Andy Dalton as his QB.

Zac is 4-6 this season with Burrow playing at an MVP level.

True, but it really shouldn't be forgotten how much worse we tended to play in any non-1pm game under Marvin. I think he's somewhat maligned due to the playoff record, but the facts of the matter are that his prime time and playoff record is appalling. And while Dalton was QB, some of those Marvin teams were really good. Certainly far more balanced than this Bengals roster.

Marvin was great at turning a dumpster franchise into something competitive and I think that deserves more credit than a lot are willing to give him, but he had no clue on how to take that next step with us. 

Crazy idea, but it might be that neither Marvin or Zac, are the right answer to the question of guy who will take us to a Super Bowl win.

When the Patriots won their last 3 Super Bowls in that particular latter part of the Brady era, they also had about 3 or 4 elite players. Maybe 5. But what made them so good was that they were able to draft, make various trades, and work free agency to fill out their roster with solid "blue collar" players across the team. These are the players no one hears about, but did a great job filling the roles they were coached to do, as their Super Bowls would attest.

The Bengals are currently on a downslide of not being able to reload the roster with quality "blue collar" players, and it is now showing this season. Coaching hasn't helped either, starting out the season way they did in particular. Lou can only do so much with the roster he has to work with. And for a franchise that has Burrow front and center of it, they have failed to give him better support players as they have. But in my opinion, these few offseasons has really decimated this defense to where they are struggling against good offenses while Bengals offense is putting up points.

(11-08-2024, 11:35 AM)Millhouse Wrote: When the Patriots won their last 3 Super Bowls in that particular latter part of the Brady era, they also had about 3 or 4 elite players. Maybe 5. But what made them so good was that they were able to draft, make various trades, and work free agency to fill out their roster with solid "blue collar" players across the team. These are the players no one hears about, but did a great job filling the roles they were coached to do, as their Super Bowls would attest.

The Bengals are currently on a downslide of not being able to reload the roster with quality "blue collar" players, and it is now showing this season. Coaching hasn't helped either, starting out the season way they did in particular. Lou can only do so much with the roster he has to work with. And for a franchise that has Burrow front and center of it, they have failed to give him better support players as they have. But in my opinion, these few offseasons has really decimated this defense to where they are struggling against good offenses while Bengals offense is putting up points.

They were elite at finding guys that fit their system.

It feels like the Bengals have no system. They rely on elite playmaking from Burrow, Chase, Higgins.

Even the SB run, the defense played bad but guys forced freak turnovers here and there.

OBJ seems elite Rehkow our punter is punting elite. Logan while not elite could probably start for every NFL team