I guess people forgot about how Alford got the same hype as Boyd?

Poor guy. He may never get a chance to prove himself. Then again, our WR picks show what little confidence we have in our WRs

(05-03-2016, 12:13 AM)THE Bigzoman Wrote: I guess people forgot about how Alford got the same hype as Boyd?

Poor guy. He may never get a chance to prove himself. Then again, our WR picks show what little confidence we have in our WRs

I loved the Super Mario pick last year. Big difference between 2nd round pick expectations and 7th round pick expectations.

Alford is faster than Boyd. Different animal. He is more of the big play threat while Boyd is more of a possession WR.

I don't think the picks show lack of confidence in what we have. They were necessities. We usually carry 6. Behind AJ, LaFell, Alford, and Tate we had a dude coming off surgery and undrafted free agents. Not brining in competition at WR would have been disastrous.

Hardison needs to concentrate 100% on playing inside at DT. Bengals stunted MJ's development for a couple of years by trying to make him a LB/DE hybrid. They also moved Geathers around almost every year early in his career. He was effective as a 265 lb rush end, but they bulked him up to 280 one year and had him taking snaps at DT.

Hardison will be wasting his size playing DE in a 4-3 scheme, and we have no 3T to back up Geno.

(05-02-2016, 03:52 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: It's time for the way too early 53 man roster predictions

QB -2- Dalton, AJMC
FB -1- Hewitt
RB -4- Gio, Hill, Burkhead, Peerman
WR -6- AJ, LaFell, Boyd, Alford, Tate, Core
TE -3- Eifert, Kroft, Uzomah
OL -9- Whit, Boling, Bodine, Zeitler, Ogbuehi, Fisher, Westerman, Johnson, Winston

DT -5- Atkins, Peko, Sims, Billings, Hardison
DE -4- Dunlap, MJ, Hunt, Clarke
LB -6- Dansby, Maualuga, Vrey, Dawson, Vigil, Flowers
CB -6- Pickman, Kirkpatrick, Dennard, WJ3, Shaw, Lewis Harris
S -4- Iloka, Williams, Derron Smith, Fejedelem

STs -3- Nugent, Huber, Harris

Suspended - Burfict, Mays
PUP Brandon Thompson

Very few spots up for grabs.  That is a very good sign.

Would not be surprised to see us sign some washed up DE before training camp.  Hunt and Clark are both huge elite athletes.  Everyone knows about Hunts raw athleticism, but Clarke also put up big workout numbers.  However neither one of them has produced yet.  I never write a guy off after his rookie season, but when guys have been round 2 or 3 years, like Hunt and Clark, they usually don't improve dramatically.  So who id the next Derrick Harvey, Jamaal Anderson type signing?

Only other spot I am concerned with is depth at WR.  But as long as Eifert stays healthy he will be just as dangerous of a receiving threat as a WR.  So our #3 WR would be our #4 option.  I am pretty sure Core will make the roster.  He was a solid special teams player in college.  So after Green, LaFell, Boyd, and Core I have no idea who is going to claim the last spot.  

I could even see us going with 6 WR and only 3 RB if we are going to use any of the WRs as return men.  When you get down to the very last player cut it is often more about who has the most talent over position.  If we felt our #6 WR was a better player than our #4 RB we should keep the WR. 

I keep hoping that someone beats out Tate and Hunt, but for some reason it just doesn't happen. Maybe this is the year.

I'd also select Thompson over Sims. Sims is here to the play the run. Thompson will backup Geno. Billings can hopefully take Sims role on short yardage downs.

(05-03-2016, 12:18 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Hardison needs to concentrate 100% on playing inside at DT.  Bengals stunted MJ's development for a couple of years by trying to make him a LB/DE hybrid.  They also moved Geathers around almost every year early in his career.  He was effective as a 265 lb rush end, but they bulked him up to 280 one year and had him taking snaps at DT.

Hardison will be wasting his size playing DE in a 4-3 scheme, and we have no 3T to back up Geno.

Agree with this.   They putz around with these hybrid roles and it ends up slowing the players' development.  

I thought they messed up David Pollack's development.  He just needed to be a DE and he would have wreaked havoc.  Obviously his injury ended his career and his late signing also stunted his growth.   But he was a stud at DE and would have been a difference maker right away if they hadn't decided to make him an OLB. 

The guy had elite short area and lateral quickness (ran a 3.97 short shuttle - faster than any of our DBs and WRs), an incredibly quick first step, was really smart and understood leverage.

I'm kind of hoping this has been as much a Hayes focus as a Marvin focus (he's been looking for the next Peter Boulware for a long time without success).  Hopefully Burney will be wiser in this regard.

(05-02-2016, 10:59 PM)Bengalfan11164 Wrote: Bengals may look to upgrade TJ Johnson with a cut player (Khaled Holmes?).