(02-15-2017, 01:31 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Don't look for the Bengals to do much in Free Agency.

http://cin.247sports.com/Bolt/Report-Bengals-will-not-spend-big-in-free-agency-51281294




Looks like another year of the same ole' for the Bengals this offseason.  More "draft and develop", and "try to keep the best of our own".

Since the Bengals have never done much in Free Agency not sure why anyone would expect differently. Mike Brown is still around.


Try being the operative word in keeping our own. How hard they try has yet to be determined.

It's a good thing we didn't sign any free agents when our unrestricted FAs left last year so we get some late round comp picks to replace our veteran FAs who will leave this year.

Model model.

I dont get it. If there was any year to make an exception for not going after free agents, its this year.

The window is closing. We need to go all in at some point. Tag Zeit, sign Whit and Dre, and sign a couple FA pieces.

(02-16-2017, 11:00 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: As his draft profile suggested, perhaps a move to Guard would work well for Fisher?

Edit:  Don't get me wrong, I'd love to keep Zeitler here.  However, we both know how the Bengals operate.  If he doesn't agree to a team friendly deal, he's down the road.

Might work but Fish better be pumping the weights if he wants to play RG for us in the run game.

Same with Westerman, but heck it is not like Zeit was a great run blocker either. More of PA's ineptness.

His Lineman rarely are able to both run block well and pass block well in the same game.

(02-15-2017, 01:31 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Don't look for the Bengals to do much in Free Agency.

http://cin.247sports.com/Bolt/Report-Bengals-will-not-spend-big-in-free-agency-51281294




Looks like another year of the same ole' for the Bengals this offseason.  More "draft and develop", and "try to keep the best of our own".

FIFY

(02-17-2017, 12:46 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Might work but Fish better be pumping the weights if he wants to play RG for us in the run game.

Same with Westerman, but heck it is not like Zeit was a great run blocker either. More of PA's ineptness.

His Lineman rarely are able to both run block well and pass block well in the same game.

Sometimes Tackles make an easy transition to Guard.  At Tackle they have a wider area of responsibility, and at Guard they can concentrate their efforts more readily, particularly if their fast twitch muscles take over and allow them to use the leverage of their length in the proverbial "phone booth".

I'm as mystified as anyone that Zeitler has not excelled as a run blocker.  The system that he played in at Wisconsin was most definitely run-first, and I'm pretty sure that they recruit aggressive OL for that specific purpose.  I know that a few like to think of Paul Alexander as some sort of great OL coach.  In my opinion, he may have been good at one point in time, but I think he's lost his touch.

I love how Hobs uses the 11 picks as an excuse this year. Knowing full well that we've had years with 43+ million in space, the normal 7 picks, and he still magically whittled the number down to nothing. I feel sorry for the 3 fans who buy into his (Mike Brown's) nonsense. He doesn't even try anymore. I could write his preemptive FA expectation lowering article every year.

43 million in cap space?
- 15 million for rookie allotment
- 5 million "injury buffer"
- 20 million on resigning
- 3 million for external free agents

Boom, done....and I didn't even click on his goofy article.

(02-17-2017, 10:46 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I love how Hobs uses the 11 picks as an excuse this year. Knowing full well that we've had years with 43+ million in space, the normal 7 picks, and he still magically whittled the number down to nothing. I feel sorry for the 3 fans who buy into his (Mike Brown's) nonsense. He doesn't even try anymore. I could write his preemptive FA expectation lowering article every year.

43 million in cap space?
- 15 million for rookie allotment
- 5 million "injury buffer"
- 20 million on resigning
- 3 million for external free agents

Boom, done....and I didn't even click on his goofy article.

But what about the 10 million we have to rollover to next year for signing future free agents?  

Mike Brown clearly doesn't want fans does he? At this rate they are going to lose a lot of fans, including myself if they keep up with the bull crap

Well, there are plenty of teams who pay big bucks for free agents and do almost nothing with them so it's not as if free agency is the cure-all for every teams woes. As pointed out more times than not football and sports in general are young mans games which is why the drafting of young guys out of college works out. It's not like they could just blindly pick people off the social security roles and plug n play them. 
We can argue all day whether the coaching staff is up to the job or not and that's a worthwhile argument to be had, but one thing that isn't in dispute is that in the game you absolutely must have younger and younger players every season and I don't mean to the point of recuiting 4th graders or anything like that. 
Sometimes when people talk about the team and salaries it reminds of the same arguments about running government like a household budget which was and always has been a ridiculous argument. Households can't print money by fiat and never will and football teams can't either. They really don't have a bottomless pit of money to spend. If they spent year after year on high price FAs they eventually have to start cutting good players to pay the light bills and we've seen some really good teams dismantled that way. We're given a general idea of the teams finances, but not really all of the nuts and bolts details and even if it were all made public few people would understand most of the legal gibberish. 
Far from being an open book available to anyone to  scrutinize daily the league and teams books are more than anything more like an enigma not intended to be understood. Every player has an agent and probably an entire team of lawyers all with their grubby mits waiting for their paycheck and the league and team have to negotiate with them to figure out where the money is going to go. I suspect that doesn't leave much wiggle room to get it right year after year.
Anyway..too much nonsense for one day from me. If they win then great! If not then oh well.. It's not going to change my life one way or the other. Either way it's entertainment and the question then becomes if it's sufficiently entertaining enough to keep my interest. 

(02-18-2017, 02:05 AM)Murdock2420 Wrote: But what about the 10 million we have to rollover to next year for signing future free agents?  

Go ahead and take 10 million from the resigning pool and say goodbye to Zeitler and/or Kirkpatrick.

It's insane, right? I'm sure Mike Brown and his accountant have a meeting to discuss the most that can allot to a certain area to be able to maximize the amount he can keep. My favorite thing I have read this offseason is the ~$8 million rolled over to this season is not meant for these free agents. Why the **** did you roll it over then? So you're going to take that money, add to it, and rollover even more to next year because **** this year? I love the ineptitude of my Bengals.

From the mismanagement of the coaching staff, to the mismanagement of the players, to the mismanagement of the cap and free agency, is it truly a wonder why this team can't get over the hump? Yeah, lets keep throwing Dalton under the bus for some reason and completely ignore the fact that the players don't really have a legitimate chance here because of ownership.

(02-15-2017, 02:42 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Sad, as the way I see it, with a few key additions this team is still a major contender.  It really is that simple.  Just get a solid FA to upgrade one of the slots on the OL, and a minor upgrade at RDE.  With getting Billings and WJ3 back, the rest should take care of itself.

Sadly, the team will create a new hole at RG by low balling Zeitler, then will not do anything about Ogbuehi either. Whit and Fisher will be the tackles and Og will be the backup. Westerman will be inserted at RG and there's no prediction on how he will play. Bodine will be Bodine. The OL will regress further.

I give it a 40% chance they resign Kirkpatrick and the team will count on Willie Jackson (who has yet to play a down).

We'll look for some players out there who have been cut by other teams and willing to take a 1 year prove it deal.

The #9 pick will be used on a skilled position and I'll give them a 20% shot at starting in game 1 and a 50% chance of starting by season's end.

With this draft being deep on defensive and weak on the OL, we'll overdraft an OL project somewhere while passing on more certain talent.

We won't be better next year with this sort of off season. But I just don't see the front office pulling off anything better than this given Mikey Brown still being in charge. He still has not recognized that Ogbuehi was a mistake.

(02-17-2017, 08:18 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Sometimes Tackles make an easy transition to Guard.  At Tackle they have a wider area of responsibility, and at Guard they can concentrate their efforts more readily, particularly if their fast twitch muscles take over and allow them to use the leverage of their length in the proverbial "phone booth".

I'm as mystified as anyone that Zeitler has not excelled as a run blocker.  The system that he played in at Wisconsin was most definitely run-first, and I'm pretty sure that they recruit aggressive OL for that specific purpose.  I know that a few like to think of Paul Alexander as some sort of great OL coach.  In my opinion, he may have been good at one point in time, but I think he's lost his touch.

Those few are insane or bias.

Yeah, Zeitler was a good run blocker at Wisconsin, but a better pass blocker and he is a fine pass blocker here.

Just shows once again how PA cannot coach up a weakness.

Fisher is known for his athleticism, he might be a good pulling Guard where Zeit was always too slow to get to his man.

(02-17-2017, 12:46 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Might work but Fish better be pumping the weights if he wants to play RG for us in the run game.

Same with Westerman, but heck it is not like Zeit was a great run blocker either. More of PA's ineptness.

His Lineman rarely are able to both run block well and pass block well in the same game.

Probably because PA teaches blocking technique that was okay 25-30 years ago before players became beasts and ultra-athletic to boot. That old style DOES NOT WORK in the current NFL. Of course Mikey doesn't know that either so it will be more of the same

(02-18-2017, 06:22 PM)Derrick Wrote: Probably because PA teaches blocking technique that was okay 25-30 years ago before players became beasts and ultra-athletic to boot. That old style DOES NOT WORK in the current NFL. Of course Mikey doesn't know that either so it will be more of the same

True, i just hope we are both wrong and they surprise us and hire someone competent.

(02-18-2017, 06:36 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: True, i just hope we are both wrong and they surprise us and hire someone competent.

PA will be collecting a SS check and a Bengals check someday.  Count on it.  His contract is lifetime.

(02-18-2017, 02:05 AM)Murdock2420 Wrote: But what about the 10 million we have to rollover to next year for signing future free agents?  

This proves how much MB cares about the team.  Many owners put this money in their pockets instead of rolling it over.

The Bengals have actually spent over the league salary cap the last two years thanks to money they rolled over instead of writing off the books.

(02-18-2017, 06:22 PM)Derrick Wrote: Probably because PA teaches blocking technique that was okay 25-30 years ago before players became beasts and ultra-athletic to boot. That old style DOES NOT WORK in the current NFL.

This just is not true.

Bengals have been one of the very best in the league in pass protection over the last decade.  They looked bad in '16, but that does not mean the technique they are taught is no longer valid.

Bengals have generally struggled at run blocking, but they usually are good at short yardage situations when they have to run.

(02-19-2017, 01:56 PM)fredtoast Wrote: This just is not true.

Bengals have been one of the very best in the league in pass protection over the last decade.  They looked bad in '16, but that does not mean the technique they are taught is no longer valid.

Bengals have generally struggled at run blocking, but they usually are good at short yardage situations when they have to run.

It is my opinion that PA's technique has passed him by...just as your reply is your opinion.