Witt's salary was rising faster than the time it takes to melt room temperature butter in the microwave.. He was playing just fine, but they made a business decision and have to live with it..bottom line.. 

If any player in recent history deserved to be paid and loyal to it was Whit.

Business decision equals MB being cheap and saving cap money. Whit was almost like having an extra coach with his experience. That is very valuable with the piano man being the coach. He commanded respect as well. These players do not grow on trees.

Which should have been the plan, match offer by Rams (because the plan blew up in our face already costing Bengals to miss playoffs for first time in a minute) let him play until he is not serviceable anymore and then take Alexanders coaching spot, and by force if necessary.

Or quit saying you run organization like steelers when the main staple of steelers have been to pay their interior O-linemen and MB goes on the cheap here.

There is a lot of irony in me not wanting to draft OL that year because I always want early picks used on trench players and especially OL. But our window was closing and it was time to play for that year and roll dice in lieu of what we always do that never pays with positive postseason results.

P.S. if anybody can play until they are 38 it is Whit.

(09-17-2017, 11:48 AM)bfine32 Wrote: Oh, it happens. Even that smart team that took Whit from us had to do so because a LT they drafted high and hoped to be the franchise turned out to be a total bust.

As I said, we may have to do the same, but you have to try. 

I agree. Ced may eventually make it. Time will tell. Unfortunately, we have been caught in our current position where we just don't have many options other than start him. This is amplified by other weaknesses on the O-line.

(09-17-2017, 11:41 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: They let him hit free agency thus he got ridiculous money. They could have tried to extend him the year before. They could have also tagged him. They had the cap space.

They didn't even try to retain him. They don't value Guard or Center.

I believe Lap has said they knew they would never give him a second contract when they drafted him.

Anyway have vented enough so it is time to get ready for work.

Venting was necessary for my coworkers sake, lol.

Especially after that beat down that Clemson laid on my Cards last night and it is going to leave a welt.

Neither of my teams have an O-line and that is troublesome. Although the Cards is mostly out of inexperience and they are definitely trying to bolster it.

(09-17-2017, 11:37 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: The Bengals tried to do it right.  Thus far, their efforts appear to be failure.

I think they almost tried to do it right. One problem is the lack of an experienced back-up at LT that can replace Ced after a couple more stinkers by him. They'll trot Andre out there, but that is desperation.

(09-17-2017, 12:29 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: I agree. Ced may eventually make it. Time will tell. Unfortunately, we have been caught in our current position where we just don't have many options other than start him. This is amplified by other weaknesses on the O-line.

As Bengal fans we have been spoiled by quality at LT since 2002 (Jones/Whit). We do not know how to respond when we see one struggling.

Bengals did it wrong and are paying for it.

(09-17-2017, 11:23 AM)bfine32 Wrote: Obviously a lot of talk about the oline and everyone can see it is a work in progress. However, the one constant comment I see that doesn't seem to be based on reality is that the Bengals didn't "address" the oline.

In 2015 we realized that Whit was getting a little long in the tooth and Andre Smith was on the final year of his contract. So we draft 2 OTs in each of the first 2 rounds of the draft. Despite the amateur experts in this forum both were considered high draft choices and great prospects. Both were All Americans their final year (Walter Camp/Football writers).

The plan was perfect. Give Ced a "red shirt" year to heal while we didn't need him and let Jake get experience all along the oline. Andre leaves in 2016 and Ced is ready to get his feet wet at RT. He's not ready and gets benched. Understanding that their top prospect may not be ready for primetime they offer a 35 year old Whit a lucrative 1 year deal; unfortunately, LA was willing to employ him until he was 38. The Bengals could not wait that long to try and get return on their investments.

Will Ced and Jake work out? Who knows. But sometimes you have to crack a couple eggs to make an omelet.

The thing is all of us were hammering for boards with "We need a tackle Andre is leaving and Whit is getting old!" I think most of the issue is people had their own picks at Tackle and they are getting to scream I told you so. We all know no one can refuse a chance to yell it at the top of their lungs.

Hey Tobin Marvin and PA....I told you that you should have taken Donovan Smith. 

I've got my fingers crossed that Ced is going to grow into a decent LT but I highly, highly, doubt it. Bodine on the other hand is a lost cause. Fisher has done ok but still not totally convinced he's a good one either. Other than Boling not sure we have a true answer at any position ?

Or in other words I'd bet rebuilding the O-line is gonna be the new HC's #1 priority !

When I say we didn't address the o-line, I'm talking about 2017. We already saw what a catastrophe Ogbuehi and (to a lesser extent) Fisher were at tackle. We did zilch to cover our ass in case that wasn't a fluke.

Basicly, I'd say you are half-right. The Bengals "did it right" by drafting tackles ahead of time. They were wrong to blindly throw all their eggs back in those baskets after what happened last year.

(09-17-2017, 11:30 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: 2012: Pro Bowl
2014: 2nd Team All-Pro
2015: Pro Bowl, 1st Team All-Pro
2016: Pro Bowl

I've read enough...

being long in the tooth =/= currently degrading in skill

(09-17-2017, 01:23 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: When I say we didn't address the o-line, I'm talking about 2017. We already saw what a catastrophe Ogbuehi and (to a lesser extent) Fisher were at tackle. We did zilch to cover our ass in case that wasn't a fluke.

Basicly, I'd say you are half-right. The Bengals "did it right" by drafting tackles ahead of time. They were wrong to blindly throw all their eggs back in those baskets after what happened last year.

And they didn't even attempt to bring in any help on the IOL in any serious regard with struggles at center and RG. Plus Boling who is still regaining full strength in his shoulder. 

(09-17-2017, 01:23 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Basicly, I'd say you are half-right. The Bengals "did it right" by drafting tackles ahead of time. They were wrong to blindly throw all their eggs back in those baskets after what happened last year.

This. I have no issue with the drafting of tackles for the future. I do have issue with them doing nothing to fix the OL issues after last season when it was clear these guys weren't ready and instead let the 2 best OLmen walk.

Sent from my SM-J327P using Tapatalk

(09-17-2017, 01:23 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: When I say we didn't address the o-line, I'm talking about 2017. We already saw what a catastrophe Ogbuehi and (to a lesser extent) Fisher were at tackle. We did zilch to cover our ass in case that wasn't a fluke.

Basicly, I'd say you are half-right. The Bengals "did it right" by drafting tackles ahead of time. They were wrong to blindly throw all their eggs back in those baskets after what happened last year.

Yup,

It's a shame we didn't have the cap space to retain Big Whit as a backup plan........wait what ? 

(09-17-2017, 01:42 PM)RoyleRedlegs Wrote: And they didn't even attempt to bring in any help on the IOL in any serious regard with struggles at center and RG. Plus Boling who is still regaining full strength in his shoulder. 

I thought about bringing up all the interior problems, but decided to just focus on the tackles since that's what bfine brought up.

That said, yeah you can basically say they've neglected the entire line outside of LG.

(09-17-2017, 01:42 PM)RoyleRedlegs Wrote: And they didn't even attempt to bring in any help on the IOL in any serious regard with struggles at center and RG. Plus Boling who is still regaining full strength in his shoulder. 

We don't need no stinking interior line

(09-17-2017, 01:45 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I thought about bringing up all the interior problems, but decided to just focus on the tackles since that's what bfine brought up.

That said, yeah you can basically say they've neglected the entire line outside of LG.

I think it's all part and parcel of the same issue here.
I think it's less about the coaching (in terms of actual coaching) and more about talent evaluation. 
Whether it stems from the draft or stems from poor internal talent evaluation and knowing what we have and how maximize it. 

From the drafting of the offensive tackles to the lack of addressing IOL to the random RB carousel we are playing. 
It's all talent evaluation and we are failing at it right now.

(09-17-2017, 11:23 AM)bfine32 Wrote: Obviously a lot of talk about the oline and everyone can see it is a work in progress. However, the one constant comment I see that doesn't seem to be based on reality is that the Bengals didn't "address" the oline.

In 2015 we realized that Whit was getting a little long in the tooth and Andre Smith was on the final year of his contract. So we draft 2 OTs in each of the first 2 rounds of the draft. Despite the amateur experts in this forum both were considered high draft choices and great prospects. Both were All Americans their final year (Walter Camp/Football writers).

The plan was perfect. Give Ced a "red shirt" year to heal while we didn't need him and let Jake get experience all along the oline. Andre leaves in 2016 and Ced is ready to get his feet wet at RT. He's not ready and gets benched. Understanding that their top prospect may not be ready for primetime they offer a 35 year old Whit a lucrative 1 year deal; unfortunately, LA was willing to employ him until he was 38. The Bengals could not wait that long to try and get return on their investments.

Will Ced and Jake work out? Who knows. But sometimes you have to crack a couple eggs to make an omelet.

While this is all fine and dandy the real fail was in the past offseason. Everyone realized that our tackle tandem had major question marks and so it was essential to either draft an additional tackle or bring in a veteran. Neither was done and this is what we are left with.

The plan was good. The execution was miserably bad and then compounded by the lack of any kind of backup plan.