(06-01-2018, 06:29 PM)873513 Wrote: For 4 mill/1 year .   lol.   Yeah, a really good player wouldnt leverage more 

Getting the league leader in tackles, for 4M?  Sounds like a great business move, on the part of the Bengals.  You keep acting like he's not a good player, but one doesn't lead the league in tackles by being average.

For Brown, he more than doubles his salary from last year, and gets to play closer to home.  I'd say that's a win-win, because if he does well, he could earn himself a multi year deal with the Bengals.

(06-01-2018, 06:29 PM)873513 Wrote: For 4 mill/1 year .   lol.   Yeah, a really good player wouldnt leverage more 

Brown had his agent contact the Bengals because he is a childhood fan and wanted to play for his team....


Also uhh by your logic Tom Brady would be the highest paid QB in football but he makes around the same money as Dalton. (I think he makes just slightly less actually.)

(06-01-2018, 06:21 PM)873513 Wrote: Again, if Preston Brown was really dynamic, the Bills would not have let him walk, and the Rest of the league would have out bid a 1 yr/4 mill offer.

How is this hard to understand?

But yeah, he and Tez make a top 2 LB core.  

Brown is the 9th highest paid 4-3 MLB in the NFL.

I don't think anyone here is claiming he is an All Pro or anything like that, but top 10 is pretty good.

(06-01-2018, 07:10 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Brown is the 9th highest paid 4-3 MLB in the NFL.

I don't think anyone here is claiming he is an All Pro or anything like that, but top 10 is pretty good.

Some fans wouldn't be satisfied if the Bengals rolled out the All-Madden team..

What seems to happen is an almost unconscious assumption that if the Bengals acquire a player the player cannot be a good player.

(06-01-2018, 07:45 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Some fans wouldn't be satisfied if the Bengals rolled out the All-Madden team..

No doubt. How can planning better for when Burfict isn't available be a bad thing? While Burfict has proven much during his time here, one thing is that he misses too many games. And his backup needed to be upgraded. Brown is a good start in filling that need.

(06-01-2018, 09:58 AM)dr1441 Wrote: While I do think it will be more "4-3", I think that will be a somewhat hybrid defense. If you read some of the things that Lions beat writers and fans said about losing Austin, they all talked about his hybrid defenses that he likes to use and how it caused a ton of confusion, leading to turnovers. Austin is supposedly incredible with using his secondary players and with that being our defenses biggest strength on paper, I think you're absolutely correct that he will get more defensive backs on the field most times. But sometimes that is going to hopefully mean guys like Illoka and Williams will be lined up in more of a "linebacker" role at times to get them closer to the line of scrimmage. He used James Ighabadagjo(or however you spell his name) a lot in that same facet when he was there from the readings I found. He is a big believer in guys with speed being on the field and thats why he tried to make kyle van noy a sam when he probably shouldn't have.  

It's a copy cat league and guys are looking for that guy that can take away all of these nightmare TE matchups that are all over the league now, the Deone Buchanons of the world are hard to find and everyone is looking for them now. I honestly think Illoka would be really good at it. He's built to perfectly follow TE's and would be able to jump with them as well. If we could allow him to flow naturally around the line of scrimmage, and attack on run plays because he diagnoses well, he could be a difference maker. 

I think this was the right move for Williams for some time, as he is simply not the good "center fielder" that Nelson was and neither is Iloka.  I think Bates will fill the roll of the center fielder (marvin hates calling his safeties "free" and "strong" and says both need to be able to do both).  I think it will be a competition between Iloka and Williams to see who gets the other safety spot, both in terms of performance and also in terms of who can stay healthy. 

(06-02-2018, 06:06 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: I think this was the right move for Williams for some time, as he is simply not the good "center fielder" that Nelson was and neither is Iloka.  I think Bates will fill the roll of the center fielder (marvin hates calling his safeties "free" and "strong" and says both need to be able to do both).  I think it will be a competition between Iloka and Williams to see who gets the other safety spot, both in terms of performance and also in terms of who can stay healthy. 

I think this was a mistake by Marv and it has shown since Reggie left.

Hell, even Reggie said he was more of a FS here and that is why he thrived more then in Jacksonville.

Bates i see as Marv actually owning up to his mistakes for once. What the heck is happening around here?

For the good i mean, we get a first round Center and a center fielding ballhawking FS with our first two picks!

(06-01-2018, 07:53 PM)Joelist Wrote: What seems to happen is an almost unconscious assumption that if the Bengals acquire a player the player cannot be a good player.

I think he's unfairly getting judged on our past LB signings. Every year we've signed Manny Lawson, James Harrison, AJ Hawk, Kevin Minter, etc. I think people are thinking Brown is just another in a long line of "meh" free agent LB's.

(06-02-2018, 03:49 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I think he's unfairly getting judged on our past LB signings. Every year we've signed Manny Lawson, James Harrison, AJ Hawk, Kevin Minter, etc. I think people are thinking Brown is just another in a long line of "meh" free agent LB's.

There is a clear difference from those guys. Preston Brown is in his prime and is solid at about everything and a big
reason why he came to Cincy is it is his home. I am sure if he continues to play solid which there is no reason to think
he won't the FO gave him incentive that he will get an extension.

But this is just an assumption of course.

(06-02-2018, 04:00 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: There is a clear difference from those guys. Preston Brown is in his prime and is solid at about everything and a big
reason why he came to Cincy is it is his home. I am sure if he continues to play solid which there is no reason to think
he won't the FO gave him incentive that he will get an extension.

But this is just an assumption of course.

Brown is young and coming off a very productive season. None of those other LBs could make both those claims. I'm not thinking he's Ray Lewis, but I do think he's got a very good chance of being the best LB we've ever signed in free agency. 

(06-02-2018, 06:03 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Brown is young and coming off a very productive season. None of those other LBs could make both those claims. I'm not thinking he's Ray Lewis, but I do think he's got a very good chance of being the best LB we've ever signed in free agency. 

Agree, I think he's a steep above Hawk, Minter and so on.

(06-02-2018, 09:01 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Agree, I think he's a steep above Hawk, Minter and so on.

You or me would probably be a step above the AJ Hawk we had...

I'm hoping he can be a slightly better Dhani Jones kind of addition. Dhani was left for dead when he came here and was a very productive player, not to mention a very savvy veteran leader. Preston still has a lot of tread on the tires and seems excited to be home in Cincinnati. I like that he's with the team.

(06-02-2018, 02:05 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: I think this was a mistake by Marv and it has shown since Reggie left.

Hell, even Reggie said he was more of a FS here and that is why he thrived more then in Jacksonville.

Bates i see as Marv actually owning up to his mistakes for once. What the heck is happening around here?

For the good i mean, we get a first round Center and a center fielding ballhawking FS with our first two picks!

Dead on, Nate....and last year's drafting of Willis and Lawson, untraditional-sized DEs given Marv's history.  Even Paulie G said something to the effect of "I don't care what they look like as long as they can get to the QB".  Chris Smith isn't a prototypical DE size and he had a decent season as a trade.  

If the buzz around Austin is true and our DBs begin to contest more short routes and play tighter coverage, we might have something on defense.  

All that being said, I still think we will see the greatest improvement on the offensive side of the ball.  The aforementioned Center, the trade that turned our first round pick in to Cordy Glenn and we still got Billy Price (not surprised, but the talking heads out there really didn't give the Bengals much credit for that).  The improvement we saw in the running game last year when the blocking scheme was (FINALLY) addressed, and Paul Alexander gets sent packing.  

I think a lot of the blame for Dalton's less-than-stellar 2017 fell on the lack of production by the WRs, but the offensive line not only allowed opposing defenses to defend a very small portion of the field they also had virtually no rushing attack until late in the season.  Westerman and Redmond showed they deserve a chance at RG, and with Boling back at LG, Glenn at LT, Price at C, the only real concern is RT.  Fisher supposedly looks (and feels) good, and he has Ced and Bobby Hart pushing him as competition.  

A small part of me wonders if Westerman could play RT and Redmond get the nod at RG.  Either way, it is a huge upgrade over a year ago and it has me very excited.  

(06-02-2018, 02:05 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: I think this was a mistake by Marv and it has shown since Reggie left.

Hell, even Reggie said he was more of a FS here and that is why he thrived more then in Jacksonville.

Bates i see as Marv actually owning up to his mistakes for once.

If Nelson thrived under the system Marvin used how did Marvin make a mistake?

(06-01-2018, 07:26 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: And I do believe the much-maligned Vigil is pretty solid at coverage, but he takes poor angles in rush defense and misses a lot of open tackles.  So, I guess take the good with the bad there.  

Sounds like the prescription drugs that can cure one symptom, but has a dozen other worse side effects.

(06-03-2018, 10:28 AM)fredtoast Wrote: If Nelson thrived under the system Marvin used how did Marvin make a mistake?

Letting him go was the mistake and thinking Williams would step in and perform similarly....

(06-02-2018, 06:06 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: I think this was the right move for Williams for some time, as he is simply not the good "center fielder" that Nelson was and neither is Iloka.  I think Bates will fill the roll of the center fielder (marvin hates calling his safeties "free" and "strong" and says both need to be able to do both).  I think it will be a competition between Iloka and Williams to see who gets the other safety spot, both in terms of performance and also in terms of who can stay healthy. 

Oh I am in total agreement with Williams. Actually his biggest knock coming out of Georgia was his covering skills all along. He is a prototypical in the box safety. I was confused at the pick then, because we still had Illoka who had the same knocks. Trying to make them work together last year is why we never had anyone on the backend of our cb's and its why we gave up so many long plays last year. 

(06-04-2018, 09:10 AM)dr1441 Wrote: Oh I am in total agreement with Williams. Actually his biggest knock coming out of Georgia was his covering skills all along. He is a prototypical in the box safety. I was confused at the pick then, because we still had Illoka who had the same knocks. Trying to make them work together last year is why we never had anyone on the backend of our cb's and its why we gave up so many long plays last year. 

exactly