(03-08-2020, 08:04 PM)BengalsRocker Wrote: True.

Gio could just be on a short list of guys here who'll be used to move around in the draft.

Like you said, they could dump money and get players on cheaper/longer deals.

To be honest Gio's deal feels really like a Brown one and not a Taylor one.

At this point who the hell really knows what Taylor is doing though.

It's not like they actually hired McVay. LOL

I'm not sure that the Gio contract was anything more than a safety valve move, by whomever proposed the idea.  As Nate mentioned, Gio is still top notch, when it comes to picking up pass rushers.  Sure, he's lost a little explosion on his rushing between the Tackles, but he's still a hard piece to replace, for his experience and receiving ability.

Would I like to see Gio just dealt away, for moving up a spot or two?  Not really.  Would I love to see a back like Traveyon Williams step up and unseat Gio Bernard for his position?  Hell yeah.  There's a big difference between dealing a trusted player for little gain, and seeing him beaten out by a younger, stronger version.

(03-08-2020, 03:34 PM)fredtoast Wrote: ESPN's Mathew Barry comment from the combine.

• Spoke with a Bengals offensive coach, who said as much as they love Joe Mixon, dynasty leaguers shouldn't forget about Trayveon Williams, whom they are very high on. The coach said, "People forget, this kid led the SEC in rushing. The SEC!"


Note that he said "dynasty leaguers".  That means teams that keep the same player from year to year.  So maybe he is just saying that Trayveon will be a productive NFL RB in the future.

He has the pedigree, now he needs to learn the NFL and get some meaningful snaps. Gio is great, but is vastly overpaid and underused for his skill set. 

(03-08-2020, 08:21 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I'm not sure that the Gio contract was anything more than a safety valve move, by whomever proposed the idea.  As Nate mentioned, Gio is still top notch, when it comes to picking up pass rushers.  Sure, he's lost a little explosion on his rushing between the Tackles, but he's still a hard piece to replace, for his experience and receiving ability.

Would I like to see Gio just dealt away, for moving up a spot or two?  Not really.  Would I love to see a back like Traveyon Williams step up and unseat Gio Bernard for his position?  Hell yeah.  There's a big difference between dealing a trusted player for little gain, and seeing him beaten out by a younger, stronger version.

Well said! I think Gio is overpaid and underutilized. I like both of the young backs drafted last season. That makes Gio the veteran backup, in case of a Mixon injury.
As Sunset said, I'm all for Williams or Rod unseating Gio, but right now they're not ready.

(03-08-2020, 08:27 PM)coachmcneil71 Wrote: Well said! I think Gio is overpaid and underutilized. I like both of the young backs drafted last season. That makes Gio the veteran backup, in case of a Mixon injury.
As Sunset said, I'm all for Williams or Rod unseating Gio, but right now they're not ready.

Not ready? Dude it's football not an advance math exam.  Gio didn't do ish on this team last year besides pick up the blitz. 

Gio is over payed or under utilized cut the dead weight and sign better players with the inflated contact Gio was gifted for doing dog shit? Start being realistic about the Bengals is the 1st step to turn shit around. Don't give Mike cheap a$$ Brown a cop out excuse. 

(03-08-2020, 05:26 PM)jason Wrote: I think that's Rodney, but I was less than impressed with what little I saw of Traveyon ... Mixon has only played 16 games once, and as pointed out, Gio is really good in pass protection. Really I just think he's underutilized without a whole lot of creativity to boot.

Agree and not just this past season but going back even further. There's been many games we've totally abandoned the run and ignored RB's as pass catchers and not just Gio.

(03-08-2020, 08:48 PM)QueenCity Wrote: Not ready? Dude it's football not an advance math exam.  Gio didn't do ish on this team last year besides pick up the blitz. 

Gio is over payed or under utilized cut the dead weight and sign better players with the inflated contact Gio was gifted for doing dog shit? Start being realistic about the Bengals is the 1st step to turn shit around. Don't give Mike cheap a$$ Brown a cop out excuse. 

Right, it's football. What did Williams and Rodney contribute last year. Oh yeah, nothing because they got hurt.

It was so weird when we extended Gio last season after drafting two running backs that could be starters in the NFL if healthy.

Not sure what the logic was there.

(03-08-2020, 08:49 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Agree and not just this past season but going back even further. There's been many games we've totally abandoned the run and ignored RB's as pass catchers and not just Gio.

Pretty bad when his most memorable plays recently have been him getting hung out, and blown up on screens...

But yeah... As a rookie I think he lost too many snaps to BJGE, they tried him as a lead back early the next season, then he was losing too much work to Hill 2015 -2017.

2017 was the absolute worst when Mixon, Hill, and Gio we're sorta rotating with no ryhem, rythem, or reason

I've always been convinced he would've at the very least been a Dion Lewis/James White at their peak type of player in New England.

(03-08-2020, 05:26 PM)jason Wrote: I think that's Rodney, but I was less than impressed with what little I saw of Traveyon ... Mixon has only played 16 games once, and as pointed out, Gio is really good in pass protection. Really I just think he's underutilized without a whole lot of creativity to boot.

That's the key for me, the pass protection. With the line likely to take a few games to settle in and going all in on a QB, I'd give him every measure of protection we can get. And yeah, having a "better" option to hand off to is great, but so is giving him time to build confidence in his throws.

Gio's role in the offense has become this

3rd and 13 from their own 16 2:43 left in the 1st half
Delay draw by Gio. He carries the ball to the 21.
Rational ....to give Huber more room to punt. 4th and 8.

Or in a hurry up 3 min offense down by 9
Gio leaks out in the flat on a check down throw

(03-08-2020, 08:04 PM)BengalsRocker Wrote: True.

Gio could just be on a short list of guys here who'll be used to move around in the draft.

Like you said, they could dump money and get players on cheaper/longer deals.

To be honest Gio's deal feels really like a Brown one and not a Taylor one.

At this point who the hell really knows what Taylor is doing though.

It's not like they actually hired McVay. LOL

In ZT's mind, he's better than Sean McVay... 

So what is the deal with Gio?

Is it the offensive coordinators, and now Taylor not being able to get anything out of him?

I believe in being patient but this is getting borderline ridiculous!

If you ask me, we better drop this "our O-line is not too bad" shit and giving Taylor a long leash talk.

I also believe Gio has talent but has not been used to his potential... but he's also being screwed by a ragtag crew of bad linemen and a string of pure crap play callers.

(03-08-2020, 10:20 PM)Benton Wrote: That's the key for me, the pass protection. With the line likely to take a few games to settle in and going all in on a QB, I'd give him every measure of protection we can get. And yeah, having a "better" option to hand off to is great, but so is giving him time to build confidence in his throws.

That's what I was getting at as well. Blitz pick up and a safety valve. Worked pretty darn good for Burrow, with Edwards-Helaire at LSU.

I said it when the last contract was done for Gio, but he is 100% Mixon insurance. If we get a Mixon deal done before the season I fully expect him to be traded or a camp casualty. His contract structure was setup in a way that gave him big money year 1 when there was no real reason to ever consider cutting him then little protection next year but with a manageable contract if Mixon were to hold out and he needed to hold down the fort.

(03-09-2020, 08:15 AM)Au165 Wrote: I said it when the last contract was done for Gio, but he is 100% Mixon insurance. If we get a Mixon deal done before the season I fully expect him to be traded or a camp casualty. His contract structure was setup in a way that gave him big money year 1 when there was no real reason to ever consider cutting him then little protection next year but with a manageable contract if Mixon were to hold out and he needed to hold down the fort.

Personally, Gio wouldn't have gotten the deal he got if the Bengals were that sold on Williams and Anderson.  The whole thing smells of pre draft smoke and mirrors to me.

(03-09-2020, 09:39 AM)Whatever Wrote: Personally, Gio wouldn't have gotten the deal he got if the Bengals were that sold on Williams and Anderson.  The whole thing smells of pre draft smoke and mirrors to me.

When he got his contract Anderson had already tore his other ACL and Williams had missed a large amount of time with a foot injury. They really had no clue what they had in those guys at that point and it didn't really matter as I keep saying the contract structure tells the real story. Contract extensions aren't give out 3 months after drafting rookies because no one knows anything about them at that point, however they are given out as insurance on impending free agents/hold outs. Based on some things Mixon had said in the media that summer about Gordon's holdout it would make sense for the team to be a bit nervous and want to have a back up plan they could easily bail on if it all worked out. 

(03-09-2020, 09:47 AM)Au165 Wrote: When he got his contract Anderson had already tore his other ACL and Williams had missed a large amount of time with a foot injury. They really had no clue what they had in those guys at that point and it didn't really matter as I keep saying the contract structure tells the real story. Contract extensions aren't give out 3 months after drafting rookies because no one knows anything about them at that point, however they are given out as insurance on impending free agents/hold outs. Based on some things Mixon had said in the media that summer about Gordon's holdout it would make sense for the team to be a bit nervous and want to have a back up plan they could easily bail on if it all worked out. 

Gio is definitely Mixon insurance, but Williams had already completely bombed in preseason with a 1.3 ypc by that point.  The fact that Williams dressed for 10 games and didn't get a single touch on offense is also telling.

They are definitely sweating a new deal for Mixon and a RB in the draft makes sense for them.  However, by pumping up Williams, they seem less likely to take one to outsiders.

I like Gio. I think he's been underutilized or misused for the majority of his career. I have no problem with him being here.

With all that said, nothing can explain the dollar amount on his extension. Whether he's a "safety valve", or a contingency plan if Mixon walks, a need as a blocking back, whatever; him making 5 mil per is absolutely ridiculous. Even if all of the above are true, that doesn't mean you overpay someone that much.

His usage is extremely strange. He set career highs in rushes, receptions, total yards, ypc, rec yards, rec av, rush TD, rec TD ALL in his rookie year. And most of those numbers have been a steady decline from year to year.

He gets used less and less, his numbers go down and down. Yet we pay him equal to Mark Ingram and he posts career lows in rush attempts and targets. None of it makes sense.

Gio seems to be a great young man. This is not personal.

Resigning him for the amount they paid was a huge mistake. No other team would have given Gio that contract. It is yet another Bengal management decision that is incredibly hard to understand.

You can draft a RB who has been trained to pick up the blitz probably in 5th round.

If they can cut Gio and get more cap space they should do so and sign a first tier OL and a first tier LB.

They should also cut Dre and Glenn and trade Andy to get more money to sign premium free agents in our areas of greatest need.

We aren't going to lose many games because of the drop off from Dre or Glenn as compared to whoever takes their places.

We are going to be awful again if they do not upgrade o line for Burrow ( and protect their major long term asset) and dramatically improve LB group.

If I owned the  team I would take every possible step to protect Burrow so he does not contract DCS  ( David Carr syndrome)

(03-08-2020, 05:52 PM)George Cantstandya Wrote: I think you are thinking of Rodney Anderson. In college he broke his leg in 2015, injured his neck before the 2016 season which caused him to miss that season, and after bring drafted in 2019 6th round by the Bengals he tore his ACL in the final preseason game and was placed in IR.

Right, Rodney. He tore his right ACL his senior year in college, then tore the same ACL in his first pre-season as a Bengal. He's never going to be healthy. Trayveon has not done much so far either. I don't think he's ready to supplant Gio quite yet.