(03-04-2018, 01:14 PM)GodFather Wrote: When the draft comes were going to pick up an injured player no other team would touch and consider it a "Steal".

Then the season will start and...well you know this story.

(03-04-2018, 01:23 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Yep - Mr. Brown will consider it a successful season before it even begins.

(03-03-2018, 11:47 AM)samhain Wrote: That's a pretty cheap point, really.  

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the 4 contenders in the conference title games.  

Philly signed two pretty big name WRs and traded for a running back.

Minnesota rebuilt practically an entire offensive line and signed one of the biggest name OL in free agency.

New England won a Super Bowl last year, yet still made a huge FA signing with Gilmore.  They also acquired Cooks in a big trade with New Orleans.  

Jacksonville spent a ton of money in FA on Bouye and Campbell.  

None of them feared free agency and guess what?  They also get to draft and retain their own talent as they see fit.  It's a multi-faceted game that teams play.  The old "look at this shitty team and all their bad free agent signings HAHAHA! We better not try that!" line is tired, and frankly incorrect at this point.

I would in fact argue that it's flat out necessary for a FO to have some aptitude in obtaining outside talent if they want to win a title in this day and age.  

(03-03-2018, 01:41 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Good point. They were being reactive rather than proactive with those trades. 

I think the overall point is that the Bengals are never aggressively active trying to improve the team quickly. We all know what it looks like when a team does that. It's like when NE won the SB and still made major signings and trades. Even with our best trade (a scrub for Reggie Nelson) was more luck than aggression. Nelson was viewed as a guy that wasn't panning out. That's why we got him for peanuts. It worked out great, but it wasn't considered a bold move at the time.

It was classic Mike going for value with a former 1st round flop. It just panned out that time. 9 times out of 10, it hasn't panned out. It's a lazy move. Not aggressive championship stuff. Heck, all teams take a chance on former flops, but they also get aggressive when they smell that they're close...or when the team has a clear need. The Bengals NEVER get aggressive. I've even seen Fred admit as much.

(03-02-2018, 01:40 PM)GodFather Wrote: Marvin Lewis quote:

"Lewis on Free Agency: Being active is taking care of our own folks and then it goes from there. We are going to bring people to the org that fits."

https://twitter.com/pauldehnerjr/status/969575693167288320


Well wasn't he just saying after his re-signing that the team NEEDS to be more active in free agency and it hasn't done that enough in the past?

He certainly is singing a different tune less than a month later.


Can we start a pool about whether this team will go over or under .500 this season? Count me in as under...