Troy Blackburn Wrote:For those who say you shouldn’t have signed Bobby Hart, who is going to play right tackle? Who? Oh, maybe you’ll draft one in the third round and he’ll come on. Really? You’re going to bet your season on that? We may still draft somebody. We haven’t had the draft yet. But you just can’t criticize. In our business you have to solve the problem. If you’re not going to play him, tell me who? Trent Brown at 17 million? Really? A seventh-round draft pick? Let go essentially by his team. Really? We can’t go to WalMart and buy off the shelf. A high quality starting right tackle? That doesn’t exist (in free agency). You have to deal in the universe of options you have. We ended up signing eight guys. That’s probably above average. Were they perfect? You’re not going to get perfect. ... There aren’t perfect options out there. We asked Willie Anderson if he could go to a time machine and come back at age 25. We’d love to sign him, but you have to deal in your universe of options. I think the data would say we signed more guys than most in line with the cap that we talked about. If there are surprises out there we’ll try to be flexible and aggressive, but normally there are no surprises out there.

(03-28-2019, 02:24 PM)ochocincos Wrote: You won't like what Troy had to say...
http://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=21-41059312-4

What this really tells me is that Troy confirmed the Bengals go to the NFL equivalent of Wal Mart to get their FAs. They don't shop at the high-end name brand stores. No wonder they can't find anything nice. 

(03-28-2019, 02:28 PM)leonardfan40 Wrote: What’s he mean you can’t go to Walmart and grab a RT? Essentially what they did when they signed Hart last year. Now he’s apparently our permanent solution and I guess there is a rule against taking an OT in the first or 2nd round.

Give me Donald Penn over Hart

(03-28-2019, 02:47 PM)Synric Wrote: He is right they couldn't go into the draft with only Cordy Glenn and practice squad Kent Perkins as the only tackles under contract. If they missed out on a tackle early then they would be in a worse position than before the draft. I see Hart as security going into the draft.

Harts contract also allowed them to resign alot of their guys they wouldnt have been able to with a huge contract OT. I see it as essentially a 2 year front loaded contract that the cap hit is around 5 mil both years and can cut very easily.

As for people talking Donald Penn he was cut well after FA started and no one is looking at him I'm guessing do to age and injury.

(03-28-2019, 02:55 PM)ochocincos Wrote: And that's true, but the criticism for Hart was primarily around the money given, not him coming back.
Seemed the Bengals panicked and gave Hart (much) more than what he probably deserved in fear of losing him and not having a RT to fill that gap (even though there were and still are plenty of other mediocre-to-bad OTs still available).

But hey, this is now the perfect opportunity for the Bengals to really turn Hart into a good RT and prove everyone wrong. If he sucks again though, they'll definitely be hearing about it from the fans. 

(03-28-2019, 02:28 PM)leonardfan40 Wrote: I guess there is a rule against taking an OT in the first or 2nd round.

(03-28-2019, 03:07 PM)Ravage Wrote: In fairness to Blackburn (and I HATE being fair to him) I think the implication was you don't tend to take a RT in the first 2 rounds and that's largely true. LT's? Sure. But RT's? Not really, it doesn't happen often. Willie Anderson, and Andre Smith both being Bengals 1st round picks and both being RT's though suggests otherwise. But in general, the early round T's almost always are either LT's, or considered LT's to be.

(03-28-2019, 03:08 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Troy's answer is a little cocky from a FO wanting to earn the trust of the fanbase back. I had a light "I want to punch him in the face" moment for a few seconds while reading, but over it now. I'm sure someone will sit him down after that and discuss what an ass hat he made of himself. Or, maybe he will read my post.

(03-28-2019, 03:13 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Yet the only RTs they've ever had real success with (the past 20 years at least) were all first round picks. So while it may not be true for most teams, it seems to be true for the Bengals.