Last Year's Final Cut. What's Changed

[NATI BENGALS]

Andy Dalton (7), AJ McCarron (3), Jeff Driskel (2)

WIDE RECEIVERS (7)
Brandon LaFell (8), A.J. Green (7), Tyler Boyd (2), Alex Erickson (2), Cody Core (2), John Ross ®, Josh Malone ®.

RUNNING BACKS(3)
Giovani Bernard (5), Jeremy Hill (4), Joe Mixon ®

TIGHT ENDS (5)
Tyler Eifert (5), Ryan Hewitt (4), Tyler Kroft (3), C.J. Uzomah (3), Cethan Carter ®

OFFENSIVE LINE (9)
RG-T Andre Smith (9), LG Clint Boling(7), C Russell Bodine (4), R-LT
Jake Fisher (3), LT Cedric Ogbuehi (3), C-G T.J. Johnson (2), G Christian Westerman (2), C-G-T Trey Hopkins (2), G Alex Redmond (1).



DEFNSIVE LINE (8)
NT Pat Sims (10), DE Michael Johnson (9), DE Carlos Dunlap (8), DT Geno Atkins(8), DE Chris Smith (4), NT Andrew Billings(2), DE Jordan Willis ®, DT Ryan Glasgow®.

LINEBACKERS (6)
Vincent Rey (7), Kevin Minter (5), Nick Vigil (2), Carl Lawson ®, Jordan Evans ®, Hardy Nickerson ®.

SECONDARY (9)
CB Dre Kirkpatrick (6), S George Iloka (6), S Shawn Williams (5), CB Darqueze Dennard (4), CB-S Josh Shaw(3), S Derron Smith (3), CB William Jackson (2), S
Clayton Fejedelem (2), CB KeiVarae Russell (2).

SPECIALISTS (3)
P Kevin Huber (9), LS Clark Harris (9), K Randy Bullock (6).

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

I would say the roster is significantly upgraded.

Bodine, Og, Minter, Lafell, Iloka, Jeremeh all being replaced by Price, Glenn, Preston, Boyd/Ross, Bates III and Mixon/Gio.

Looking pretty good to me. Also young players like Will Jax, Billings, Lawson, Willis, Glasgow, Evans, Vigil coming into their
own is huge. This to go along with the new coaching staff should have Bengal fans excited for this year. Will take time tho.

[HarleyDog]

(08-25-2018, 03:02 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: I would say the roster is significantly upgraded.

Bodine, Og, Minter, Lafell, Iloka, Jeremeh all being replaced by Price, Glenn, Preston, Boyd/Ross, Bates III and Mixon/Gio.

Looking pretty good to me. Also young players like Will Jax, Billings, Lawson, Willis, Glasgow, Evans, Vigil coming into their
own is huge. This to go along with the new coaching staff should have Bengal fans excited for this year. Will take time tho.

Very true. Have loved the improvement of 2nd-3rd yr players. Plus, I think it's no longer going to be sit behind the veteran but more like best guy takes the field.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(08-25-2018, 03:15 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Very true. Have loved the improvement of 2nd-3rd yr players. Plus, I think it's no longer going to be sit behind the veteran but more like best guy takes the field.

Yeah and when is the last time we had that?

[Essex Johnson]

(08-25-2018, 03:20 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Yeah and when is the last time we had that?

I guess i will have to get out my old posts to show that really our top three to four rounds in the draft.. had playing time when they were healthy or if they were not behind a very strong player.  Misconception that the Bengals just sat youth players.. when you are winning you are winning with those players.. nature of the beast is you see more turnover when you start losing.

[TSwigZ]

Idk how we can say it’s improved just bc we made changes with guys who are mainly younger and it’s a risk. However it’s a needed risk bc we know what we had before but we can’t be certain this years team will win more than last years we are just hoping. In my opinion last years team was actually worse than it’s record. I think our offense is definitely going to be better and our DLine is top tier i just can’t guarentee we’ll win more than 7 games with this Head Coach and not a ton of depth at many positions.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(08-25-2018, 05:04 PM)TSwigZ Wrote: Idk how we can say it’s improved just bc we made changes with guys who are mainly younger and it’s a risk. However it’s a needed risk bc we know what we had before but we can’t be certain this years team will win more than last years we are just hoping. In my opinion last years team was actually worse than it’s record. I think our offense is definitely going to be better and our DLine is top tier i just can’t guarentee we’ll win more than 7 games with this Head Coach and not a ton of depth at many positions.

Okay, so let me get this right. You don't think Glenn is an upgrade over Ogbuehi? You don't think Price is an upgrade
over Bodine? You don't think Pollack is an upgrade over Alexander? You don't think Preston Brown is an upgrade over
Minter? You don't think our young players having another year in the league won't get better?

We will win more than 7 games as long as we are not decimated by injuries.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(08-25-2018, 04:25 PM)Essex Johnson Wrote: I guess i will have to get out my old posts to show that really our top three to four rounds in the draft.. had playing time when they were healthy or if they were not behind a very strong player.  Misconception that the Bengals just sat youth players.. when you are winning you are winning with those players.. nature of the beast is you see more turnover when you start losing.

I usually agree with you Essex but there have been numerous times when one player is obviously better and the
worse player got the start or more snaps and it hurt us. John Thornton had to bench himself to get Sims out on
the field. Nate Livings was starting over Evan Mathis. Just last year Og and Fish were starting over Andre Smith
who was clearly better than both.

This year is different so i will no longer live in the past though.

[HarleyDog]

(08-25-2018, 05:04 PM)TSwigZ Wrote:  I think our offense is definitely going to be better and our DLine is top tier i just can’t guarentee we’ll win more than 7 games with this Head Coach and not a ton of depth at many positions.

If your right, we can still walk away at the end of this season and feel like the weeds have been plucked and the grass will grow. We have had horrible coaching and TBH, the coaches we have now may not do the job (although personally I think it's a great start). But at least we actually have acted like an NFL team and tried to do something. 

Now that I got the passive response out of me. I will say I feel it will be a lot better. We are just suffering from serious trench wounds as fans. We're not going to go 16-0 by any means. Yet I believe after the 4th-5th game, our competitors are going to take notice and we will, again, become the team others fear. 

[Circleville Guy]

(08-25-2018, 06:40 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Okay, so let me get this right. You don't think Glenn is an upgrade over Ogbuehi? You don't think Price is an upgrade
over Bodine? You don't think Pollack is an upgrade over Alexander? You don't think Preston Brown is an upgrade over
Minter? You don't think our young players having another year in the league won't get better?

We will win more than 7 games as long as we are not decimated by injuries.

It doesn’t always work like that. The team could be upgraded and still lose more games. Every other team had a draft and free agency too, I’m guessing that they all believe that they have improved. This schedule may be tougher, the Browns are done being automatic wins, the refs will still show favoritism, the star LB is still a head case, Marv is still at the helm. The team looks better on paper but there’s a reason that they play the games. I’d love to see a home playoff game though!

[BengalChris]

It's hard to say must about this.

On paper, the OL is better as Glenn > Ogbuehi and Price > Bodine. But Andre Smith > Hart/Ogbuehi.

On paper, Mixon > Hill but want to see something more than 3 ypc.

On paper, Ross/Malone/Boyd have passed LaFell, but we'll have to see this make an impact in the WL column.

On paper, Brown > Minter, but will this improve the run defense?

On paper, the absence of Adam Jones makes the secondary weaker. We'll have to see.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(08-26-2018, 01:19 PM)Circleville Guy Wrote: It doesn’t always work like that. The team could be upgraded and still lose more games. Every other team had a draft and free agency too, I’m guessing that they all believe that they have improved. This schedule may be tougher, the Browns are done being automatic wins, the refs will still show favoritism, the star LB is still a head case, Marv is still at the helm. The team looks better on paper but there’s a reason that they play the games. I’d love to see a home playoff game though!

Thats all true, but it could also go the other way the schedule might be weaker, the Browns are still automatic wins etc.

(08-26-2018, 03:05 PM)BengalChris Wrote: It's hard to say must about this.

On paper, the OL is better as Glenn > Ogbuehi and Price > Bodine. But Andre Smith > Hart/Ogbuehi.

On paper, Mixon > Hill but want to see something more than 3 ypc.

On paper, Ross/Malone/Boyd have passed LaFell, but we'll have to see this make an impact in the WL column.

On paper, Brown > Minter, but will this improve the run defense?

On paper, the absence of Adam Jones makes the secondary weaker. We'll have to see.

I don't know if the secondary is weaker with no Adam, if anything now we don't have him in front of WJ3 and Dennard.

I would say it is stronger. He was a damn good Returner though, will give you that.

Wish we would of brought back Andre, don't think Hart is near as good as him.

[Luvnit2]

I think we keep 3 QB's again

I think we only keep 6 WR's

So, we have an extra spot at DB, DL, LB, RB or OL

[BengalChris]

(08-26-2018, 03:17 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Thats all true, but it could also go the other way the schedule might be weaker, the Browns are still automatic wins etc.


I don't know if the secondary is weaker with no Adam, if anything now we don't have him in front of WJ3 and Dennard.

I would say it is stronger. He was a damn good Returner though, will give you that.

Wish we would of brought back Andre, don't think Hart is near as good as him.

I've considered Jones better than Dre. Especially when going up against AB.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(08-28-2018, 02:52 AM)BengalChris Wrote: I've considered Jones better than Dre. Especially when going up against AB.

Yeah, but WJ3 is better than both and Adam was falling off the last few years.

Oh well, he is a Bronco now.