03-17-2021, 07:41 PM
(03-17-2021, 07:27 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Many of the same people here who claim were stupid not to give Whit a new contract at age 35 also say we were stupid not to have gotten rid of Dunlap when he was 29 and Atkins when he was 30 because they were "Too old to build around."
Just so we're clear, I don't remember people calling for Carlos to be shipped off prior to 2019. He was 30 years old at that time, it was the middle of the year, and he was due to be 31 the following year.
Geno Atkins is the same story, don't recall people wanting him shipped off until 2019 either. Also middle of a lost year. He was 31 at the time, due to be 32 the following year.
I know these are small differences, but two years difference (when you account for moving forward vs. Whitworth in offseason) is pretty substantial.
And by far the biggest thing you're missing is that when calls started to happen for these two get moved we were literally winless. We hadn't won a single game. We were on our way to our 4th straight losing season. With a new coach, and us staring at a potential #1 pick (QB) we were clearly in a rebuild. At least we should have been.
With Whit, we were one year removed from 5 straight playoffs. And his problems in getting an extension actually occurred during that run, the year prior in 2015. He also was coming off one his best years. That Bengals team didn't have nearly as many holes as their 2019 counterparts.
So I consider these to completely different arguments. One team was still contending for the playoffs when Mike finally got involved to get Whit an extra year, while the other team was the worst in the league. Whitworth was still at the top of his game, while Dunlap was completely non-existant for the first half of 2019 and Geno Atkins play had clearly started to diminish a bit.
Apples to oranges.
