Are the Bengals better today than before free agency

[The Clapp]

(03-24-2021, 12:53 PM)TJHoushmandzadeh Wrote: I don't see that we have actually improved since last season.

We had two tier one free agents - both walked. You can argue between Lawson and Hedrickson - it appears Lawson was the team's first choice and Hendrickson was only signed once it was clear that Lawson wasn't returning - and whether the corner room is stronger or weaker but those were our big moves in terms of money being committed and they were sideways moves to replace top tier players who left. Whether marginally better or marginally worse those moves haven't shifted the needle on a 4 win team.

Replacing Bobby Hart with Riley Reiff is probably a bigger PR win than upgrade. Reiff was a good player but is on the way down. It's a one year deal. He's a stop-gap replacing a stop-gap. He doesn't fix the O-line, whose problems were far more on the interior in any case. He buys us time and means we don't have to reach in the first round if Sewell is gone.

Elsewhere we've lost two future Hall of Famers. They may have offered little production on the field last year but they were a big part of why we were supposed to be much improved last year with them healthy again. Their production may be replaced but what they were supposed to mean in terms of game planning hasn't been replaced and probably won't be unless we draft Chase/Pitts in Round 1 and improbably hit on a DT.

We've still got holes all over the place: at WR where we have to replace Green, Ross and Erickson; at G where we have yet to upgrade our weakest position; at DE where there's still a Carlos Dunlap sized hole; at DT where some more pass rush is required; let alone depth where the likes of Shawn Williams, Josh Bynes, Cethan Carter etc have gone and not been replaced. The only position where the depth has been improved appears to be CB with the addition of Eli Apple. It doesn't look like the rebuild will be completed this season and that is a source of immense frustration when the front office failed to deal Lawson, WJIII, Billings, Dalton, Eifert, Dunlap, Green, Atkins early enough to recapitalize.

You had me agreeing with you, then you said this... i lost faith, man....