When will Zac be fired?

[Benton]

(05-10-2021, 06:41 PM)masterpanthera_t Wrote: I don't necessarily disagree,  but I think this is a bit of almost revisionist history now.
The best that roster did was go 6-10 in 2001, that too by winning two straight to close the year. Perhaps another dead cast bounce.

Levi was drafted in 2002 so he wasn't even a part of it.
I think we're really underestimating the total rebuild/ culture shift that Marvin did in 2003. He brought in a slew of Tier 2 defensive free agents like Thornton,  Tory James etc.  Not to mention IIRC, Housh was nowhere near the player he became later on.  I think he didn't really start playing at a high level until 2004 when Palmer stared. If I remember right,  he was very close to being cut in 2003, with hamstring injuries never allowing him to consistently get in the field until then. I could be off by a year,  but TJ was nowhere near the best he became later until Marvin showed up. And I think Warrick was in a similar boat,  but obviously he flashed a little in 2003, never before and never after. And as you know Spikes left the same off-season that Marv showed up. Dillon only played a few games for Marv and left the next year. I'm also not sure if I should give any credit to Marv for drafting Steinbach or if it should all go to Duke.
But,  until 2003 when Marv came in,  I'm not sure this roster ever came close to reaching its potential and certainly the roster upgrade through FA is at least partially if not in majority a credit to Marv. But it was still mostly if not all tier 2 FAs.

I honestly don't think Taylor was given a bad roster. Lack of depth is partly his fault for not impressing upon the FO, the state of the roster. I would honestly submit that he had a comparably on par roster with that of Marv. It certainly wasn't so bad that it declined by 4 games the next year after Marv left.

Levi started 14 games in 2002, 16 in 2003.
Willie was a foundation by 2002 and got his first AP nod in 2003; he would have probably been considered one of the best at his position if he played on any other team.
Chad was already over 1,000 yards by 2002 and stayed there until he got injured (08?). 2003 was one of his best career seasons: 1,355 yards, 58% catch rate (second career highest) and 10 TDs (only time he got double digit TDs in a season).
Dillion averaged 4.2 YPC in 2002, 3.9 in what he played of 2003. Mixon was 4.1 in 2019 and 3.6 in 2020.
It kind of goes on and on.

The 2003 roster would've destroyed the 2019 roster. On paper, Zac inherited some of the best players of the last decade. It's kind of telling that a year later, many of them are backups, FAs or on their couch. And, no, it wasn't because ZT ruined AJ Green, it was because the Bengals FO held onto AJ for too long.