05-11-2021, 10:35 AM
(05-11-2021, 10:03 AM)muskiesfan Wrote: Say what you want, but Pat Mac is great. He was absolutely spot on about this organization. As a fan it's hard to hear, but it's not like we don't know these things to be true.
The front office is composed mostly of family and friends of the family. None have proven to be capable of sustained winning especially outside of the regular season. The owner still draws a paycheck for the title of GM regardless if the work is done by Tobin under a different title or not. The owner still meddles in team decisions even with a shitastic 3 decade+ track record of his own doing. We're the only team north of Atlanta without an indoor practice facility. We also have the smallest scouting department in the NFL. Instead of listening to scouts or reviewing what they have to say, the coaches have to pound the pavement to scout and we rely on information packets given to every team because our coaches can't possibly do of all the scouting plus their regular duties. I don't see the need to continue on.
The Bengals slapped a couple of band aids on the OL this year and everyone is eating it up. Even if we drafted Sewell the line wasn't upgraded enough. Our starters may be average or even slightly above, but once injuries hit and we have to go to our depth its straight garbage. The 1 tackle we did draft is a project player expected to take 1-2 years to be ready.
My optimistic prediction would be 6 wins. I hope to be wrong and this team is close to .500. I'll happily eat crow if they do better. I expect 3-4 wins with 6 being the maximum though.
Muskie, everything you said above is exactly what I've said since I've joined this board. Listen I'll be happy as hell to eat crow if this team is 11-6 this year and Zac turns into the offensive guru/genius that everyone on this board portrays in him to be.
However, I truly believe Marvin made this franchise a winning organization DESPITE of the front office. Marvin busted his ass and reshaped and turned this team from a team that operated like it was 1985 instead of 2003. This organization wouldn't have half of what it does today without Marvin leading the helm for 15 years.
This team will not get over the hump until they start operating like it's 2021 instead of 2003. We need more qualified people in this organization who know football instead of family and friends.
Personally, I think max wins this team has is 6-7 wins this year. I did a schedule earlier on in this thread and have them at 5-12 because I truly don't believe Burrow will come back and be the exact same player game 1 of the 2021 season he was in game 10 of the 2020 season. It's going to take time for him to gain confidence in his knees and offensive line. How long does it take for the new pieces in the OL to gel? They have to build chemistry together and they can only do that playing together and they only get 3 pre season games to do so this year vs 4 in the past.
