Bengals Roster Ranked Near the Bottom of the NFL

[BengalChris]

(07-08-2021, 10:00 PM)TJHoushmandzadeh Wrote: You can't see why that changes anything because you've already made up your mind and are trying to shoe-horn the evidence into your pre-determined narrative. Be a bit more open-minded.

Jessie Bates improved his play to an all-pro level under/despite the current coaches.

According to PFF Sam Hubbard and Trey Hopkins, improved their play in 2019 compared to 2018 and in 2020 compared to 2019. Other than Boyd (improved from 2019 to 2020) that's all the starters PFF listed who were here under the previous coaching regime. 

Vonn Bell went from a PFF grade of 62.8 in 2019 before he joined to 71.5 under the Bengals' coaching staff.

If they improved why can't the 1/3 new arrivals? Or the 1/3 who have only been here a year and who haven't had a full pre-season under the coaches yet? Or the 1/3 who were held back by injury. This is a rebuilt roster who we've seen very little of. 

Chances are we again see a better team in 2021 than in 2020. How much better remains to be seen. Maybe the team won't improve enough but to argue the team can't improve under the coaches would be asinine and contrary to the evidence available. Maybe they'll only take small improvements like Hubbard and Hopkins. Maybe they'll make big improvements like Jessie Bates. I'll be hoping the latter.

It's a 53 man roster, plus numerous practice squad guys and I see you've managed to come up with 5 guys you feel have improved their play. That's less than 10% of the roster. Nothing against those guys either, they're all good young players who have managed to improve while the bulk of the roster has not, as witnessed by the teams decline in the win column.

How about counting the guys who played worse after Taylor and his pals arrived? There is the other side of the coin to consider and count. The declining team record shows this. Even Jon Ross, as bad as he was under Marvin, found ways to get even worse under Taylor, a coach many people thought would actually be a help to Ross.

How about the disfunction of the defensive scheme? How does this Lou character even have a job in the NFL?

How about the fixation on the 11 personnel formation on offense? Where's this offensive genius we were promised?

A decent coaching staff would have gotten more out of this roster. For that I am certain. I'd think that would be rather plain and obvious to even the most casual fan.