Injuries as an excuse

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(09-01-2021, 07:17 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Every NFL team has injuries and the best teams usually have better #2 guys, but when you get down to third string no team has a lot of talent.  And that is what really hurt the Bengals last year.  The injuries were concentrated in specific spots.

Last year at this time I thought DT would be one of the strengths of the team.  We had Reader, Atkins, and Tupou who had combined to play over 1800 snaps in 2019.  But last year we only got 378 snaps form those top three DTs, and Geno was invisible in his 119 snaps with only one tackle for the entire year.  Instead our top 4 DTs in snaps played last year included three guys who could not make an NFL roster this year (Mike Daniels, Xavier Williams, Margus Hunt) and another guy who signed for less than $1 million dollars to play for his 4th different team in 4 years (Christian Covington).

We also got killed at CB.  Our top 4 CBs all missed at least two games and totaled 25 starts missed with injury.  LeShaun Simms, Jalen Davis, and Tony Brown combined to play 773 snaps at CB last year.  That was more than Mackensie Alexander (642) and Darius Phillips (593), and only about 100 fewer than Jackson (886).  No defense is going to hold up with their  #5-#7 CBs combining to play more snaps than all but one of their top 4.

O-line was a bloodbath.  We did not have a single O-lineman start 16 games last year and only two started more than 10.  We had 11 different players start on the O-line with 4 back ups getting at least 5 starts.  We were so desperate that 3 different O-linemen started at more than one position.  Bobby Hart, Alex Redmond, and Michael Jordan started 30 games for us last year and none of them have made an NFL roster in 2021.

Every team gets injuries, but any team who had as many injuries concentrated in specific groups like DT, O-line, and CB would have struggled.

Better luck with injuries could improve this team just as much as the big free agents and top draft picks.

Completely agree with the injuries (and lack of quality depth) that you laid out.  You could have included WR in that discussion as well as their true #1 WR (AJ Green) all but fell off a cliff and John Ross disappeared again.  Boyd was his solid self (although he missed time too) and Higgins was a pleasant surprise that fought hamstring issues all year.  

People will say "well, they had Boyd and Higgins" but Higgins didn't even start the season and Boyd was injured late.  Losing Mixon and Uzomah also hurt the passing game.  

This year's team has substantial depth at the defensive line, CB, and WR.  I am not making excuses for last year, but I will say that it was sort of a perfect storm for ZT losing Burrow as well.  This year, they just need to have more balance on offense by not giving up on the run so quickly, protect Joe, and be aggressive.  Can't wait for it to start.