Quentin Spain wants to come back to Cincinnati

[M.W.]

(01-22-2022, 11:52 AM)samhain Wrote: Wow.  I'm fairly surprised at how easily some want to let a guy like Spain walk.  We watched guys like Redmond, Price, and Jordan fill starting spots on the interior for years and we got pretty much the worst outcome possible from it, predictably.  Carman has flashed some promise, but his work ethic and consistency are yet to be proven.  Quentin Spain is the best thing to happen to the Bengals at OG since Boling retired, and he's a good leader for the position group to boot.  

If they decide not to sign Spain, then what do people think the alternative will be?  Are they suddenly going to pay an outside guard comparable money?  Highly unlikely.  They wouldn't cough up a halfway decent deal to an established and familiar Zeitler last year and Thuney was a pipe dream from the start.  

Are you relying on drafting a new starting left guard?  What of their history of drafting interior OL in the last 5 years makes that seem like a good idea?  Jackson Carman?  Carman is a giant of a man with mobility that they couldn't pull out of the starting lineup fast enough when Adenji came back.  Then Reiff gets hurt and he still sits on the bench.  Then Spain sat the Cleveland game and he finally got in.  It took THREE injuries to starters for coaches to decide that Carman, a second round pick, was their best replacement option.  That's piss poor.  A second rounder with multi-position versatility should be a plug-and-play starter on a line as weak as this one, yet he wasn't even close.  How bout Billy Price?  There is no example of an interior lineman that they've drafted being ready to start in the last 5 years.  None.

So, in summation, we a have a demonstrably capable, enthusiastic, and perhaps even pretty good LG with 2 years in the system.  He's done nothing but exceed expectations and carry water for what the staff wants to do since he got here.  People want to balk over paying him 8-10 mil a year?  Screw that.  Unless you're signing an elite, no-doubt replacement for huge money, that's a big negative for me.  In fact, he's the first guy that's up for an extension that I'd pay, and I wouldn't think twice about it.

All true but Price did net us Hill who has had a fantastic season.