02-18-2022, 09:25 AM
(02-17-2022, 08:53 PM)SuperBowlBound! Wrote: Player development is the key for sustaining a winning organization. I remember previous post on here thinking Pratt was going to be a bust and here he is in year 3 developing into one of the better players at his position. Offensive Line is even harder to develop. Frank Pollack has my trust to be able to see either the potential in our young lineman or if it is time to walk away from some of them. The problem is we all watched the Bengals play in the Super Bowl and witnessed how bad the offensive line played. We cannot move forward without protecting our most important asset.
If it was me I think Tre Hopkins and Quinton Spain are as good as they are going to be at this point in their career. They need to be gone next year. Youngsters Trey Hill, Jackson Carmen & D'Ante Smith will still be on this team to develop. That leaves Hakeem Adenji or Isiah Prince to show they belong on this team as more than practice squad players.
Jonah Williams will be a starter next year at LT. I don't see the Bengals spending 23 mil to bring in Terron Armstead. I see them signing Free Agents in the 7.5 to 15 mil range if possible.
That leaves 4 openings for free agents.
I do think they will sign Riley Reiff to come back to play either RT or RG. He seems to be so well respected by this team that I cannot see him being a one and done player.
That brings us down to 3 more quality free agents with one being a center.
I hope we sign at least 2 of them on the first day of free agency and not waiting for the bargain bin.
I was thinking about this yesterday. When do the young guys like Carman and Smith really get to work on improving their game? OTA's are gym short football. Training camp is so watered down now with the rules the Players Association put in place there isn't that much full contact like there used to be. And, during the season practice is mostly installs and walk throughs. These guys need to be spending their summers with Willie Anderson or some other private line coach because during the season isn't going to get it done.
