Ben Baby's "Three things to watch for the Bengals this offseason"

[WVUHomer]

(02-11-2023, 06:59 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: At the point where they get a good one rather than a mediocre one (Uzomah/Hurst).

If your best TE is your 5th best receiving option, your TE isn't going to put up huge passing numbers. If they're your 3rd best, they're going to put up some good numbers. Are we honestly expecting the Bengals offense to operate as if Wilcox and Asiasi are good? Do we WANT them to get 40 targets each?

I think this whole "TE offensive philosophy" thing is VASTLY overblown. I will point out that before Sample got hurt, the Bengals started 2 TEs in both of their first 2 games in 2022. In 2021, the Bengals started 2 TEs in 7 of the 16 games they played their starters in. 

Heck, Uzomah and Sample combined for 1,261 offensive snaps in 2021. Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd combined for 1,564. It's less, but it's probably not nearly as much less as many people would assume. In 2019, Eifert was snap limited by them trying to make sure he didn't fall back apart, but they used him and Uzomah both. The Bengals will use TEs. They just haven't had any good ones since Gresham and (when rarely healthy) Eifert.

Considering those were probably our two worst statistical weeks in the past 5 years (don't quote me on that just making an exaggerated point), I don't think that's the right mindset to take with saying we like 2 TE sets. Especially considering how bad our OL was looking even with the TEs out there.

Actually, the fact we had more athletically limited people out there may have hurt our OL by making JB hold it just that much longer rather than spreading 4-5 wide out.