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

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(02-11-2023, 07:26 PM)WVUHomer Wrote: 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.

Everyone on the offense looked terrible then, but I don't think it had anything to do with formation and everything to do with Zac deciding an OL that had never played a snap with even a single other member of the OL in a game didn't need any playing time in the preseason before going out and trying to go up against arguably two of the three best DLs in the NFL while trying to protect a QB coming off hospitalization.

As I said in my post, the Bengals started 2 TEs in 7 of the 16 games the starters played in 2021. The better the TEs they have, the more they'll use them.

Same way they were 29th in rushing YPC so they were 29th in rushes, In 2021 they were 26th in rushing YPC, and 19th in rushes. If they had a good RB, they'd run more. If they had good TEs, they'd use them more. 

Just because they don't use them when they're bad doesn't mean that there's some inherent inability to do so schematically. The 2nd draft pick ever in the Zac Taylor era, they used a 2nd round pick on a TE. It was a bad TE, but it doesn't change they fact they tried to get another good one despite CJ Uzomah coming off a 43/439/3 season and re-signing Eifert. He still used a 2nd round pick on a 3rd TE.