Vs Series: Jeff Blake vs Jon Kitna

[kevin]

(03-24-2023, 08:10 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: People love to compare players, and there's little to talk about for much of the off-season, so I thought it'd be cool to do a series of threads comparing former (or maybe sometimes) current players.

If the 2 threads I do today get positive feedback, maybe we can keep this going.

The rules are simple: I will name a couple of players and yall can vote on who you think had the better career *as a Bengal*. You can factor in anything you want: team success, individual success and accolades or whatever you want.

This thread pits a pair of good but not great QBs against each other: Jeff Blake and Jon Kitna.

All Bengals fans should be somewhat aware of how their careers went, but here's a refresher:

Both made 1 Pro Bowl. Both led a resurgence to competitiveness for the Bengals, leading them to 8-8 seasons. Both spent time as backups after that.

So who you got?

I will post one other match up today. Also, if yall think of any intriguing match ups, shoot me a message, and I'll credit you if I make it into a thread.

Neither one are on my list as top Bengals QB's, and I've seen them all.   My list now is #1. Joe Burrow, #2. Ken Anderson, #3. Boomer Esiason, #4. Andy Dalton, #5. Carson Palmer, # 6. Virgil Carter.   This list is based on leading Bengals at quarterback to play-offs, play-off wins and Super Bowl.  It's based on Winning, and stats are for losers as Paul Brown use to say. 

Blake was a 3rd string QB Bengals added when cut by the Jets. In college he was a scrambling QB, but he was short in size. Bengals were forced to go to their 3rd string QB due to injuries in the 1990's, and Blake had to start against the tough Dallas Cowboys.  What he did was scramble like Fran Tarkenton, and the Bengals of no blocking per the 2 injured QBs needed that.  Blake was so good at scrambling he almost beat the Dallas Cowboys, and the rest of that season he was one of the most exciting players in the NFL to watch.  That was the Good.  Then came The Bad.  The Bengals of the 1990's in the off season told Blake they didn't want him scrambling. They wanted him to be a pocket quarterback. So the Bengals took a great scrambling quarterback and Bengalized him into a pure pocket quarterback. The result was being as short as he was, he had most of his passes smacked down at the line of scrimmage.  The Bengals are guilty of ruining one of the better scrambling quarterbacks.  Blake became real bad as a pocket quarterback.  The Worst was when Boomer Esiason came back to The Bengals. Esiason should have started the whole season. The Bengals went with Blake and lost the first half of season. The second half of season they went with Boomer Esiason who still looked great and won, but team had too many losses under Blake early in year. 

Kitna was a good addition from Seahawks.  He was also in here as a back-up, but when given the chance out played the Bengals starting quarterbacks.  Bengals went out and got O'Donnell and Kitna was better.  Then Bengals turned down Mike Ditkas insane offer of every Saints draft pick, plus the Saints #1 picks the next 2 years, for Bengals spot in round 1 of the draft.  Ditka wanted that running back.  Bengals refused and took Akili Smith.  Bengals passed up all those draft picks to take Akili Smith.  It turned out Kitna was not only better than O'Donnell, but Kitna was better than Akili Smith.  I did question drafting Carson Palmer and not letting him get his reps in his rookie year, Kitna wasn't that good, and Carson was forced to still make his rookie mistakes in his second year.  

Now Blake didn't go on to do anything anywhere else.  Kitna who had been a starter for Seahawks before Bengals, went on to start and do very well for The Lions.  Blake was a good scrambler before Bengals ruined him, but for a pure quarterback, Kitna proved over and over that he was better than the higher paid O'Donnell and Akili Smith.  For his success with Seahawks and then The Lions, KItna showed that he was a good NFL quarterback.  Blake looked good that first season, but Kitna had more good seasons in the NFL than Blake ever had. Carson Palmer said Kitna was a heck of a quarterback. 

I would say in Bengal History Jeff Blake Over Rated and Jon Kitna Under Rated by The Fans.  Neither were winners in Cincinnati, but the Bengals were the worst team in the NFL at the time and deserved ESPN calling them The Bungles,  Blake did bring excitement as a Fran Tarkenton type scrambler, but stupid Bengals quickly told him to stop scrambling and be a pocket quarterback, and they ruined him. When Boomer Esiason came back, Blake should have went straight to the bench.  Then came Jon Kitna who always ended up better than high priced quarterbacks O'Donnell and Akili Smith brought in.  But again, when Carson Palmer was drafted. Kitna should have went straight to the bench, instead of Carson on the bench his entire first year.  So I blame Mike Brown and the coaches for some pretty stupid things under The Bungles years of 1990's and early 2000's. 

In Bengals Fans minds then, I would rated Jeff Blake Over Rated in Bengals History and Jon Kitna Under Rated in Bengals History.  I still put Virgil Carter ahead of both of them.  For those that have no idea who Virgil Carter was, he led the Bengals to their first play-offs in 1970 and was the starter until Ken Anderson was drafted.  Virgil Carter was better than Blake or Kitna.  With Greg Cook injured, Virgil Carter came in and saved the day taking Bengals to play-offs in 1970 and coming close in 1972.  

One quarterback who played on an awful Bengals team, proved he was much better if given any kind of blocking.  That was Fitzpatrick, The Magic Man.  He had good years after Bengals. So did Kitna.  Blake did nothing after Bengals.  Well, Bengals ruined him turning him into a pocket quarterback under Mike Brown and his coaches. Blake was too short and needed to use his Fran Tarkenton scrambling ability, but Mike Brown had him Bengalized from an exciting scrambling quarterback into one of the worst pocket quarterbacks ever. Blake had one or two good years, but Kitna had more good years than Blake in the NFL, and that's just a Fact.

This is a good thread, but to me they were two different types of quarterbacks. They did both play on some really bad Bengals teams, some of the worst NFL teams ever. They might have looked better on better teams and won more. As for Bengals quarterbacks, I've seen worse, but I've seen better than these two. I think they were both better than high draft picks of Jack Thompson and Akili Smith, who to me were wasted top picks not getting the top players in The Draft. We can say Blake and Kitna cost the Bengals no draft picks and came kind of cheap, and for that they were better than Thompson or Smith draft picks, but not as good as Burrow, Anderson, Esiason, Dalton, Carson Palmer or Virgil Carter. Greg Cook is what could have been after AFL rookie of the year, if not for injuries. Also Fitzpatrick was far better than that awful team that got Carson injured and no blocking all season in 2008. No QB looks good with no blocking. With Carson injured, Fitz had to take every snap and run for his life, there was no blocking. Fitz looked great on other teams. So the KEY to Burrow having a good long career is to HAVE BLOCKING. The best QB's ever can not win without Blocking. I felt sorry for Dave Klingler, because he was getting hit as fast as the ball was snapped, and he took the blame for what was maybe the Worst Offensive Line Ever in The NFL.