12-14-2024, 11:22 AM
(12-13-2024, 05:58 PM)FormerlyBengalRugby Wrote: Who likes a talented WR who will cost the team a king's ransom to keep, but is injury prone and cannot be relied upon to be worth said ransom?
Use that same money in the trenches, and the team improves a heck of a lot more than burning it on Tee Higgins.
He's green bean casserole!
I get it, but that's easier said than done. Their return on investment for spending in the trenches has been piss poor lately. They invested a number 1 pick in Murphy and only recently felt the need to give him a meaning full number of snaps. 2 years in and we still have no idea what he is. Rankins wasn't exactly cheap, either, and he looks completely done. I have hope for Jenkins and maybe Jackson, but both have a lot to prove yet.
You can say similar things about the DBs. That situation is probably even worse. They've invested a 1st and 2 2nd rounders in the secondary. At worst, all 3 of those guys should be solid starters if they lived up to expectations. That's far from the case. They failed to find a position for Hill for 3 years. Taylor Britt is brain broke. Turner is decent but not playing. These guys were supposed to be the future of the defense. Throw in FA investments like Scott and Stone and you have nothing but misses over the last few years.
Tee is a known. There's no doubt that he's a major asset when out there. Could they get by with Ja'marr and some dudes? Probably, but you have to think that they team is going to view his absence as a hole to be filled in the draft or FA. That's less capital for more defensive upgrades. Sign Tee and you can go nuts on defense in the draft and with remaining FA money.
You spend that money on Tee and you know what you're getting. Spend money on something else and there's significant risk of getting magic beans in return. I'm okay with spending on knowns. They're in the position we see them in now for letting go of known veterans.
The defense IMO is a cultural problem. They need a new leader on the field and at coordinator. Shitty tackling is absolutely a culture issue. Bad communication on the back end is as well. I they aren't willing to gut those areas, then we're in for more of the same. You need new personel, but personnel investments will fall flat if the underlying issues aren't addressed. Stone and Rankins should tell us that. They were not chopped liver FAs. Not until they became Bengals, anyway.
