DC wish list

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(01-17-2025, 12:36 PM)ochocincos Wrote: If they didn't have a center field FS quite like Bates or a 1T penetrator and run stopper like Reader, it was pretty bad.

And even if they had those guys more often than not it was still bad.

We had Reader in 2023 and still had the 31st overall/21st scoring defense, a big part of that being 26th rushing/30th rushing ypc.

We had both in 2021 and still had the 18th overall/17th scoring defense, and while we did have a good rushing defense that year (5th rushing/13th rushing ypc) we had the 26th pass defense.

Our good team defense in 2022, Reader only played 10 games and of those 10 he got hurt in 1 early on and in 1 (his first game back) he was completely absent from the stat sheet.

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I swear that the 2021 playoff run was simultaneously both the highlight of my Bengals fan life, but also the most damaging thing to ever happen to us. It convinced people that Lou was a brilliant DC, Zac was a good HC, Tobin was good at his job, we didn't need more scouts because we got there without them, that DJ Reader and Jessie Bates were all we were missing to have a good defense, that McPherson was a hyper-accurate kicker, that Burrow didn't need home playoff games, that Burrow didn't need a good OL to win in the SB, that Burrow getting sacked a million times was just part of his game that we should accept as needed for success, that we absolutely need a $26m WR2, etc, etc... just a massive positive reinforcement that we didn't need to change or improve.