Grade the current (last 5 years) FO

[*ochocincos*]

(5 hours ago)rfaulk34 Wrote: Losing Bates was gross mismanagement. He was in his prime and they could easily fit him under the cap. 

That and all things said in this thread, i can't give them any better or worse than a C. Middle of the road, milquetoast, average. 

Pretty much any positive can be balanced by a negative or viceversa.

To be fair, Bengals haven't really seemed keen on signing any defensive players to big, market-setting megadeals, instead trying to draft replacements for them and have those guys ride the pine as rookies before being pushed into heavy reps once the incumbent departs.

But I agree, I was sad to see Bates depart.
I loved Bates as a Bengal.
But we know the Bengals (or specifically the FO) don't consider safety to be near the top of priorities for paying defensive guys.
CB and DL have traditionally been the priority.
I think back when it was Hendrickson-Hill-Reader-Hubbard, every one of them was making $8+ mill APY. They had a lot of money tied up into one position group.

Had they also kept Bates and Reader though, I probably would have put them closer to B.