06-24-2015, 12:37 PM
(06-24-2015, 12:15 PM)fredtoast Wrote: If I knew than answer then I would be running an NFL team.
What I do know is that we have good coaches and good players. We just don't have elite coaches or many elite players.
The people who claim that we can win by just replacing coaches and QBs always refuse to give specific names of specific QBs or coaches we could bring in that would fix everything. They cry for change, but when you look at the reality of the situation they don't really have any more answers than I do. They refuse to acknowledge that just constantly changing coaches and QBs is not guaranteed to fix anything.
You don't have to be running an NFL team to have an opinion on specific players on the roster and the coaching staff.
I could be completely wrong, but I think guys like Rey Maualuga and Domata Peko are holding the defense back more than Carlos Dunlap and Adam Jones. For that reason, I'm usually involved in arguments and discussions when it comes to either of those guys because I think they're part of the problem and not necessarily part of the solution in Cincinnati. Just because I can't name a specific player that should come in and do their job better at this exact moment doesn't automatically make either of them better at their respective positions. I still think they're both mediocre at best whether there is a "clearly better" option available or not.
If I'm holding my company back with an inferior work ethic, it doesn't make me good at my job just because there aren't people available in my field and lining up to replace me. If I'm holding them back, then I'm holding them back flat out, no disclaimers or need to have a specific guy's name ready to work in my position. If I'm bad enough, some companies will even fire me before having a replacement ready to go. Since I've been here for years and have a relationship with my peers and supervisors, they may give me the benefit of the doubt for an extended period of time even if I'm not doing the best job since they can't find a quality replacement yet. Other companies may have different policies and I'm sure there would have been other companies that would have fired me by now regardless of my relationship with any of them. I'm just glad I work for these guys that don't care if I'm not very good at my job, as long as we remain close, I should have more freedom and benefit from the lack of accountability. Do you see where I'm going with this? I don't think the Bengals are a shitty franchise that can't do anything right, but I do believe they are overly loyal at times. IMO, Maualuga and Peko would have been cut by plenty of other teams by now for their recent performance. Even if they were retained, I don't see them getting the contracts they received in Cincinnati in other places.
I see you and a few others spend most of your time defending players/coaches but never specifically pointing out which guys you think could be upgraded, which positions we're weak at, and which areas could be holding us back from a playoff victory. I don't think it's crazy to be curious of which guys you honestly believe are the weak links on the team or who you think could have been potentially upgraded this past offseason.
For what it's worth, if I thought you or the other guys were complete morons and didn't care at all about your opinions, then I wouldn't be trying to find this stuff out. "We didn't do enough to win" is for Marvin. This is a message board where we get to play armchair GM, so since you seem to defend a lot of the guys that I don't think are very good, what are the pieces missing to win a playoff game, in your opinion?
