Worst possible salt in wound scenario.

[Shake n Blake]

(12-04-2016, 12:11 AM)samhain Wrote: You may indeed be right, but there's no denying that Marv had a mountain to climb when he got here.  Who knows how he really felt about the staff he inherited?  Maybe he'd have replaced Brat when he got the job.  Maybe he wanted a new o-line coach.  There are concessions that he made.  

Free agency will always be the question that bugs the hell out of me.  We all know damn well that the old line about FA's not helping is a crock of stinking feces.  Denver was chocked with them when they won.  The Pats had a huge one in their last title run.  We heard all game vs the Giants how they spent 200mil on the defense this past offseason and were reaping the rewards.  Baltimore had a few as well.  

I get tired of seeing this team spin it's wheels in FA.  We're reaping the rewards of their lies right now.  We've seen two rebuilds sputter out into mediocrity.  We have no idea how these teams would have done with A or B free agents, because we've never seen one.  Odom was the closest we got.  Yeah, the roster was strong over the last 3 or 4 seasons.  How would it have looked with a stud run stuffing DT instead of old, ineffective Peko?  How would things have gone with a younger dans by instead of miscast Harrison?  Why not maximize opportunity while the iron is hot?

Yes, this team did a nice job in the draft for a few years.  Unfortunately so did Denver, Seattle, and the NE.  Those teams also worked outside FA to supplement those strong drafts, and they won titles.  We did nothing and got nothing.  It's like bringing a knife to a gunfight, and it's the Bengal Way.  I just can't help but wonder what a key player or two would have made the last 5 years look like and how it would change our perception of Marv.     

Fair enough. I've been preaching the same stuff for as long as I've been on the boards (and even before that).

The window looks to be closing and Mike Brown refused to open his wallet to get this team over the top.

I'll never forget how Marv said that Mikey was "pushing hard to identify FA's that would put us over the top" last year, and we wound up with a typical Bengals FA haul. AJ Hawk and Michael Johnson. Whooptee-freaking-doo.