Fredtoast take on the O-line issue

[Benton]

(03-06-2017, 02:37 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Between 2002-2016, the Bengals took 7 o-linemen in the first round. At few points were they ever lacking talent at tackle, the most important position. I don't think the situation was that bad for as long as you claim. 2008-2009 I'd say we were weak at some spots on the line. Other than that, I'd say PA has always had more than enough to work with.


I don't pretend to know what Alexander does behind the scenes, so I just look at production and judge him on that. The fact that we've ranked 20th or worse in YPC for every year since 2006 (sans 2014) is something I put on Paul. Pass protection hasn't been as good as some think. Dalton has helped with that. I look at handpicked guys Paul has failed to get ready or develop. Ogbuehi was the "MVP" of a season where we won 6 fewer games than the previous year. Paul picked that player, coached him "up" and threw him out there.

Any normal team would've fired him for that reason alone. Teams don't brush off entire seasons as if they're no big deal. That's more of a Bengals thing. When you have no accountability, suddenly it's okay if a coach submarines a 12-4 team by drafting one of the worst tackles in history. Not to mention Bodine. Or Fisher. Or how he kept Livings over Mathis. Or the weird fascination he had with Dennis Roland. Or Eric Ghiaciuc.

In short, there's a lot not to like.

Understandable. And if it was me, I'd have fired everyone a few years ago and started from scratch. HC, coordinators, position coaches.

But if we're going to move forward with the people we've got, Alexander isn't the worst of the lot. Our drafting has taken a turn these last few years. I don't know what changed, I thought we added more scouts, which should have improved that.

And the running problem I put more on the other coaches. We had (I think) three RB coaches in four years? Caskey has been the longest since Anderson's retirement, but was he qualified? He was a TE in college and was a staff guy before he took over runningbacks. Since then, we moved away from trying to find older backs with some tread left, but that hasn't exactly panned out.