I am Loving the Speed

[CJD]

(06-13-2017, 08:28 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: I'm going to watch all the games and cheer for the team regardless if they are good or not. I was still a fan regardless of Akili Smith or Ryan Fizpatrick being the starter, so my "true fan" status has been well paid off.

I just know two years ago the Colts tried this exact same approach. Stock up on offensive talent at the skill positions... Luck, Gore, Hilton, A Johnson, Fleener, Allen, use a first round pick on an undersized WR who was the fastest in their draft in Dorsett... and think that the skill positions will make up for having a putrid OL.

Luck ended up with a hurt right shoulder, a hurt ankle, lacerated kidney, and torn abdominal muscle. He had never missed a game prior, but played only 7 games that year. His hasn't really been truly healthy since then, and he had to get surgery on his throwing shoulder, traced back to the injury in the 2015 season. Luck still hasn't resumed throwing yet.

They call it a copycat league, but it is generally implied you are supposed to copy the good things, not the stupid things.

Bengals aren't copying the Colts though. The reason the Colts had such a bad Oline was because, from 2012 until 2015, they spent only one second round pick, one third round pick and zero first round picks on the offensive line. So when their Oline underperformed, the problem wasn't that highly drafted players were not panning out. It was their lack of emphasis on drafting them made it a near inevitability.

They finally broke the cycle in 2016 by drafting a Center in the first round. But that's 2 premium picks on the Oline in 5 years.

The players we're worried about not working out aren't late round picks that we're hoping suddenly become good.

We're worried about a first and a second round pick living up to their potential.

In 2016, we weren't going to draft any Oline, because we had other weaknesses and we had a fairly stout Oline, if 2015 was any indication and two highly drafted tackles waiting in the wings.

And in 2017, we ended up not drafting any Oline because the value at the positions was terrible and there was tremendous value at every single one of our day 1 and day 2 picks with no Olinemen even close to value at any slot. And reaching for Oline would be just as bad, in my opinion, as having to wait one more year to get talented players along the line.

We may have a bad Oline this year. But it won't be because we took the Colts' route of ignoring the position for years and expecting magical results from 4th and 5th rounders.

If we have a bad Oline, it will be because, despite our emphasis on the position group, our highly drafted players did not live up to expectations.

I think there's a significant difference between the two scenarios.