08-22-2017, 01:15 PM
(08-22-2017, 12:50 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Agreed. For me though (and maybe this is my flaw), I believe a player has fully grown after their third year. I don't see many players suddenly improving a lot in their fourth year or later. It's why I've been harder on Bodine than most. Bodine has had three years of full season reps and now into his fourth offseason and he's still bottom tier. I think he's capped out in terms of his potential.
I agree with you that this team's philosophy (at least in the Dalton era) has been to try to build through the draft vs FA. However, there have been quite a few whiffs that have derailed the seasons so far. IMO if the team really put that much stake into the draft, they would invest into more (and arguably some better?) scouting and coaching. This FO and these coaches seem to have had a "type" of player they are always going after, and they've seemed too stubborn to change that philosophy for years even when there's been multiple instances to prove that philosophy is not working and in some cases hasn't worked for quite some time.
In recent memory, here have been the "types" of players the Bengals have pursued:
- Big, long power 4-3 base DEs
- Athletic OL
- Big, somewhat slow LBs that are predominantly run stuffers but struggle in coverage
- DBs that have some experience defending the run rather than ball hawks
EDIT - At least in regards to the DEs and LBs, this team seems to have finally taken a risk and done what many of us fans have asked for, and that's attempting to add some speed rushers and faster LBs that are better in coverage. It's a bit too early to tell, but indications so far are that we fans barking for years about changing things up in those areas might actually have been right all along.
Listen, I know it's not realistic for every player to be a top 15 player. But that doesn't mean the team shouldn't strive to achieve it. The real issue is that this team seems to accept certain players/positions being a lower tier starter year after year without making any concerted effort to challenge said player to either vastly improve or risk losing his starting spot.
Now, some people (at least on these forums) seem to buy into the thinking that the Bengals staff knows their players better than we ever could because they have (much more) experience in football and are employed by the team whereas we are essentially "armchair quarterbacks". However, I believe that just because someone has more experience in a field or has worked for a certain company doesn't necessarily make them better than someone who hasn't. I very much believe some of our fellow board members would add value to the Bengals or whichever team that would employ them.
This is a great post.
Bengals DE's drafted 2009 to 2016:
Michael Jonson - 6'7" 260+
Carlos Dunlap - 6'6" 290
Margus Hunt - 6'8" 277
Will Clarke - 6'6" 271
If you look at the top sack leaders from 2016, you have to get to the 13th rank to find a guy over 265 lbs.
Most are in that 6'5 and under and 250-260 range in weight.
And when you keep going back, outside of GREAT players like Watt, you notice that you will only see statistical outlying seasons from guys over those benchmarks. And even Watt doesn't rush from the edge.
*I am really only looking at Edge rushers.*
They just haven't been drafting proficient pass rusher types before Lawson and Willis.
