John Ross “healthy scratch” right? He posted this.

[*Nately120*]

(12-16-2017, 04:03 PM)Circleville Guy Wrote: Everyone is all fired up on here but can someone tell me what this video actually means? It looks to me like he has ten or so decent catches in practice over the last year. I say so what.? If this is highlights of hours and hours and hours of practices, it’s honestly not that overwhelmingly impressive. I’m guessing that every single player on the team could match or beat this highlight film. Again, I think it says nothing. Please tell me why you are all so amazed and upset after seeing this because I don’t get it.

Methinks the most likely thing is that we are frustrated at what we are seeing on the field and since we (practically) know Marvin won't be here we are hoping beyond hope that John Ross doing zilch this year was due to Marvin Lewis refusing to play him.  Ross will be here next year, Marvin won't, so we hope our problem of having 0 good WRs besides AJ will be solved as soon as we have a new HC who isn't hell bent on keeping Ross down.

Additionally, we have a tendency to really go overboard when it comes to evaluating our WR corps around here.  Just off the top of my head Armon Binns, Denarius Moore, Mario Alfred, [can't remember his first name] Wright, Cody Core, Jerome Simpson, that Kumerwowow guy, Rishaun Salmonize, Malone and so on, were all supposed to be great if Marvin Lewis would just get his head out of his arse and play them.  We really love our WRs' potential until the guy actually gets on the field and then it's time to wonder why we aren't giving the next guy a shot.

Bonus points for people arguing that a WR's draft position doesn't matter when we are talking up a late round WR, but then saying we should play Ross because he obviously has first round talent.

Short version?  We are really hoping Ross is great and that it's Marvin's fault he wasn't being great this year and that Marvin won't be here to keep him from being great next year.  My cynical take?  I really wish Steeler fans were sitting around dreaming of a guy with 0 catches saving their team.

(12-16-2017, 05:34 PM)McC Wrote: It shows smooth route running, quickness off the line, great acceleration, excellent hands, balance and body control.  You know, insignificant shit like that, also known as everything you'd want in a WR, who was kept on the bench for a team where nobody but AJ could get open way too much of the time.  Nah, he had nothing to offer at all.  Why would an offense as explosive as ours want that guy on the field?

I'm not trying to sound like a smartass here, but are we sure those clips significantly separate Ross from Malone, Core, Boyd, or Erickson? I mean, I really hope Ross is some dynamite WR that is just waiting for a HC who won't refuse to unleash him on our foes, but that takes an amount of optimism that decades of Bengals fandom have beaten out of me.