Coach versus Culture

[Whatever]

(12-27-2017, 10:24 PM)McC Wrote: Those things you mention are on coaching, with the possible exception of playing young guys.  People will point fingers at Mike, thinking he insists that higher priced players play.  Don''t remember this ever being verified, but it is a school of thought.

Mike's issues include things like his FA approach, which is that, no matter what, he will only scrape the bottom of the barrel.  And then there's letting important players leave, the dreaded practice bubble, the scouting process, the approach to the draft, specifically the first round.

The other three, for sure, are coaching issues.

If I thought MB was giving Marvin marching orders on who to play, I would think he would push him to play his 1st round picks.  That's why I don't read a lot into that.

The Bengals FA model changed under Marvin.  The Bengals weren't massive FA spenders previously, but they brought in a fair number of "name" FA pre Marvin and in the early years of the Marvin era.  Neil O'Donnell, Barry Foster, Ashley Ambrose, Richmond Webb, Bobbie Williams, Kevin Hardy, Tory James, John Thornton, Antonio Bryant, Jon Kitna, Gus Frerrotte, and Laverneous Coles were all pretty big name signings.  Heck, Warren Sapp has a grudge because we had agreed to terms, then by Marvin's own admission, he nixed the deal because he didn't think he was worth it.