05-09-2018, 01:21 PM
(05-09-2018, 11:43 AM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I feel confident in that. Kinda hard to get worse than last year. Before the scheme switch, we were averaging less than 3 YPC IIRC.
Dalton was also getting sacked/hit/pressured at a ridiculous rate. We can only go up.
I've seen those before/after pics, and tbh he looked like a typical lineman in the before pic. He just got himself ripped up in the offseason. I've read that was his routine every year. This doesn't mean he was "fat" or out of football shape for 2010, and I won't believe that until I see a quote from a Bengals coach saying he was out of shape.
As for the Eagles, I'm not surprised he had to work his way up. He was coming to them as someone who had been a backup. His reputation was at a low point, thanks to that benching. Thing is, once they got a chance to see him in action, they stuck with him. PA saw him, saw how talented he was, and stuck with the objectively inferior player.
That was a whiff by PA. He had a Pro Bowler in his midst and stuck with the inferior guy. That isn't hindsight either. Mathis outplayed Livings as a Bengal.
I just can't believe that no other NFL teams were aware of how Mathis played in 2009 when he hit the free agent market after the '10 season. That does not make any sense at all. Plus, although he did not start he still played snaps in 2010 for all teams to see how he played.
It is much more likely that based on his fitness level and film from 2010 he was not deemed worthy of a starting position in the NFL. And based on his league minimum contract it was not even close. Even most scrubs get more than league minimum.
