Potential head coach candidates

[Whatever]

(11-19-2018, 05:16 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Name a coach who has made it to the Super Bowl with out a single top tier free agent on his roster.

I don't know of any.  Marvin has had some talented teams but they all had holes that needed to be filled before they could make Super Bowl run.  The 2015 team might have made it if Dalton had not been injured.  The '14 team went into the playoffs with Kevin Brock starting at TE and Rex Burkehead at WR.  The 2013 team is probably the only one that could have come close to a super bowl run.

The Bengals had agreed to terms with Warren Sapp when he was still in his prime and Marvin nixed the deal at the last minute, telling MB that he didn't think Sapp was worth the money.  Both Marvin and Sapp have confirmed this.  Sapp went on to sign with Oakland, instead.  Laverneous Coles, Antonio Bryant, Antwan Odom, Tory James, John Thornton, and Kevin Hardy were all big name signings.  They had Nick Fairley in and dropped him like a bad habit when the Bucs cut MJ.

I'm not going to say MB is a great owner, but he signed big name FA's before Marvin and he signed them in the early years of Marvin's tenure.  As the team started drafting better and the talent on the roster got better, this gradually slowed and the team focused more on resigning their own players.  It's likely that Marvin was pounding his fist on MB's desk for more talent to be competitive quickly, and Mikey obliged.  

Not being more aggressive in FA feels a lot like Marvin's doing.  Look at his coaching staff.  He seems more than willing to promote guys from within as long as the unit isn't embarrassing.  Look at the assistants that went elsewhere and boomeranged back here when they got canned.  Look at the players who left and got resigned after they got cut.  Shawn Williams got a nice extension and was inserted into the starting lineup after 3 years as a backup.  Also, look at his his maddening resistance to playing young players that show promise, keeping them tied to the bench in favor of mediocre vets.