New Coach and New Expectations

[The Real Deal]

(01-13-2019, 10:36 PM)fredtoast Wrote: So clueless dumbass Marvin took over a 2-14 team that had not had a winning season in 12 years and improved 6 games to 8-8 his first year.

Now the new guy comes along and takes over a 6-10 team just three years removed from a 12-4 season and fans don't expect more than 9 wins his first year?

If Marvin was as bad as you all claim shouldn't you expect his replacement to be in the playoffs next year?

(01-14-2019, 10:27 AM)HuDey Wrote: As I said, the team is not very good. No they are not going to win 9 games next year under a new staff without first improving several positions in the starting lineup.

Marvin was OK. Not great, not terrible, just OK. While, even at 4-1, I never believed this team was Super Bowl caliber, i think the bengals were unfortunate this year. In Marvins defense, the team was snake bitten with the injury bug. Call it an excuse, call it what you want. But the reality is that by the end of the season they had 18 players on IR. 18! If they stay healthy do they get to 9 wins? I think they might have.

So here’s the deal coming into this season. If healthy, I do believe this team has the ability to get to 9 wins. Sure upgrades to many positions are needed and I’m hopeful the offseason is good to us. But if 9 wins is the benchmark, sure I think it’s doable.

That being said, there is a good chance next season isn’t much better than last. If that is the case it by no means tells us Taylor is better or worse than Marvin was. The fact of the matter is any time you bring in a completely new regime with new philosophy, scheme, verbiage, etc. you are in danger of there being some growing pains.

So I’m hopeful Zac Taylor can come in here and instantly make this team a contender, but I’m also not so naive as to believe that it could take a little time for him to fully have his plan in place, have it set up to succeed and also for the team to transition.

The odd part of all of this is that it almost feels like Fred doesn’t want Taylor’s first year to succeed just so Marvin doesn’t look so bad. If that’s the angle, I don’t get it.