ESPN - Troy Blackburn comments on Bobby Hart signing

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(03-29-2019, 10:46 AM)Hoofhearted Wrote: Yes, but they did not need to give him such a huge pay raise and length. There's a middle ground a lot of us are arguing here. It's not they signed him, it's they seemingly made him a priority, gave him a huge pay raise for under performing, and added insurance years. Meanwhile, they're not even wanting to re-up AJ and AD because....they want THEM to basically prove it? Seriously? That's the message? If you're young and bad, we'll give you a shot. If you're good at your job but have some down years due to injuries or whatever, you better earn it. 

I think you need to learn about the details of Hart's contract before you call it "a huge pay raise and length".  Compare that to other middle of the road starting RTs and I would imagine you will see that it was somewhat of a bargain.  Hart's character was under fire because of how he supposedly didn't want to play the final game for the Giants so his value took a significant hit.  He was given a chance here to see if he could be a solid option at RT on a one-year "prove it" deal, and he came in and outperformed both Ogbuehi and Fisher.  He earned the pay raise.  

We like to say "the offensive line sucks", but what really sucked on this team was the defense.  If the offense had better quality depth (and I assign some of that blame to Marvin and the other coaches for not getting some of the other players more snaps earlier in their career) they might have held up better to the injuries.  Don't get me wrong, the Bengals are going to need more out of their RT spot, whether that is in the form of the young Hart developing or a new player coming in, but his contract was justified.  Again, he was a middle of the road RT according to PFF and he had a rookie on his side.  A line is more about cohesion than just individual performance.  Hart is also just 24 years old.  Whit came in to the league at 25 and didn't exclusively play OT until his fourth year in the league.  He struggled mightily early on when pressed in to tackle duty.  Good thing we didn't give up on him.  Oh, and he was an early 2nd round pick.  

Will Hart become a Whitworth?  I really doubt it, but I think you get my point.  I am really looking for good things from the entire offense with the new coaching staff.