What have the Bengals been doing right.

[NKURyan]

(04-07-2019, 10:56 AM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Normally I agree with you, but I don't think anyone wanted a mega signing. A mid-tier signing or two would've done just fine. A true upgrade. Tbh, I'm not sure how much we truly upgraded this roster. BW Webb? John Miller? I guess those were minor upgrades to Redmond and whoever our 4th CB was. When you're coming off of 3 straight losing seasons, I don't think that's getting it. 

I sense no urgency with those signings. Feels like a typical ho-hum day at the office.

I agree on the cuts though. Props to them for doing the right thing. That's something we couldn't count on in the past.

I think an interesting comparison (albeit in a different sport) can be found a few blocks away in the Cincinnati Reds. Everyone thought after last year that the Reds were going to be bad. The Reds went out, were very active in the offseason, and brought in a bunch of new players. Many people still thought the Reds were going to be bad. The Reds, thus far, have been pretty bad (and granted, it's still a small sample size).

Now I know the counterpoint is going to be that at least the Reds went out and made an attempt at getting better and sparked interest in the fans, but have they really? I think fan apathy is already kicking in. And when all of these new players walk at the end of the season and the Reds are right back to square one, I wonder if it won't turn off a whole new group of fans who see this for what it was - lip service. I was skeptical that the Reds' signings were going to have any real impact on attendance, and I'm skeptical that if the Bengals had gone all in on FA it would've affected their ticket sales as well.

Maybe the Bengals don't think they are quite as close as some of us think they are? Or maybe the Bengals think the division is weak enough that they can hang around for a bit, while still keeping an eye primarily towards the future? We'll never really know the answer, but I could see either one. I'm not really sure that there were that many guys in FA that were going to drastically change where the team was headed one way or the other, especially not for what the cost was likely to be.