12-13-2019, 09:43 PM
(12-13-2019, 12:52 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Remember 2011 when we rebuilt our defense by signing three new starters in free agency? Scoring defense leapt from 24th in 2010 to 9th in 2011.
That allowed us to use our first two draft picks on offensive stars dalton and Green, and a team considered to be the worst in the league went to the playoffs five straight years.
Nate Clements - 2 years/10.5 mil total ***Out of league after 2012
Thomas Howard - 2 years/6.5 mil total ***Out of league after 2012
Manny Lawson - 1 year/3.5 mil
I don't think you can point to these additions as rebuilding our defense. Plugging holes (cheaply I might add) or applying band-aids seems like a more approriate description.
This haul was coming off the shedding of Chad's, Odom's, Joseph's, Keith Rivers, and eventually Palmers contracts. They shedded about 50 mil in cap space and entered free agency with the most to spend.
The result: 3 guys who made an average of 4 mil per. All on short deals, all not that great, and all gone after only 2 years.
The Bengals actually saved a ton of money with these replacements over their relative positions. Signing Nate Clements after letting Jonathan Joseph walk is not retooling or improving the defense. To suggest otherwise is plain wrong. He was much worse, and surprise, much cheaper than the playey he replaced.
The emmergence of Geno Atkins, and a more conservative offense focused on ball control contributed more to the improvement in numbers than these guys.
The fact this is what you point to, 3 bargain bin signings, in a year with a ridiculous amount of space, only further proves the idea that we simply don't use free agency to better this team. And to be clear, that's not to be taken literally. We do use free agency to sign players of course, but just not correctly. We use it cheaply and ignore obvious upgrades. Period.
