Remember Robert Geathers?

[CoCoNuT]

http://www.cincyjungle.com/the-chronicle/2015/2/28/8125527/saying-goodbye-to-former-bengals-de-robert-geathers-for-now

I keep forgetting this guy was released.
It seems like he should still be on the team.
Don't go crazy over that last sentence, I realize it was time for him to go.
At the same time, I don't remember a lot of members celebrating him leaving in either a good/bad way.
How many player have there been that did there time and when that time was up there was no reaction to it?

...could just simply be I just missed an entire message board couple of months ...occasionally I have a life.

I probably always over valued the guy.
He was a presence I thought that not a lot people appreciated.
The guy that executed his assignment and allowed other players to shine.
Though I do not know enough about football to really understand if most of the time he was just simply a body that could hold up most seasons or a talent that one fully understood.

[bearstronaut]

I don't think anyone on the boards had a problem with Geathers as a player. The problem was with the amount they were paying him vs. the production he put forth.

[*Nately120*]

I recall calling him "Jumpy" Geathers and only now do I realize he is that guy's nephew.

[Shake n Blake]

I think people are indifferent to Geathers because...

1. He's been pretty much invisible for the last few seasons
2. He was a massive disappointment after that 10.5 sack season

Part of me was sad to see him go because he was the only player to participate in all 6 playoff games, but overall, Geathers' career was very underwhelming.

[J24]

Geathers was done after the 08 season. The guy was one of the more athletic guys in the league before his injury in 08 and after that he was never the same after that. For a 4-3 defensive end to only have one season with more than 5 sacks in a regular season and play for 11 seasons is remarkable. We will miss him in the locker room but not on the field.

[djs7685]

Geathers wasn't bad and actually showed quite a bit of promise. Then he signed a nice extension and sort of fell off gradually from there over the rest of his Bengals career.

He seemed to play moderately well against the run at times but was just flat out miserable rushing the passer. Between injury and just not being very good in the pass rush, it took Geathers from 2011 - 2014 to total about as many overall pressures as MJ93 had in 2013 alone in our defense.

I think he could have been replaced a couple of years ago, but at least the team finally realized that he just can't hold up anymore in a defense that needs pressure on the QB from the edges.

[Bengal Dude]

I liked Geathers for a while, but he did fall off after his injury in 2008. I thought he did a good job when you consider they kept changing his role early in his career. I believe early 2008 was when they finally focused on him bulking up and becoming a run stopping DE. Then he had micro-fracture surgery and was never the same. I appreciate what he did for us, but it was definitely time to move on.

[fredtoast]

Geathers was better than a lot of people give him credit for. He was very athletic until his knee injuries. How many guys in the NFL have played DT and LB?

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(07-19-2015, 11:45 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Geathers was better than a lot of people give him credit for.  He was very athletic until his knee injuries. How many guys in the NFL have played DT and LB?

Bob Golic.

And he was tons better than Geathers.

[RoyleRedlegs]

(07-19-2015, 11:45 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Geathers was better than a lot of people give him credit for.  He was very athletic until his knee injuries. How many guys in the NFL have played DT and LB?

Geathers was never a DT. He lined up there in pass rush only situations. 
It isn't like he moved there permanently. That's like saying Nelson plays S and DE because he put his hand down on one pass rush. 

[coachmcneil71]

(07-17-2015, 03:16 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I think people are indifferent to Geathers because...

1. He's been pretty much invisible for the last few seasons
2. He was a massive disappointment after that 10.5 sack season

Part of me was sad to see him go because he was the only player to participate in all 6 playoff games, but overall, Geathers' career was very underwhelming.

Agree, had one big year which earned him a nice check or twenty. Wts, he was part of the team,stayed out of trouble, and contributed along the way. He wore the stripes and did it admirably even though as Shake said he was a bit underwhelming after showing some serious promise early in his career. Best of luck to him in future endeavors. 

[fredtoast]

(07-20-2015, 02:20 AM)RoyleRedlegs Wrote: Geathers was never a DT. He lined up there in pass rush only situations. 

Okay, Mr. Semantics.  How many guys have played LB and also lined up at DT on a regular basis in the nickle package?

[RoyleRedlegs]

(07-20-2015, 12:03 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Okay, Mr. Semantics.  How many guys have played LB and also lined up at DT on a regular basis in the nickle package?

Still wasn't regular. And he only played LB due to injury.
You're trying to spin it like he was some kind of freak athlete who could line up anywhere...he couldn't he wasn't exactly GOOD at any of it. 
He was decent they year he spent at SLB because it gave him built in advantages vs the OT. 
He was never a top 3 guy for nickel DT. Was he better than Fanene? Rucker? Gilberry? Geno? Odom? 


Geathers was a solid contributor 5 or so years ago...since he's been a nice little drain. 

[*bengalfan74*]

(07-19-2015, 11:45 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Geathers was better than a lot of people give him credit for.  He was very athletic until his knee injuries. How many guys in the NFL have played DT and LB?

Fred you spew out this same line about each and every single Bengal player we've ever had ! "He's better than he gets credit for", "He's been solid for us and doesn't get the credit he deserves". ETC.

There's nothing wrong with saying Geathers hasn't been very good these last couple years. It's not a personal attack on him, just the truth.

[djs7685]

(07-20-2015, 12:24 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Fred you spew out this same line about each and every single Bengal player we've ever had ! "He's better than he gets credit for", "He's been solid for us and doesn't get the credit he deserves". ETC.

There's nothing wrong with saying Geathers hasn't been very good these last couple years. It's not a personal attack on him, just the truth.

Oh, Fred. He gets away with that because then he can just quote 1 random post from an "everyone sucks" troll poster and claim that it makes him right. You're absolutely right, he uses this same line for every Bengals player that just isn't very good.

Geathers has been one of the worst starting 4-3 DEs for a few years now. Is he better than some backups from other teams? Yeah, probably. Should we be excited that we have some guys that have been starting for the last 2-5 years that their biggest accomplishment is either better than other team's backups or being mediocre 5 years ago? Probably not.

Geathers had some potential but it didn't really translate to quality development over his career. He's not the absolute worst against the run, but I'd bet that you won't find another 4-3 DE that is consistently worse at rushing the passer. As you said, it's no attack on Geathers to be realistic while evaluating him, he's just not a quality starting player whether the Bengals' coaching staff felt that he was or not.

[fredtoast]

So let me get this straight. Three of out front seven (Peko, Geathers, Maualuga) are the worst at their positions in the league yet we still had one of the top defenses in the league for years with them in the lineup?

[djs7685]

(07-20-2015, 01:27 PM)fredtoast Wrote: So let me get this straight.  Three of out front seven (Peko, Geathers, Maualuga) are the worst at their positions in the league yet we still had one of the top defenses in the league for years with them in the lineup?

Peko has been a bottom 10 starting NT for about 2-3 years, Geathers has been a bottom 5 at starting 4-3 DE for a few years, and Maualuga was terrible 1 year and mediocre most others with some poor playoff performance(s) making people get on him more than they should. I do find it interesting that he "improved" when he was handed a decreased workload on the inside. He was a stout SLB, I honestly have no idea why the coaching staff hasn't put him back where he's played his best football.

You don't think it's possible for a team to have a top 10 defense for a few years with 2 out of 11 starters (not even mentioning the amount of players that see significant snaps) not being very good? Every player on the field isn't going to be great, I'm sure most of us realize that you can't have 11 All-Pros out there, but we can absolutely criticize them fairly and hope for an eventual replacement without needing told how they're all magically "better than people think".

Take 2012 for example, there were 13 guys with 594+ snaps and 3 more guys with 248+. You seem to think it's out of the realm of possibility to have a top 10 defense if a couple of those guys are less than average at their respective position. That's odd. I bet you would find weak links on almost every defense in the NFL year in and year out. Hell, Chris Clemons was pretty bad against the run and not very good overall in 2013, does that mean the Seahawks couldn't have possibly had the best defense in the league that year? We both know the answer to that.

The Steelers had one of the top defenses in the league in both 2010 and 2011. Ziggy Hood was absolutely awful and Nick Eason was considered one of, if not THE worst 3-4 DEs in the game around that time period. Pittsburgh also had some question marks at CB in a lot of their years as one of the top defensive teams.

Those are just a couple of examples, I can find you many, many more if you'd like.

[RoyleRedlegs]

(07-20-2015, 01:27 PM)fredtoast Wrote: So let me get this straight.  Three of out front seven (Peko, Geathers, Maualuga) are the worst at their positions in the league yet we still had one of the top defenses in the league for years with them in the lineup?

When you have a top 5 player at several other spots (Dunlap, Geno, VB) and an elite level backup (Gilberry) yeah it's possible. 
When you have game altering talent at other spots, DE, 3T, both S and CB....you can be a bit lenient at other spots fred. 

Peko was once a top 4-3 NT. He hasn't been lately. 
Geathers has been abysmal given his snap count.
Maualuga should have never been moved from SLB. He was a stud there. 

[RoyleRedlegs]

(07-20-2015, 01:50 PM)djs7685 Wrote: Peko has been a bottom 10 starting NT for about 2-3 years, Geathers has been a bottom 5 at starting 4-3 DE for a few years, and Maualuga was terrible 1 year and mediocre most others with some poor playoff performance(s) making people get on him more than they should. I do find it interesting that he "improved" when he was handed a decreased workload on the inside. He was a stout SLB, I honestly have no idea why the coaching staff hasn't put him back where he's played his best football.

It's basically a defacto SLB role now. 
They started using him more where he wins (vs the run) and less where he doesn't (coverage).

That's something they should have noticed much sooner and done it then. I know injuries have always played a role with him staying in nickel to a degree. 

[fredtoast]

(07-20-2015, 01:50 PM)djs7685 Wrote:  You seem to think it's out of the realm of possibility to have a top 10 defense if a couple of those guys are less than average at their respective position.

No.  I never said anything like that.  I said it was hard to have a great defense when 3 of the starting front 7 are the worst in the league starting at their position.