Franchise's Biggest Blunders

[*jason*]

How about not relocating to Baltimore, and becoming a 2 time Super Bowl champion?

[WeezyBengal]

How has no one said the Carson Palmer fiasco yet?

[*ochocincos*]

(07-18-2017, 12:47 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: How has no one said the Carson Palmer fiasco yet?

Do people really consider that a blunder? A lot of people were wanting Palmer out anyway, and many thought the Bengals got a steal in terms of draft picks from that trade.

[Gohards]

(07-18-2017, 12:47 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: How has no one said the Carson Palmer fiasco yet?

I dont think the palmer thing is that big of a deal. Were definitely in a better spot now than we ever were with palmer (theres no way palmer could of had 5 straight winning seasons)

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(07-18-2017, 12:38 PM)jason Wrote: How about not relocating to Baltimore, and becoming a 2 time Super Bowl champion?

Yeah, but see.. then we'd have to live in Baltimore.

Exactly, horrifying.

(07-18-2017, 01:47 PM)Gohards Wrote: I dont think the palmer thing is that big of a deal. Were definitely in a better spot now than we ever were with palmer (theres no way palmer could of had 5 straight winning seasons)

In fairness to Palmer, the Cardinals were on a 3 season winning streak before 2016, and Carson won a playoff game in 2015, which is still 1 more than Marvin has had as a HC. Palmer also did this while playing in a division that has sent 3 of the last 5 Super Bowl teams from the NFC.

[Tiger Teeth]

Akili Smith, has to be the winner. (Or loser, depending on how you look at it.)

[bengals67]

(07-18-2017, 07:59 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: A lot of coaching decisions are tempting... no Walsh, no Wyche, keeping Lewis which squandered having a SB-talent team.

I still can't imagine the answer being anything but the refusal to trade with the Saints being the answer, though. Their entire set of 1999 picks, their 1st round pick in 2000 and 2001, and their 2nd round pick in 2002.

Turned down three 1st round picks, and two 2nd round picks (plus more) in order to draft Akili Smith. Is there anything worse than that? The holocaust.... maybe.

So many great choices for bad decisions but this one has to be the worst.

I am sure Mike did not want to pay the money for this many high draft choices in an era with no slots for draft picks.

Probably more than half of these picks never would have signed if we had accepted the deal.

[Hoofhearted]

seems like a lot of good ones are taken. How about nepotism within the organization?

[Pat5775]

(07-18-2017, 01:46 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Do people really consider that a blunder? A lot of people were wanting Palmer out anyway, and many thought the Bengals got a steal in terms of draft picks from that trade.

Since the face of the franchise, the franchise QB, actually walked away from tens of millions of $$$ rather than play another down for this organization, I'd say yes. That is a huge blunder. 

Granted, it worked out for both parties but the point remains. How many players demand trades/threaten retirement and actively follow through? 

[*ochocincos*]

(07-18-2017, 03:08 PM)Pat5775 Wrote: Since the face of the franchise, the franchise QB, actually walked away from tens of millions of $$$ rather than play another down for this organization, I'd say yes. That is a huge blunder. 

Granted, it worked out for both parties but the point remains. How many players demand trades/threaten retirement and actively follow through? 

But the definition of a blunder is a careless mistake. It wasn't ever a mistake to trade Palmer away. It worked out better for the Bengals right away and Palmer as well after a couple years.

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(07-18-2017, 12:05 PM)Pat5775 Wrote: The ten biggest Bengal blunders in no particular order:


Drafting Akili Smith

Retaining Brad St Louis for too long

Retaining Mike Nugent for too long

Retaining Marvin Lewis for WAY too long and letting every coordinator (including Vance Joseph) that is now head coaching elsewhere get away

Pissing off Corey Dillon so much he demanded a trade

Pissing off Carson Palmer so much he demanded a trade

Letting Bill Walsh get away

The Warren Sapp debacle

Paul Alexander's countless defense and praise of God awful offensive linemen

Lewis Billups drop, krumrie's leg, Stanley Wilson coking out... That entire super bowl was just bad juju all around. At least they somehow kept it close

This is pretty close to my top ten, I'd subtract a couple I marked out, and add these.....

The Christmas Eve Massacre (the firing of Sam Wyche which led to the hiring of Dave Shula)

Drafting Klingler and pushing Esiason out.


......although, you have a couple there that are close.

[THE PISTONS]

(07-18-2017, 12:47 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: How has no one said the Carson Palmer fiasco yet?

While I don't consider that a blunder...how about alienating the franchise's best players for speaking out about how things are ran? Pickens, Dillon, Spikes, Palmer, Joseph, etc.

[Pat5775]

(07-18-2017, 03:24 PM)ochocincos Wrote: But the definition of a blunder is a careless mistake. It wasn't ever a mistake to trade Palmer away. It worked out better for the Bengals right away and Palmer as well after a couple years.

Right, I agree it worked out for both parties. It wasn't so much that we lost Carson. It has more to do with the fact that the organization made him feel like it was in a hopeless situation. That's the blunder. Likely, it was several small blunders the organization did that made Carson want out. Carson was arguably the biggest name to demand a trade, but he wasn't the only one. See below

(07-18-2017, 03:33 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: While I don't consider that a blunder...how about alienating the franchise's best players for speaking out about how things are ran? Pickens, Dillon, Spikes, Palmer, Joseph, etc.

Bingo. Add Chad and TJ to that list, Dan wilkinson... Who else?  

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(07-18-2017, 03:24 PM)ochocincos Wrote: But the definition of a blunder is a careless mistake. It wasn't ever a mistake to trade Palmer away. It worked out better for the Bengals right away and Palmer as well after a couple years.

Biggest problem of that Palmer ordeal was not hitting on those picks, including wasting a 1st on Kirkpatrick. Think about this.. AJ Green has been in the NFL for only 1 more year than Kirkpatrick.

Bengals somehow turned Palmer into Dre Kirkpatrick and Gio Bernard.... meanwhile right after Dre was Chandler Jones and David DeCastro and right after Gio was Kawaan Short, Jamie Collins, and Le'Veon Bell.

Honestly, those two drafts are pretty depressing all around. Lol... right after Mohamed Sanu was TY Hilton. After Margus Hunt was Lacy, Kelce, and Honey Badger. Right after Devon Still was Lavonte David and Osemele.

I know you can do that with pretty much any draft, but... shit.

[*ochocincos*]

(07-18-2017, 03:43 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Biggest problem of that Palmer ordeal was not hitting on those picks, including wasting a 1st on Kirkpatrick. Think about this.. AJ Green has been in the NFL for only 1 more year than Kirkpatrick.

Bengals somehow turned Palmer into Dre Kirkpatrick and Gio Bernard.... meanwhile right after Dre was Chandler Jones and David DeCastro and right after Gio was Kawaan Short, Jamie Collins, and Le'Veon Bell.

Honestly, those two drafts are pretty depressing all around. Lol... right after Mohamed Sanu was TY Hilton. After Margus Hunt was Lacy, Kelce, and Honey Badger. Right after Devon Still was Lavonte David and Osemele.

I know you can do that with pretty much any draft, but... shit.

But it's not like DK and Bernard have been terrible. They've been overall solid players with some bumps and bruises along the way.
The way I view it is that if Palmer didn't demand a trade and sit out, the Bengals wouldn't have drafted Dalton and also not have received those picks.
Keeping Palmer, IMO, would likely not have resulted in any better situation for the Bengals. In fact, it could have been worse than five playoff appearances in a row, as Palmer only had two from 2004 through 2010 (2005, 2009).

If you're going to say there was a blunder, it was the selections of DK and/or Bernard over some better players, not the Palmer trade itself.

[Housh]

Im 26 so since iv been alive and able to understand the game I think the Carson Palmer situation embarrassed me as a Bengals fan. When your favorite quarterback decides hed rather retire than play for your team you start to think about your team. That was the first time I seriously contemplated not watching football anymore.

But I think the Jeremy Hill fumble is my biggest Bengals blunder.


we had our first playoff game literally won. All we had to do was run clock, and dude drops it. I honestly never forgave Hill for that and wish he was on another team even if he plays well from here on out.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(07-18-2017, 03:49 PM)ochocincos Wrote: But it's not like DK and Bernard have been terrible. They've been overall solid players with some bumps and bruises along the way.
The way I view it is that if Palmer didn't demand a trade and sit out, the Bengals wouldn't have drafted Dalton and also not have received those picks.
Keeping Palmer, IMO, would likely not have resulted in any better situation for the Bengals. In fact, it could have been worse than five playoff appearances in a row, as Palmer only had two from 2004 through 2010 (2005, 2009).

If you're going to say there was a blunder, it was the selections of DK and/or Bernard over some better players, not the Palmer trade itself.

It took Dre his 5th season to be any good. That's not how 17th overall picks are supposed to go. Lol... Glad he's okay now (presumably, who knows how he'll react to getting paid, he performed in his contract year only) but it still wasn't a good pick.

I really can't figure out Gio. I jump between thinking he's just an okay backup, and him being a good RB who simply is misused by this team. I still think he'd probably be a star if he played for Sean Payton or Belichick, but I don't know if that'd be just because of their systems. Either way, I think we can agree he's not as good of a RB as Bell. Admittedly a much nicer person, though.

You're looking at the 5 playoffs in a row wrongly, though, in my opinion at least. It's not a Palmer/Dalton things. Mike Zimmer came in 2008. The Bengals then went to the playoffs in 4 of his 6 seasons here. Even today Guenther is a Zimmer product using players Zimmer gathered, running a system made by Zimmer. Don't forget how bad the Bengals D was from '03-'07 under Lewis.

Yup, my argument wasn't that the Palmer trade was a blunder. Just who they selected with the picks.

[THE PISTONS]

(07-18-2017, 03:51 PM)Housh Wrote: Im 26 so since iv been alive and able to understand the game I think the Carson Palmer situation embarrassed me as a Bengals fan. When your favorite quarterback decides hed rather retire than play for your team you start to think about your team. That was the first time I seriously contemplated not watching football anymore.

But I think the Jeremy Hill fumble is my biggest Bengals blunder.


we had our first playoff game literally won. All we had to do was run clock, and dude drops it. I honestly never forgave Hill for that and wish he was on another team even if he plays well from here on out.

Honestly - Pickens, Dillon, Spikes, TJ, Johnson, Palmer, Joseph all were disgruntled here. That speaks volumes to the organization quality. They can't all just be loose canons.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(07-18-2017, 04:09 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Honestly - Pickens, Dillon, Spikes, TJ, Johnson, Palmer, Joseph all were disgruntled here. That speaks volumes to the organization quality. They can't all just be loose canons.

You mean once you get broken up with 7 times by people saying the same stuff, it might be time for some self reflection? Lol

[Devils Advocate]

I do consider letting Walsh go the biggest blunder however, given the animosity Paul Brown felt towards him, it's difficult to say he woulda had the same success here as he had in S.F.
I can easily see Brown vetoing many of Bill's decisions.


Given the scenario above, I'd say keeping Dave Shula around for too long is right up there with any of the many blunders we've experienced.

Letting Sam go is up there too. Remember, he played a huge role in building a championship team in Tampa.