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Front offices are tasked with deciding what players to extend and what players are ready to step up. The Bengals typically hold onto players too long. How many players have been kept on bloated contracts that cost more than their contribution (see Mike Johnson etc). The decision to let Whit go was basically because the organization believed that Fisher and Cedric were ready to start. It seems to me that decision was made due to draft position vs play. Players should earn their time not have it given to them because of where they were drafted. If Ced and Eric had challenged Whit for playing time then it makes sense to be younger. But they were both subpar so instead of adding to one mistake (drafting these two) they should have covered for that mistake by extending Whit to by them time to get better young OT options.
Atkins and Carlos were great two years ago. Only reason you would move on from them is if you were doing a total rebuild and wanted draft picks. That is not the Bengal way. The talk coming into this year was the D-Line was a strength adding Reader and having depth across the line. However, if you knew that two of your best players AND most expensive players did not fit your scheme then it is wrong to not have traded them for something. I assumed that Lou was building this defense around the players he had on the roster such as Geno and Carlos but if he knew they didn't fit they should have been moved.
I didn't think AJ was worth 18 mil but I get that having him back on a one year contract was not a terrible decision as it gave a good target for Burrows and allowed Higgins to ease into playing giving he had no reps in the off-season. Signing AJ to a lucrative long-term deal would have been a bad move. I think the way the Bengals handled this was okay. Hindsight definitely would be to have let him leave but at the time it was reasonable.
Problem with the Bengal management is they hold onto some players who underperform their salary while dumping others to allow high draft picks to play without them having earned their spot based on their play
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I don’t know how any fan could think this was a good move at the time it was made. Most were highly critical of letting Whit walk when it happened, and were proved correct by the results. We let our two best offensive lineman walk and were left with a terrible offensive line for years. Very few people saw things ending well. The results have been awful. I’d have been okay with letting Zietler walk if they kept Whit—who plays a premier position at a pro bowl level. The correct strategy is to keep him until someone takes the job from him at such an important position.
Piano man got fired over this, and rightfully so. He messed up big time. He reached on two offensive tackles and neither panned out. The Og/Fischer draft set us back.
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
