The Roster

[Soonerpeace]

Since becoming a Bengals fan after Zac Taylor was named coach I’m amazed at the roster. Oh my was it awful when he took over. Over paid veterans and not very good backups.

We know about the drafting and FA signings that brought in captains, great locker room guys and dumped losers like William Jackson. We know they’ve hit on free agents well. We know generally they’ve hit on some drafts. This years rookies have really helped. But losing Awouzie would have killed this team a few years ago and Chase for four games. Mixon for any games would have hurt.

But for the first time our full roster looks as good as any team. Certainly lots of people besides Taylor are involved but boy they sure seem to be working well together.

[*Go Cards*]

Taylor has drafted well, done great in FA, has the players bought in, the FO, and the brought city together despite some fans fighting him along his path.

He deserves tremendous credit for achieving this feat.

[higgy100]

(12-12-2022, 01:22 PM)Go Cards Wrote: Taylor has drafted well, done great in FA, and has brought the players, the FO, and the city together despite some fans fighting him along his path.

He deserves tremendous credit for achieving this feat.

And, more importantly, he's coached them up very well.

[QueenCity]

I love that he brings in team captains. Lots of benefits to that. Usually they are talented and hard workers.

Would prefer that being our strategy moving forward and not deal with the head cases.

[*Go Cards*]

(12-12-2022, 01:27 PM)higgy100 Wrote: And, more importantly, he's coached them up very well.

absolutely and I left out changed the culture as well

[Soonerpeace]

Taylor has had successful assistants. Hobby has done great with the DL. None of those guys have ever played any better. Walters has killed with the receivers and this year the backups. Lou is incredible with his game plans and adjustments. Brian and Zac adapting to the deep safeties. The secondary adapting w/o Awouzie. Pollard with Volson and changing the scheme midstream.

The scouting department and Duke have contributed

[PDub80]

(12-12-2022, 01:27 PM)higgy100 Wrote: And, more importantly, he's coached them up very well.

To that point, I was speaking w a client who's a Steelers fan and pointed out that Mike Tomlin has failed to develop and keep - or sign - some very key positions... especially on offense. Like, does anyone think Mike Tomlin is going to help take Kenny Pickett to the top of whatever mountain KP's peak COULD be? Hell no. Tomlin's not capable. I don't think that today's NFL players... who are mostly under the age of 30... like guys like Tomlin or even respond to people like that very well. Generationally, the under 30 crowd most likely view guys like Mike Tomlin as being a ridged asshole. This isn't the actual military. It's a game and nobody WANTS to work for guys like that.

Conversely to that, ZT has made Cincinnati cool and hip via the players and culture he is very very involved in creating.

DJ Reader coming to the Bengals and a lot of what he has said as to why was very reminiscent to me of Reggie White coming to the Packers back when he made the switch. A lot of Similarities to me between those 90s Packers teams and the Bengals.

Lastly, something incredibly cool that doesn't get enough run or discussion in Bengals land is the fact that several FAs upon signing have mentioned in their early interviews that the coaches laid out a vision and a plan for them and their career during their FA visit. In the interest of signing them, the Bengals coaches have specifically told guys (Hayden Hurst mentioned this) how they were going to be used, to what strengths that would show of theirs, and how that would help their career in the long term. The coaches thinking from the players side of the desk in these FA meetings is fascinating to me and, I think, has helped sway FAs tremendously. This is why these guys talk about how unique of a visit Cincinnati is. They talk about how the coaches are and how they love them. They talk about how different it is from other places... even different form traditionally successful places. I absolutely LOVE that this is the direction of the new Bengals.