Too old, too expensive for us

[3wt]

(Yesterday, 03:42 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: You can't have a fundamentally strong football team without being strong at the fundamental positions of blockers and tacklers/

Don't remember the year, but we got our clocks cleaned by a strong Chicago defense.  One of their cornerstones was a really good pair of safeties (whose name I can't remember (insert rolling eyes emoji )).   It opened my eyes to the benefit of controlling the middle of the field.  

[*bengalfan74*]

(Yesterday, 03:24 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: When he signed for $12m/yr there were only 6 guards making at least $10m/yr. The 10th highest paid guard was making $8.5m/yr. The interesting thing is the top 4 highest paid guards of 2017? 3 of the 4 got paid that offseason and not a single one of the 4 finished their contracts on the teams they signed them with.

If Zeitler signed for $9-10m/yr, I would have wanted the Bengals to match it and would have been upset if they didn't (he ended up years later signing with the Ravens for $7.5m/yr and we certainly should have got him then). But 20-33% higher than that was a severe overpay and you can't make a habit of trying to outspend shitty teams for good-not-great talent. It'd be like getting in a bidding match with the Jags over Christian Kirk in 2022 or bidding against the Raiders for Christian Wilkins this year.

Ultimately the problem wasn't that we didn't re-sign Zeitler for way too much money, it's that we half-assed (or even quarter-assed) the job at replacing him. We didn't draft or sign a single competent G and instead just put a 2nd year UDFA with 10 career snaps of offensive experience as the starter.

Right

That's the real problem. Trying to put a band-aid on a wound that's needs a bunch of stitches. 

[QueenCity]

I always find it amusing that the Bengals don't value certain positions like their way has worked.

If I owned the Bengals I would try to emulate teams that have had success in this league and you don't have to look further than the Ravens and Steelers.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(Yesterday, 04:39 PM)QueenCity Wrote: I always find it amusing that the Bengals don't value certain positions like their way has worked.

If I owned the Bengals I would try to emulate teams that have had success in this league and you don't have to look further than the Ravens and Steelers.

Speaking as someone who has pretty vocally wanted the Bengals to get a good IOL for what feels like his entire life... If you were going to emulate them then I would feel the need to point out that the Ravens haven't had a top-10 paid Guard on their team since 2016 and for Steelers it was 2019, and the guys they did have were both multi-time 1st Team All-Pros at the time.

Because the Steelers and Ravens both know you pay excellent players, but you shouldn't pretend that pretty good players are actually better than they are because they wear your uniform and get into a bidding war with bad teams to overpay them as if they were the best.

[MTBengalsFan]

(Yesterday, 01:11 PM)TecmoBengals Wrote: I laughed, but you are totally dating many of us for being way too old with this one liner!

Wait, what? That was just a few years ago, right?