Confidence Now vs. This Time Last Year

[GodFather]

Honestly Im indifferent. I didn't think we'd win a playoff game last year with Marvin Lewis as HC and I don't think we'll win a playoff game this year with Lewis still coaching. I don't care who we gain and lose as players because in my mind its not going to matter one bit. I enjoy the season as much as the Bengals will give a fan and take it at that. Expecting more than that from them is too much of a stretch with the track record Lewis has left behind in the post season.

[BengalChris]

More confident!

This time last year we had Dalton coming off his 2014 season going into a make or break year. Eifert and Marvin Jones had missed the entire year before and no one really knew how they'd play.

Atkins had come off his recovery year and not yet returned to old self and we really didn't know if he was going to.

It's not like all is cheery this year though. Hill had his bad year and we aren't quite sure what's going to happen there. Marvin Jones has left and Eifert is going to miss several games. We are also starting a new RT and the 1st DL man off the bench is an unknown at this point. Also, Dennard, as talented as he may be, seems a little fragile.

However, LaFell is a decent replacement for Marvin Jones and I expect Boyd to be an upgrade over Sanu by mid-season. Boyd simply has better hands and that means a lot.

Karlos Dansby will be better than Hawk was.

The team is actually working out other viable players in the return game. With the ball coming out to the 25 on kickoffs, there's no room for a guy who pads his return stats by bringing it out from 8 and 9 yards deep. Of course, I thought there was no room for those returns last year, but for some reason we let it continue.

[*Nately120*]

Meh who knows? I was confident going into 2010 and 2014 and less confident going into 2009 and 2013, so I was ass-backwawrds in those years. Actually, going into 2010 our schedule scared the daylights out of me but I told myself to shut up and be confident.

Last year our offense was the best it's been in a long time so it's hard for me to be MORE confident this year seeing as we lost our OC, #2 and #3 WRs, and our top TE, possibly our #2 TE and who knows who else might be injured for a time that I'm not confident in dismissing with a wave of my hand. Basically, I feel like IF you asked me last year when we were tearing it up what I would change about the offense I would have said "Not a damn thing" so I can't honestly act too hyped so much has changed now.

Again, I'm a loser thinker though. Maybe if I told you during our 2015 run that we should replace Marvin Jones with Brandon LaFell and you would have told me I was a moron...but here we are acting like he might be better than Marvin Jones. Necessity or logic? What fun to find out!

[Atomic Orange]

(08-05-2016, 02:00 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Hopefully the players are not in such a fragile state as you AO...

Actually from watching the interviews and how they are practicing i know they are not. Damn good thing.

I admit it. I am in the most fragile state i have been in a long time as a Bengals fan. It's a good thing i'm only a fan.  I answered the question honestly, i had more confidence last year when perhaps others didn't. 0-5 Nate..oh and five. I hope to be made a fool.

[jeremydc]

Cautiously optimistic.

Filling WR/LB/Secondary voids with a mix of (mostly) proven vets and rookie/second year players shows potential.

However, we have a tough first 1/2 schedule. Most of the board sees us starting at 4-2, when 3-3 is more likely.

If the first and second half were switched, I'd be more optimistic.

[*SHRacerX*]

(08-05-2016, 03:45 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Amazing Wright is practicing as well as he is after not playing for so long. I still remember him making some plays
before he went down back in the day. Boyd has looked great so far. Lafell i thought the same thing but have not
heard much about him so far which gives me some pause.

Uzomah is much bigger and faster than Gates but lets not get ahead of ourselves. Gates was great.

Very encouraging though with those traits and the fact he is impressing. McCarron is no fool, i don't think it is
false praise coming from him especially after watching the vids. I honestly didn't expect this much from CJ this
early, this is very good news for us where we were looking very thin.

This is another example of great scouting by the Bengals.  Knowing that Wright had the ability to help this team, and would embrace the special teams role.  I am really rooting for this guy.  If you think about the guys on that LSU team, they had some serious talent at WR.  Wright, yes, but also Jarvis Landry and OBJ?  Wow.  How did that team not produce better?

CJ Uzomah puzzled me initially, but the guy is an amazing athlete.  I hope he takes full advantage of this opportunity.  If you can rotate him in and out with Kroft, you might have a lethal triad at the TE position.  Of course, I still consider Hewitt the H-back, but I love his versatility as well.  

[J24]

Less confident a lot of changes happen and I am not sure it's ever a good thing when you have been really good for a while. Still confident just not as confident.

[Junglejuice]

12-4 is a tough record to repeat or improve upon.

That being said I still think this is a 10-11 win team.

If they let Dalton call the game from the line I think we will be in good shape.
WR picture will become more clear during Preseason.

[Brownshoe]

I don't know how people are less confident this year than last year. We didn't know what Gunenther could do as a DC, he had one bad year with a couple of big pieces hurt. We didn't know what Eifert could do. We only seen what he did his rookie season, and while you seen potential you didn't know that he would be as good as he actually is. We didn't know if Marvin Jones would come back 100% from that foot injury, or would stay healthy the whole season. He only had 1 full season before last year, and he only had 700 yards. We all knew that Sanu wasn't very good. We didn't know if Burfict would come back at 100%, and we didn't know if Atkins would have been the same as before his injury. Most people thought that Dalton wasn't as good as he actually is too. There was a LOT more question marks last year than there is this year.

[OrlandoBengal]

With the exception of losing Nelson, I think the defense is the biggest reason to be at least as confident as last year. Unfortunately, I think the reasons to be less confident outweigh the positives.

I agree with Wes that the hiring of Zampese was "lazy". Like it or not, there is a reason the guy was in the NFL for 18 years before getting a coordinator position. There is a reason that the Bengals passed him over not once, but twice. A big part of being the coordinator is knowing what to call and when to call it. It's not all about just keeping the same system that Hue ran. Andy lost his number two and three wide receivers. That hurts... he is not going to have the same chemistry with the new people as he had with Jones and Sanu. Add in the Eifert injury and the fact that the guy does not seem to heal very quickly and I think there are a lot of reason to be concerned about the offense, especially at the start of the year.

There are a lot of new players and coaches on this team. Only time will tell how well everything "gels".

[Shake n Blake]

On the subject of Zampese, part of me believes that Dalton improved last year because Hue took him out of his comfort zone and challenged him. Not sure if Zampese will be as effective there.

I also noticed that it seemed Hue removed some of the routes that often led to INTs for Dalton and really focused on calling plays to Dalton's strengths. Hopefully Zampese can at least continue with that.

[WeezyBengal]

(08-04-2016, 08:52 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: Simple question:  Would you say you're more confident or less confident heading into 2016 than you were in 2015?  Or perhaps equally confident?

Personally, I am less because of the loss of Hue and him being replaced by Ken Zampese.  Not only do I think that Hue was special, and had a big, big hand in this team's performance last year, but I think Zampese is rather lazy hire.  Now all that said, I still think this team is more than capable of winning the division, and that the talent level is more than adequate.  I just think the downgrade (IMO) at OC hurts a little.

As far as postseason success, my confidence remains the same.  I believe they have little to no chance of ever succeeding in the postseason under Marvin Lewis.  I guess that's all I really need to say there.

What says you?  Are you feeling now vs last year?

From an Xs and Os standpoint, I dont think Zampese is that much of a drop off from Hugh, I actually think it may be better. 

From an actual coaching and leadership standpoint, I think there is a significant decline. 

[bengalguy71]

(08-08-2016, 10:37 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: From an actual coaching and leadership standpoint, I think there is a significant decline. 

How so?  

As far as leadership from players, none of the 'leaders' are gone, from what I understand, and as far as the coaches go, the only thing I know about the staff this year, is that Lewis has the most experienced staff since he's been HC. How does that affect or translate into leadership, I have no idea.

[OrlandoBengal]

(08-08-2016, 10:37 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: From an Xs and Os standpoint, I dont think Zampese is that much of a drop off from Hugh, I actually think it may be better. 

From an actual coaching and leadership standpoint, I think there is a significant decline. 

What leads you to believe that Zampese might actually be better than Hue at this point?

[WeezyBengal]

(08-08-2016, 10:46 AM)bengalguy71 Wrote: How so?  

As far as leadership from players, none of the 'leaders' are gone, from what I understand, and as far as the coaches go, the only thing I know about the staff this year, is that Lewis has the most experienced staff since he's been HC. How does that affect or translate into leadership, I have no idea.

Im talking about OC specifically. I think there will be a decline in leadership from Hugh leaving and Ken Zampese taking over. Zampese maybe a good coach/leader, but Hugh was phenomenal. He did a lot to help Andy. 

[WeezyBengal]

(08-08-2016, 12:20 PM)OrlandoBengal Wrote: What leads you to believe that Zampese might actually be better than Hue at this point?

I wasn't the biggest fan of Hugh's playcalling/formations. I think he did a hell of a lot to help Andy off the field, though. Thats where I think his strengths are and its why I think he will be a good head coach. 

Hugh got too cute at times last year. Disregarding the obvious play for an absurd one. His formations were also a little too much at times. No reason splitting an offensive lineman out wide when you have talented guys like Gio, AJ, Eiff, MJ, and Hill on the team.

[wolfkaosaun]

(08-08-2016, 10:46 AM)bengalguy71 Wrote: How so?  

As far as leadership from players, none of the 'leaders' are gone, from what I understand, and as far as the coaches go, the only thing I know about the staff this year, is that Lewis has the most experienced staff since he's been HC. How does that affect or translate into leadership, I have no idea.

In what way?

Hue was here when Zampese was. And Hue was with Washington as a RB coach before his time here, too.

Then he went on to be OC and the HC and then back to here as a RB coach and then our OC.

Guenther was the LB coach since 2005. That's his resume.

Zimmer coached in college since 1979. He was then defensive coordinator in 2000 in Dallas. That's not including his time as a defensive backs coach.