No question. And in regard to future "I told yo so's..." This one is a layup for me.
I get blasted all the time here for predicting Captain obvious things about this shamefully exploited franchise.
A few examples from memory lane:
"They may not win a game this season."
"Zac Attack is Dave Shula part Duh" .
"That blowhard buddy of his that he hired as online coach will be another dumpster fire."
"AJ is the consumate pro. And he is gone as soon as he is able"
And so on.
And so on.
And so on.
What baffles me, are people like yourself who keep doubling down.
But again, don't take my word for it. Watch it play out in real time.
"Lemonade requires a significant amount of sugar. Otherwise, you've just made lemon juice."
redhawkfish (11-08-2019)
Revering4Blue (11-08-2019)
Are you concerned about Burrow's 57.8% last year?
Mariota is still a decent QB. He just turned 26 last month, so he's still very young. Finley, in comparison, turns 25 in December. Alex Smith turned things later around in his career, so who knows. It doesn't help any QB when you fire your OC literally every single year like Tennessee does. They've been very defensive minded in recent years.
Arise and walk, come through. A world beyond that door is calling out for you. Arise and walk, come through. It's calling out for you.
In a league of unprecedented parity, Mike Brown continually finds new ways to handicap his own franchise, for the sole purpose of maximizing profit.
This used to be a secret, at least nationally. It is no longer a secret. And with Marvin Lewis gone, replaced by Dave Shula II and the usual suspects, this franchise is a dumpster fire in so many ways.
Make no mistake, every agent, family member and friend is advising players to avoid the Bengals like the plague.
Because they are the plague. It's where good careers go to die. Marvin Lewis was the glue that kept the wink wink nudge nudge of Mike Brown's scam at Bay. But he's gone. And this coincides with players exercising new and creative ways to not play where they don't want to play.
Just watch. It's a new era, in general. Players will nope the heck out. Just watch.
Last edited by Bob Sheed; 11-08-2019 at 11:21 AM.
"Lemonade requires a significant amount of sugar. Otherwise, you've just made lemon juice."
There’s been three instances where it’s happened, and two involved players playing two sports:
1. Bo Jackson to Tampa Bay. And Hugh Culverhouse was as bad historically if not worse than Mike Brown.
2. John Elway
3. Eli Manning
Of those, Eli had no leverage and the Chargers could have sat on that pick if they had wanted to.
With players returning to school, you could argue Luck did it to avoid going to Carolina.
It’s not as insane as you think. You just have to hope everything bounces your way in terms of injury and not having flaws in your game. It’s a lot worse now than it was in the 80s-90s.
In era of capped rookie salaries, only Luck might apply
The goal is to get to Year 4/5 to force the uncapped second contract. The clock doesn't start until you sign the first contract so essentially would be giving up 20-30M by delaying the second contract to play one more year at Bama.
The Bengals aren't cheap but Mike Brown is a control freak with no concept of oppty cost. They overpay regularly to extend mediocre players (Hart, Gio, etc). They are a great franchise for mediocre veterans to collect their unguaranteed contracts as they usually cut players 2-3 years later than other well run franchises.
Instead of saving millions to dump Green, Dalton, etc. and potentially getting picks for 2020 they stubbornly sat on their collective rear ends.
I mean they made the playoffs 5 straight years so while currently the franchise is a dumpster fire it had a good (regular season) run from 2011-2015
Kingspoint (11-08-2019)
I hear this brought up fairly often so it is worth responding. This one is all about perspective, in regard to time.
Yes, when thinking about the past decade, 2011-2015 was a good run, and yes, they are a dumpster fire now. Almost makes you think the Bengals are going through a rough patch, but, with a little luck, could be "back to their winning ways" of 2011-2015.
But consider:
- 1991: Paul Brown dies, Mike Brown takes over
- From 1991 to 2004, they never won more than 8 games. ON PURPOSE. This was very much by design. They call it The Lost Decade, but it was really closer to 15 years.
- 2005: Oh what a year. Shaky defense but great offense. Steelers break Palmer's leg en route to the Super Bowl, which the Steelers won. "High Water Mark #1" for Mike Brown's 30 year and counting tenure.
- From 2006-2008, they never won more than 8 games.
- 2009-2015: Mike Brown's Golden Age: Made the playoffs 6 out of 7 seasons. And those playoff games were really swell:
2009 Lost to the Jets 24-14
2010 4-12 no playoffs
2011 Lost to the Texans 31-10
2012 Lost to the Texans 19-13
2013 Lost to the Chargers 27-10
2014 Lost to the Colts 26-10
And if the 2005 playoff game vs the Steelers broke your heart as Bengals fans, 2015 said "hold my beer." Truly the worst last minute meltdown/turn-of-events/having-little-to-do-with-football displays in NFL history. Really just the absolute worst. Or, as some would like to call it, "the end of a good run."
2016 - 2018: Never won more than 7 games in a season. Even Marvin Lewis, the only coach to find success while managing Mike Brown's handicaps... even Lewis had gotten stale.
Which brings us to 2019 and the winless Bengals.
Ownership still has "winning" as a distant 3rd on its priority list (1st: Profit, 2nd: Friends and Family Club), but they no longer have Lewis to overcome it:
Coaching: Outmatched and an absolute disaster from top to bottom.
29. Years. No playoff wins. Zero. And despite being winless this year, they are actually trending downwards. And oh the arrogance from Mike Brown. Still! "We aren't in the business of making other teams better..." He said the same stupid crap back then, when he would do stupid lazy crap like turning down all the Saint's draft picks so he could take Akili Smith. "We will go to war with what we have."
There is no Marvin Lewis II coming to the rescue.
Players, coaches... no one wants any part of this franchise. The has-beens and never-weres. That's who will wear the stripes for the foreseeable future.
And it's all on Mike Brown. Once again, his arrogance and handicaps have brought his franchise to the familiar depths he placed them in pre-Marvin Lewis.
But it's worse this time. Because we are in the information age. Nothing gets lost in the shuffle. Not one thing. So yeah, nationally, EVERYONE is well aware of not just the state of the Bengals, but WHY they are where they are. Winners have no interest in working for someone not interested in winning. And these days... NFL players and coaches... they don't have to.
My opinion is, the Cincinnati Bengals will be ghosted by anyone with even marginal talent. Used for leverage, first, if needed. Avoided like the plague. It's gonna get bad enough that, if Mike Brown lives that long, the NFL will step in. They'll have to. Losing is one thing. Even tanking. But this will damage their brand. Then, I'm guessing around 2026, they'll move to greener pastures, and probably start to do all the things every other NFL team does, including have winning as their top priority. As a Bengals fan, this would be the icing on the 40 year cake.
"A good run..."?
Last edited by Bob Sheed; 11-08-2019 at 05:29 PM.
"Lemonade requires a significant amount of sugar. Otherwise, you've just made lemon juice."
I thought this was a great column from a fresh voice on the troubles of the Bengals:
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/spo...ft/2528964001/
I think a mass house cleaning is a bit extreme after 8 games but he supports his points very nicely. The problem with firing everyone is that, if you fire everyone now, what makes you think they'll hire any better than they did a few months ago? They had their chance to clean house after Marvin Lewis. Cleaning house every few months doesn't get you anywhere.
Check this out if you get a chance.
Redsfaithful (11-09-2019)
Board Moderators may, at their discretion and judgment, delete and/or edit any messages that violate any of the following guidelines: 1. Explicit references to alleged illegal or unlawful acts. 2. Graphic sexual descriptions. 3. Racial or ethnic slurs. 4. Use of edgy language (including masked profanity). 5. Direct personal attacks, flames, fights, trolling, baiting, name-calling, general nuisance, excessive player criticism or anything along those lines. 6. Posting spam. 7. Each person may have only one user account. It is fine to be critical here - that's what this board is for. But let's not beat a subject or a player to death, please. |