Playoffs

[cincygrad]

Willie Anderson is on board with the OL hire - so that is a good sign.

I love Willie, but I hope the Bengals stop listening to former players about personnel and coaching. If I recall, it was Willie that gave Jackson Carmen a positive endorsement. Just as TJ was pushing the talents of Jermaine Burton.

But overall, I like the hire.... The kneejerk stuff about his time with the Patriots is silly. Everyone knew that that team would take several years to rebuild given the mismanagement of personnel late in the Belicheck era. When he was hired by the Patriots, he was seen as a top candidate with a terrific pedigree. I don't think his potential has changed in 12 months. But again, if we strap him with Cordell Volsen as his left guard, I'm not sure there is any amount of brilliant coaching that will help pick up the performance. Talent level has come a long way on the line - But we still have two glaring holes at the guard spot that need to be addressed.

 

[Cincyfan78]

I love Willie, but I hope the Bengals stop listening to former players about personnel and coaching. If I recall, it was Willie that gave Jackson Carmen a positive endorsement. Just as TJ was pushing the talents of Jermaine Burton.

But overall, I like the hire.... The kneejerk stuff about his time with the Patriots is silly. Everyone knew that that team would take several years to rebuild given the mismanagement of personnel late in the Belicheck era. When he was hired by the Patriots, he was seen as a top candidate with a terrific pedigree. I don't think his potential has changed in 12 months. But again, if we strap him with Cordell Volsen as his left guard, I'm not sure there is any amount of brilliant coaching that will help pick up the performance. Talent level has come a long way on the line - But we still have two glaring holes at the guard spot that need to be addressed.

I liked Carmen, but he was NEVER going to be a LT at this level. He was RT at best, and likely a RG. Was an odd fit from the start, but it's hard to really know how hard guys work. Dude just never seem to really put in the extra work. He made it to the NFL, and felt like he made it. I have no inside knowledge, but that seemed to be kind of the rumor that floated around. Sometimes that kind of thing is really hard to pickup in players - because you'll never get former coaches to talk bad about their guys, or really be honest. They want all their guys drafted as high as possible so they look better.

 

[DanBengalfan]

Bengals FAFO'd this past off-season. Did they learn? This off-season will be VERY telling.

I remember arguing with mostly facebook-bengal fans about some of the people we brought in. everyone knows my disappointment in zach moss, although I don't know why people expected greatness after a few good games for the colts. I was wrong about gisecki, he's pretty good as a hybrid wr and he seemed to really fill a roll for us when higgins was hurt
, I just thought yoshi was going to be a better wr3 and we really needed a more complete te to be our te1.

 

[Cincyfan78]

I remember arguing with mostly facebook-bengal fans about some of the people we brought in. everyone knows my disappointment in zach moss, although I don't know why people expected greatness after a few good games for the colts. I was wrong about gisecki, he's pretty good as a hybrid wr and he seemed to really fill a roll for us when higgins was hurt
, I just thought yoshi was going to be a better wr3 and we really needed a more complete te to be our te1.

Agreed.

Moss was nice signing in a way, but was never a true RB1, and I've been beating the drum for Brown since last year. He's clearly RB1.

I was right about Gesicki - but a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then...if he wants to get paid - it won't likely be here. If he takes another good deal - he can be a big part of this offense. I think ALL was trending into that overall TE1 spot until his ACL. Hopefully he comes back just as he did before.

Agreed - I thought Yoshi would do more - but when you look at the splits across the offense, he fell in line with the rest of the offense in terms of expectations, really. Chase, Higgins, Gesicki led all WR's in targets, yards and receptions. He was also behind Brown in that category, which shouldn't be too shocking. In effect, he was more WR4 than WR3 because of Gesicki. Biggest thing I see is that his targets to catch ratio is way off. Could be a result of last second decisions to throw his way, or other variables...but he still increased all of his stat totals from year 1 - and some by a good amount despite being a WR4. So, to me - that is good.