Football Outsiders/ESPN - AFC North Needs: Bengals

[wildcats forever]

Originally Posted by McC

It is just one guy's opinion, isn't it?

Yes but there were some statistics to support the opinion; enough so to start good conversation. What I think is safe to say regardless is we need improvement at the positions discussed.

[McC]

Originally Posted by wildcats forever

Yes but there were some statistics to support the opinion; enough so to start good conversation. What I think is safe to say regardless is we need improvement at the positions discussed.

I'm in total agreement that we need improvement. Just that if one guy says he's junk, that doesn't necessarily mean he's junk. He improved a lot from year one to two. If he can do the same this year, he's got a shot. If he doesn't and you have a way to upgrade him, do it. He'd still be decent depth.

Only problem is, you won't know his progress until after you've done whatever you'll do in FA and the draft. Then it comes down to rolling the dice or hedging your bets.

To me, if you are totally set on the line, adding weapons makes you offense exponentially better. If you're weak up front(and there were times that we were), then adding weapons only makes you a little bit better.

If you have great receivers, it only makes sense to give your QB time to throw. You wanna make the most of AJ's career and Andy Dalton's your QB, give him time to see the field.

[Steeler Eater]

Originally Posted by Scarlet&Orange

On a piece called under the radar signings, a couple of guys we could pick apart in FA:

I was dumbfounded that Ivory was on their roster last year when they decided Cadet would stay as well and figured he would be cut or made available for a 4th or 5th.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Scarlet&Orange

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/story...ngals-steelers



Thoughts??

My Thoughts.....ESPN never ever covers the Bengals, so how can they say what we need.....Berman or Beerman apologises for not covering the Bengals very much, but that doesn't help very much.....Meanwhile, ESPN covered Jets and Tebow about every day in 2012, as in non stop Tebow talk.....

So I say ESPN doesn't and wouldn't have a clue......

As a fan since 1968, I will tell you that until we get the double team off of AJ Green, we can not win a play-off game. Play-off teams are too good to just have the one good WR........We must get a WR of talent that forces other teams to cover him and take the double team off of AJ Green.....

If we get a good WR, we can not only win a play-off game but go Super Bowl as when we added Collinsworth to Issac Curtis.....but if we do not get a good WR, Green will continue to be double covered and the blame will wrongly be put on Andy Dalton, and we will not be able to win the big games......

Those who say Binns, Tate and Hawkins are great WRs are proven wrong by the way Green is double teamed and they way this bunch drops way too many balls. None of these guys are big time WRs.....Sanu might be a good WR, we don't know yet due to a slow start and an early injury.....Even if Sanu turns out to be good, we still need a top WR because 3 good WRs would really put us on the way to Super Bowl.

ESPN article doesn't mention WR.....I will.......Must get the double team off of AJ Green, or we just can't win.

( other areas of need are linebacker. Rey doesn't look very good. Burfict saved our bacon in 2012, but we need more than him..........Bengals are still looking for a safety, although we could go with Nelson and Crocker again and get by. Nelson is pretty good......I do think we need to dump Scott and get a real RB in here, somebody that isn't always injured. ......But I think we are solid at QB, O Line, D Line, TE, CB.......If we get the double team off of Green, we could be awesome. ......Now if we don't keep Smith, we will need a RT quick and fast, RT will become a huge area of need. )

The Bengals are going to have to make moves in free agency in keeping players like MJ, and other key players.....If we lose Smith at RT, we then have too many holes to fill in just the draft, and you can't depend on rookies anyway because you have to plan on them a few years down the road to be at their best. ....Bengals must have a good free agency resigning players and bringing in players.

Those who say the Bengals have this huge 50 million over the cap.....well.....to resign players and bring in free agents and sign draft picks, that 50 mill may not be enough......Over 20 some players are free agents and unsigned and thats why it looks like we have alot of cap money, but once we fill those 20 some players, the money will be gone. ...Plus we have players like Geno Atkins whos contracts end in 2013, and he needs resigned ASAP....All the extra cap money is an illusion, unless we plan to have a 25 man roster instead of a 45 man roster. ( or 53 man, you get the point ).

[BoomerFan]

I would prioritize the line ahead of worrying about an RB. At the very least you need the depth to know that if one guy goes down, we won't be a in the shape we were last year.

And frankly, I'd start BJGE. Sure he blanked on some games but I feel like given the chance this year, he could be a 1000 yard rusher.

[wildcats forever]

Originally Posted by BoomerFan

I would prioritize the line ahead of worrying about an RB. At the very least you need the depth to know that if one guy goes down, we won't be a in the shape we were last year.

And frankly, I'd start BJGE. Sure he blanked on some games but I feel like given the chance this year, he could be a 1000 yard rusher.

BJGE did rush for 1094 yards in 2012.

[wildcats forever]

Originally Posted by McC

I'm in total agreement that we need improvement. Just that if one guy says he's junk, that doesn't necessarily mean he's junk. He improved a lot from year one to two. If he can do the same this year, he's got a shot. If he doesn't and you have a way to upgrade him, do it. He'd still be decent depth.

Only problem is, you won't know his progress until after you've done whatever you'll do in FA and the draft. Then it comes down to rolling the dice or hedging your bets.

To me, if you are totally set on the line, adding weapons makes you offense exponentially better. If you're weak up front(and there were times that we were), then adding weapons only makes you a little bit better.

If you have great receivers, it only makes sense to give your QB time to throw. You wanna make the most of AJ's career and Andy Dalton's your QB, give him time to see the field.

Some of his shortfall can be corrected with coaching and hard work, but the talent in the league may keep him in the middle of the pack. It's a rare player that keeps from being being over-matched for an entire season; Boling just so happened to struggle for seemingly half the season, and that's what needs to be prevented from happening again.

[bengalfan74]

Originally Posted by McC

I'm in total agreement that we need improvement. Just that if one guy says he's junk, that doesn't necessarily mean he's junk. He improved a lot from year one to two. If he can do the same this year, he's got a shot. If he doesn't and you have a way to upgrade him, do it. He'd still be decent depth.

Only problem is, you won't know his progress until after you've done whatever you'll do in FA and the draft. Then it comes down to rolling the dice or hedging your bets.

To me, if you are totally set on the line, adding weapons makes you offense exponentially better. If you're weak up front(and there were times that we were), then adding weapons only makes you a little bit better.

If you have great receivers, it only makes sense to give your QB time to throw. You wanna make the most of AJ's career and Andy Dalton's your QB, give him time to see the field.

Agree !

Fix the O - line and a bunch of the other problems become much more manageable.

Can you imagine how much better Andy would have been with just a 1/2 second more to throw on every down ? How about how many plays would have opened up in the book if we could have ran left ? The list goes on and on !