2025 Offseason, just the right time and not too early addition

[I_C_Deadpeople]

Just saw an article that Zetlier is one of the highest rated guards in the league this year

[claptonrocks]

14 hours ago, I_C_Deadpeople said:

Just saw an article that Zetlier is one of the highest rated guards in the league this year

Yes..87.9 rating which is All-Oro status as a guard 

Lions Oline is solid thru out making them one of the top 5 in the NFL..

Zeitler has gone from 315lbs in his first few years to a 340lb road grader .

[esjbh2]

Had to check based on my curiosity...Zeitler is 34...seems like it was forever ago that he played for us so I was thinking he was even older. 

 

2012 to 2016 for us (late 1st round selection), then 2 seasons for Browns (highest paid Guard), then 2 for Giants (trade involving Odell Beckham Jr), then 3 for Ravens (Pro Bowl), now with the Lions starting this season.

[dex]

Zeitler has had a great career in the NFL. To play OG at a high level for so many years is truly impressive.

 

Sure, most of those excellent years were spent helping rivals elsewhere, but it's not like the Bengals have struggled at guard without him or anything...

 

(insert NINJA here)

 

 

[Cricket]

1 hour ago, dex said:

 …but it's not like the Bengals have struggled at guard without him or anything...

 

(insert NINJA here)

 

 

Even this ninja isn’t big enough…

 

[|High School Harry|]

1 hour ago, Cricket said:

Even this ninja isn’t big enough…

 

 

[T-Dub]

3 hours ago, dex said:

Zeitler has had a great career in the NFL. To play OG at a high level for so many years is truly impressive.

 

Sure, most of those excellent years were spent helping rivals elsewhere, but it's not like the Bengals have struggled at guard without him or anything...

 

(insert NINJA here)

 

 

 

 

Well there's always the silver lining in that at least the Bengals FO seem to have learned absolutely nothing from the experience.

[Griever]

Yep...seeing this graphic definitely made it sink in for me. It's the off-season 😩

[Le Tigre]

It’s not over until we say it’s over…

 

(Insert Blutarsky ninja here) 

[Randle P McMurphy]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Bengals were playing a last place schedule again in 2025!!  

[claptonrocks]

10 hours ago, Randle P McMurphy said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the Bengals were playing a last place schedule again in 2025!!  

On the other hand, how bout that win 6 of 7 and reach out he playoffs?

 

Who is their big scare down the stretch?

Inbreds twice and Ratbirds again.

 

What's to say they can't do this feat?

In Burrow and Co. I still trust..

 

[I_C_Deadpeople]

16 hours ago, claptonrocks said:

On the other hand, how bout that win 6 of 7 and reach out he playoffs?

 

Who is their big scare down the stretch?

Inbreds twice and Ratbirds again.

 

What's to say they can't do this feat?

In Burrow and Co. I still trust..

 

Trusting Burrow and Co is not in doubt. 
 

Brown and Co on the other hand….

[Randle P McMurphy]

18 hours ago, claptonrocks said:

On the other hand, how bout that win 6 of 7 and reach out he playoffs?

 

Who is their big scare down the stretch?

Inbreds twice and Ratbirds again.

 

What's to say they can't do this feat?

In Burrow and Co. I still trust..

 

 

The big scare is their own defense!  Factor that in with playing 4 of the last 6 games against top 10 defenses and that equals

no playoffs.  They've had all offseason and 11 games to try to do something with this defense so what makes you think they'll

magically do something to correct it in a week!?  (Bye week)  I said 2 or 3 weeks ago that they'll win 2, MAYBE 3 more games

this year and I'm thinking that's going to be a reach!  If Cody Ford is starting at LT this week going against a TJ Watt, whose going

to be playing pissed off this week after his play against the Stains, along with that dumbass Germaine Pratt guaranteeing a win

and Burrow may be watching the 2nd half from the locker room.  The Stealers, as much as I hate them, don't need f'n ping pong

tables to create a competitive atmosphere because they have good coaches to do that UNLIKE the Bengals!  😡

[UncleEarl]

31 minutes ago, Randle P McMurphy said:

 

  The Stealers, as much as I hate them, don't need f'n ping pong

tables to create a competitive atmosphere because they have good coaches to do that UNLIKE the Bengals!  😡

 

I wouldn't say the Stealers have good coaches, they have a consistent, solid, winning culture.  The Bengals are pretty much the opposite and ping-pong tables reek of desperation.

[KA14_HOF]

To really toughen the guys up, I heard Zac brought in an inflatable bouncy castle for practice today.

[|High School Harry|]

4 hours ago, UncleEarl said:

 

I wouldn't say the Stealers have good coaches, they have a consistent, solid, winning culture.  The Bengals are pretty much the opposite and ping-pong tables reek of desperation.

 

3 hours ago, KA14_HOF said:

To really toughen the guys up, I heard Zac brought in an inflatable bouncy castle for practice today.

Don't forget the whiz bang peachy new locker room!

[MichaelWeston]

Purdue's coach was fired. I think there is a chance that Anarumo goes there

[Le Tigre]

The bottom of the BiG 18. Reach for the stars! 

[MichaelWeston]

1 minute ago, Le Tigre said:

The bottom of the BiG 18. Reach for the stars! 

Its a chance to be a head coach for a 58 year old. Probably his last. 

[Gary]

Fucking defense. Burrow has a career year and we have no defense to keep his leads. Mike Brown needs to stop being so god damn cheap. I was done with this season after the first game when I realized we couldn't beat a team that's going to maybe have a couple wins. This season sucked, and I have not watched much of it. I cannot because I feel bad for Burrow and the offense. Our defense is a pile of shit. I am embarrassed for them. 

[HavePityPlease]

So to once again rehash the "Lou sucks, but I swear he used to not suck!" narrative... I would like for people to let me know what they think the pattern was here.  I'll provide my observation of it again and I'd be happy to hear what people think I've got wrong or what I'm not noticing:

1. 2019 - The Bengals suck.  Zac seems in way over his head, the defense is junk, we all think Lou and his cockamamie "permanent dime" defense is quackery and has been proven so, thoroughly.  We all realize Brown Inc. isn't going to fire anybody so we can only hope the coaches get better/grow/get some help.  The only thing we really hang our hopes on as fans is the defense actually improved from dead last in 2018.
2. 2020 - The Bengals still suck.  There are some slightly more encouraging things happening, however... most significantly we can tell Joe is the real deal.  The defense actually improves a tiny bit, the additions of Reader and Bell proving especially encouraging, and Bates continues to emerge - but mostly we figure Lou isn't the one to get it done.
3. 2021 - The best season of Bengals football many of us ever watched.  Despite the offensive line being shaky at best, Joe only improves, Ja'marr is a revelation, and the defense is WAY better than it had been - the additions of Hendrickson, Awuzie, Hilton, Apple and Ogunjobi are looking like home runs.  Drafting an ace kicker is also nice!   Lou is talked about as obvious head coach material, and he is courted.
4. 2022 - Still a great season that made it look like great things would just keep coming.  The defense improved even more statistically, and we had arguably a top 10 unit overall.  We only lost Ogunjobi from the decisive "class" of defensive FA's.  Lou continues to be a darling of the head coach grapevine.
5. 2023 - A regression for the defense, hard.  We lost Bates, Bell, and Apple, and Awuzie was coming off a bad injury.  Reader gets hurt during the season and his absence is obvious on the field.  Bringing in cheap FAs proves a disaster, especially at safety.
6. 2024 - Crash and burn.  We bring a significantly degraded Bell back, and he is ineffective.  We lose Awuzie and Reader.  Hendrickson and Hilton are all that's left of the FA bonanza of 2020 and 2021.  We have back-filled the empty positions with sketchy-to-poor draft choices and ineffective "bargain" FA's.  The degree of the slide is so steep that we are once again questioning if Lou had a horseshoe up his arse or he's not getting enough help from the front office.

So if my observations above are legit, what does it tell us?  To me it says, as I've mentioned before, Lou needs a very specific set of players/player profiles to play his unorthodox "extra DB" system.  It's obvious the DL has to be lights out against the run because you only have 2 LBs behind them.  You can argue the SS could fill as an extra LB, but this of course requires a lot of moving parts to get your fits in time.  Extra moving parts means working as a unit, having smart players who understand their role, and speed - not to mention tackling ability and will, across the board.  No room for "cover guys only" here.  It also means people holding each other accountable and being able to effectively communicate what they see in front of them.  Long story short, it's a complicated defense that many players have to be fully "taught", raising the points of failure everywhere on the field.  

 

So what are we missing?  Some of my assumptions were proven wrong here - I thought Bates was "just very good", but replaceable, but now I'm convinced that for Lou and his defense he was much more important than anybody realized.  I also bought into the "well we have to pay Joe and Ja'marr, find someone to protect Joe, so it makes sense to let him go".  Nah, not buying that at all anymore.  Joe's deal still hasn't kicked in and Ja'marr's rookie deal has two years left.  They spent some money on the OL but they still have a ton of cap space.  They could have easily kept Bates, even if they would have had to trade him at the end of the deal for the cap relief.  It was a dumb, cheap, bottom-line move, and they're still making them now.

 

So what's the solution?  Could Lou succeed with "better" personnel?  Of course he could, he's proven it before.  Should the Bengals be banking on getting that holy grail mix of FA's again?  To me, no, they shouldn't.  I think they should fire Lou and bring in a DC with a much more standard system that players will recognize and be able to be plugged into -  because they're certainly not going to break the bank to get specialists and stars, and when such players get injured it has the potential to bring the whole thing down.  We should be watching a standard NFL defense that would shoot to the top of the league with great draft picks or a star FA or two - not a bottom of the barrel unit for which we have to pray the stars we have don't leave or get injured or it will get even worse (somehow!).

 

We still have players that any team would want on defense - Hendrickson for sure, Hilton I think as well.   But if we're already shit, what would losing them do?  Perish the thought, right?  So we have no choice but to try and get more from, or a better fit for, the other players we have.  That is unlikely to happen in Lou's defense.  Granted it might not with another guy either, but you at least have to try something different, because the status quo is a disaster.  If we do keep Lou what we have to hope for is: the rookies and second year players we drafted on D learned enough from playing in Lou's system for a year or two to once again highlight its strengths like that home run FA class did.  I just don't see it.

 

So, in summary:

1. Is Lou a terrible DC?  No.
2. Is Lou's system complicated and difficult to find fits for?  YES
3. Will the Bengals do whatever it takes to find those difficult fits?  Clearly no.
4. Do the Bengals risk wasting the Joe Burrow era by not trying to make SOME kind of drastic change here?  Hell yes!
5. What kind of change would be the smartest/safest?  To me, find a smart/safe defensive scheme from a DC with experience in the NFL.