McAlister isn't one for hot takes... So if he's arguing that you need to go, it's past time buddy!

2 hours ago, LostInDaJungle said:

McAlister isn't one for hot takes...

🤣 Since when?!

That dude's whole brand is emotional knee-jerk shit takes. Sure, let's fire Duke and Zac so the incompetent chucklefuck owners can hire new scapegoats for their meddling and bad decisions! That'll fix it!

1 hour ago, T-Dub said:

🤣 Since when?!

That dude's whole brand is emotional knee-jerk shit takes. Sure, let's fire Duke and Zac so the incompetent chucklefuck owners can hire new scapegoats for their meddling and bad decisions! That'll fix it!

I'm not saying you are wrong, but in that case what do you propose? The Brown family sells the team? You know that means bye-bye Cincinnati?

We can only hope for the family to do some things correctly. We know there are a lot of things they do incorrectly and it isn't going to change. We also know they ain't sellin'. With that in mind a new HC and even an upgrade to whatever position Tobin has is the best we can hope for.

2 hours ago, UncleEarl said:

I'm not saying you are wrong, but in that case what do you propose? The Brown family sells the team? You know that means bye-bye Cincinnati?

We can only hope for the family to do some things correctly. We know there are a lot of things they do incorrectly and it isn't going to change. We also know they ain't sellin'. With that in mind a new HC and even an upgrade to whatever position Tobin has is the best we can hope for.

I can propose people stop forking over their hard-earned money to them, that's about it. Only thing they care about & the only thing that's going to motivate them to do anything differently. So long as the stadium is sold out why would they give a shit what the fans think?

1 hour ago, T-Dub said:

I can propose people stop forking over their hard-earned money to them, that's about it. Only thing they care about & the only thing that's going to motivate them to do anything differently. So long as the stadium is sold out why would they give a shit what the fans think?

I don’t agree. I think the Brown family wants to win, but do it Mike’s way. It hasn’t worked for sure. Until Mike is dead this won’t change. I am not one that believes Mike has nothing to do with the team. His overall strategy remains. No large decisions are made without his approval. Maybe Katie will do it differently once she has that opportunity.

Until then they may get lucky with a new coach. Probably not, but maybe.

If the town abandons the team, the team will abandon the town.

1 hour ago, T-Dub said:

I can propose people stop forking over their hard-earned money to them, that's about it. Only thing they care about & the only thing that's going to motivate them to do anything differently. So long as the stadium is sold out why would they give a shit what the fans think?

Pitchforks and pickets never drive people away from uninteresting entertainment options…other more interesting options do.

Football season is so short…and at the time of year where few options can displace the NFL. Nothing is competing for eyeballs and backsides. Even in a “small market”, there are enough of them to put quite a few in the seats 8 times a year…and that’s not inclusive of the “visiting fans”.

People will show up. They will boo/complain…but they will show up. Also, the starry-eyed/every-now-and-then casual fan with his multiple kids will show up. They are just happy to be in the building.

I have seen and heard all of this before “stop going and things will change”. It is a myth. And since the Blackburn progeny have become quite good at developing banal “in-stadium experience”…replete with the noise/lights/music…it makes the populace happy.

It’s all entertainment.

Just now, UncleEarl said:

I don’t agree. I think the Brown family wants to win, but do it Mike’s way. It hasn’t worked for sure. Until Mike is dead this won’t change. I am not one that believes Mike has nothing to do with the team. His overall strategy remains. No large decisions are made without his approval. Maybe Katie will do it differently once she has that opportunity.

Until then they may get lucky with a new coach. Probably not, but maybe.

If the town abandons the team, the team will abandon the town.

He does not “want” to win because he is smart enough to know the resources the best teams put into their programs. Do you think he would hire an Andy Reid type for $20M per year? Hire an actual GM and double the scouting staff? He knows what it takes and he can see the failings as well as we can. He just accepts them instead of acting on them.

If he truly believes you can be consistently competitive with half the resources of better teams he is just an idiot. I will give him credit for not being one so the only other explanation is he simply won’t make the necessary commitment to winning. His record speaks for itself on this matter.

In a weird contrast, now that my Leafs suck - not just on a fan level (which is always), but an actual win/loss record level - tickets are actually available at an "affordable" rate for some reason. That never happens, even when they suck Leaf games are infamously attended by largely corporate suits and other apathetic types who are there for the "prestige"... so winning or losing doesn't matter at all, Leaf tickets are just a form of currency for networking and clout and are absorbed for that purpose before anyone even knows it happened. It seems they're so bad it's not even valuable in that context at the moment. Huzzah!

No, I have no plans to attend, nor does any fan I know... but lots of otherwise aspirationally-attendant fans can actually realize their dream, and probably will.

They do have the bestest uniforms anywhere…and always have.

There's a difference between wanting to win and wanting to be proven right. They'd rather lose than admit they're wrong.

I am pretty sure the fans did not show up during the ERA before Mediocre Marv and this is when MFB made a change. His bottom line revenue was affecting his bank account. Not only this but, didn't the other Owners get POd at him too because the other team's had to cover him for Lack of revenue from ticket sales, merchandise, etc...? Meaning, he still got his sharing cut no matter if fans showed up or not. I did a small calculation and say, average ticket is $60 and 25K do not show up every game, then that would be 12 Million Dollars lost in Revenue where the other owners will be ticked off that they are not getting part of that. That is just for tickets. Trust me, it will make a difference for change from his bottom line to other owners pressuring him to make change.

55 minutes ago, TigerJ@w said:

I am pretty sure the fans did not show up during the ERA before Mediocre Marv and this is when MFB made a change. His bottom line revenue was affecting his bank account. Not only this but, didn't the other Owners get POd at him too because the other team's had to cover him for Lack of revenue from ticket sales, merchandise, etc...? Meaning, he still got his sharing cut no matter if fans showed up or not. I did a small calculation and say, average ticket is $60 and 25K do not show up every game, then that would be 12 Million Dollars lost in Revenue where the other owners will be ticked off that they are not getting part of that. That is just for tickets. Trust me, it will make a difference for change from his bottom line to other owners pressuring him to make change.

Same reason they finally let Marv go, too. Same reason they've made any fundamental change ever 😆

10 hours ago, T-Dub said:

🤣 Since when?!

That dude's whole brand is emotional knee-jerk shit takes. Sure, let's fire Duke and Zac so the incompetent chucklefuck owners can hire new scapegoats for their meddling and bad decisions! That'll fix it!

thats what i was thinking... he is a lazier sports shock jock than Mo Eggar.

25 minutes ago, GoBengals said:

thats what i was thinking... he is a lazier sports shock jock than Mo Eggar.

If I never hear his falsetto "are you keeeding meeeeeeee?" again that'd be swell

8 hours ago, TigerJ@w said:

I am pretty sure the fans did not show up during the ERA before Mediocre Marv and this is when MFB made a change.

I was there during those years. Even in the horrid years of 2000-2002, the place was full (someone will quickly race to Google to check attendance…but I am speaking of paid attendance). The building was new, and new season ticket holders had not bailed yet (cost factors with PSL’s, etc). And casual buyers were still there gawking at things like the cool Jumbotron and gleaming restrooms. The product on the field was distinctly secondary to a very sizeable number.

The “we’ll show them!” boycott was a myth.

Taylor isn't getting fired, once Burrow got hurt for what is essentially the year in week 2 it bought Taylor another year. His contract is up after the next season, if anything they won't extend him beyond that.

Once Burrow gets healthy the Bengals can sell hope of improvement in the future and people will show up.

He doesn't have to bring in an expensive head coach like Andy Reid. He needs about 5 more scouts and a good GM/personnel guy. Hiring those 6 people will pay for themselves tenfold and more so.

Look at it this way: If we'd drafted better we would not have had to make reach signings like we did at LT and giving Trey an extra $10mill. If MB is truly cheap he'd do those things. He's not cheap. He chooses a very expensive way of doing business. He's a control freak and rarely goes outside his family...nepotism

33 minutes ago, Sea Ray said:

He doesn't have to bring in an expensive head coach like Andy Reid. He needs about 5 more scouts and a good GM/personnel guy. Hiring those 6 people will pay for themselves tenfold and more so.

Look at it this way: If we'd drafted better we would not have had to make reach signings like we did at LT and giving Trey an extra $10mill. If MB is truly cheap he'd do those things. He's not cheap. He chooses a very expensive way of doing business. He's a control freak and rarely goes outside his family...nepotism

Great post

17 hours ago, UncleEarl said:

I don’t agree. I think the Brown family wants to win, but do it Mike’s way. It hasn’t worked for sure. Until Mike is dead this won’t change. I am not one that believes Mike has nothing to do with the team. His overall strategy remains. No large decisions are made without his approval. Maybe Katie will do it differently once she has that opportunity.

Until then they may get lucky with a new coach. Probably not, but maybe.

If the town abandons the team, the team will abandon the town.

Agree on this. Mike wants to win… I do believe that. But on his terms. And I believe he’s still very involved in important decisions. I read somewhere that he’s still in the office every day.

The organization does catch lightning in a bottle on occasion… they’ve been historically good at finding and developing offensive skill players, but the defense really has never been a strong suit and they’ve had some good trench players, but never elite units.

It’s interesting, I heard Dehner make a point on a pod recently, that if you look at the FO and coaches, you’ve got a slew of former QBs… Mike Brown, Duke, Zac, Pitcher, the current QB coach, some of the other assistants, Mike Potts (Asst GM, college scouting)… but you really don’t have defensive guys. Really, Marvin was the last guy, and I’d argue he did know talent, and was able to bring in quite a bit of it.

In comparison, the Stealers have focused a lot on D, and up front in general. And IMO that’s been one of their keys to long-term success (recent playoff failures aside). Tomlin is a defensive coach and his teams are always tough and physical. Having Big Ben surely helped for a long while but they are still winning with guys like Russell Wilson and Aaron Rogers.

Sad thing is, the Bengals right now have some of the best offensive skill players in their 50+ year history, and they are effing it up because their D is historically putrid and there’s not a lot of optimism that it’s getting better. And the ones who screwed the pooch, the architects of this isht show, are still here, and likely will be next year. Where’s this accountable teammate stuff that is part of the team mission statement? Does it not apply to the entire organization… coaches, FO, etc?

Bottom line, I really don’t see things changing with Katie and Troy at the helm. It’s in their DNA to manage things this way and if we look at how they've been managing things lately, I don’t see much different.

Great post i hope you are wrong but we will see

1 hour ago, Sea Ray said:

He doesn't have to bring in an expensive head coach like Andy Reid. He needs about 5 more scouts and a good GM/personnel guy. Hiring those 6 people will pay for themselves tenfold and more so.

Look at it this way: If we'd drafted better we would not have had to make reach signings like we did at LT and giving Trey an extra $10mill. If MB is truly cheap he'd do those things. He's not cheap. He chooses a very expensive way of doing business. He's a control freak and rarely goes outside his family...nepotism

Many of us have made this common sense proposal over the years. It is literally mind blowing how the family cannot see the ROI on investing in better scouting. You get a better team consistently PLUS then the team value goes up more. It is literally like a software company not investing in coders.

The family is stuck in some weird mode they think is solid business but it is painful to watch for me - I have built and run several businesses - their approach is literally the opposite of what 99% of business people would do.

Just fucking mind blowing .

3 hours ago, The PatternMaster said:

Taylor isn't getting fired, once Burrow got hurt for what is essentially the year in week 2 it bought Taylor another year. His contract is up after the next season, if anything they won't extend him beyond that.

Once Burrow gets healthy the Bengals can sell hope of improvement in the future and people will show up.

Smart man

4 hours ago, I_C_Deadpeople said:

Many of us have made this common sense proposal over the years. It is literally mind blowing how the family cannot see the ROI on investing in better scouting. You get a better team consistently PLUS then the team value goes up more. It is literally like a software company not investing in coders.

The family is stuck in some weird mode they think is solid business but it is painful to watch for me - I have built and run several businesses - their approach is literally the opposite of what 99% of business people would do.

Just fucking mind blowing .

Yeah, instead of spending money on Duke, they could use a free site like Gridiron Grading and get better results. GG rates college prospects on 3 dimensions; College Tape (basically PFF scores), College production, ie counting stats, and Athleticism, their combine and pro day workout numbers. They've done studies on which athletic metrics are most predictive of success at various positions (ie hand size for edge rushers, broad jump for TEs, 3 cone times for centers and guards, etc). They admit they don't have any inside info on player's character, health, or off field issues. That's what the scouts are for.

The Rams famously have a good evaluation process which has helped them remain competitive after going all-in in 2021. If the Bengals do move on from Duke, bringing in someone from the Rams or Eagles would be a good idea.

5 hours ago, I_C_Deadpeople said:

their approach is literally the opposite of what 99% of business people would do.

Just fucking mind blowing .

99% of businesses don't last very long if their product sucks consistently. They've got all the protections and support of a franchise with very few of the expectations. So long as they don't pull a Donald Sterling or drunkenly plow the Lumina into a sidewalk cafe it's guaranteed multi-million dollar income. They're free to do things their way no matter the results.

7 hours ago, texbengal said:

Agree on this. Mike wants to win… I do believe that. But on his terms. And I believe he’s still very involved in important decisions. I read somewhere that he’s still in the office every day.

The organization does catch lightning in a bottle on occasion… they’ve been historically good at finding and developing offensive skill players, but the defense really has never been a strong suit and they’ve had some good trench players, but never elite units.

It’s interesting, I heard Dehner make a point on a pod recently, that if you look at the FO and coaches, you’ve got a slew of former QBs… Mike Brown, Duke, Zac, Pitcher, the current QB coach, some of the other assistants, Mike Potts (Asst GM, college scouting)… but you really don’t have defensive guys. Really, Marvin was the last guy, and I’d argue he did know talent, and was able to bring in quite a bit of it.

In comparison, the Stealers have focused a lot on D, and up front in general. And IMO that’s been one of their keys to long-term success (recent playoff failures aside). Tomlin is a defensive coach and his teams are always tough and physical. Having Big Ben surely helped for a long while but they are still winning with guys like Russell Wilson and Aaron Rogers.

Sad thing is, the Bengals right now have some of the best offensive skill players in their 50+ year history, and they are effing it up because their D is historically putrid and there’s not a lot of optimism that it’s getting better. And the ones who screwed the pooch, the architects of this isht show, are still here, and likely will be next year. Where’s this accountable teammate stuff that is part of the team mission statement? Does it not apply to the entire organization… coaches, FO, etc?

Bottom line, I really don’t see things changing with Katie and Troy at the helm. It’s in their DNA to manage things this way and if we look at how they've been managing things lately, I don’t see much different.

We had very good Ds at one time and not so good Offense. LeBeau, Zimmer and Guenther. They all led us to the playoffs.