For a while it looked like Marvin Lewis had them on the right track, but they gambled with character risks, and overlooked defense, and now it appears that they may be headed back to obscurity, or worse- imfamy.
The worst part about it is that they are wasting the window of opportunity that a true franchise quarterback gives you. Now, I know Carson Palmer is only 28 years old, so it's not as if the window is slamming shut as we speak, but given the Bengals history- I don't think they should be messing around right now.
True, elite, franchise quarterbacks are so rare in this leauge that you simply have to cash one in when you have one. Just off the top of my head, I can only think of two franchises who failed to cash in a SB win with a truly elite franchise quarterback- Minnesota, with Fran Tarkenton, and Miami, with Dan Marino. If I am forgetting any, someone let me know. And don't say the Bills, Jim Kelly was a good quarterback, maybe even a very good quarterback, but he wasn't an elite quarterback.
Another problem with the Bengals is that I don't see them improving drasically soon. If anything, they are going in the other direction, and fast.
What once was perhaps the second deepest WR corps in the NFL (I would take Fitzgerald, Boldin, and Johnson over CJ, Houzmanzadeh, and Henry any day), is now in real danger of having a great possession receiver and nothing else. Chris Henry is cut, for being too stupid to cash in his winning genetic-lottery ticket, and I think we are all aware of the C Johnson fiasco. All it will take is for one side to follow through on their threats, and CJ will be playing this season in the Arena Leauge.
Rudi Johnson showed last year that he may not be the franchise running back that most thought he was, and looking back, he might have been a bit overrated to start with (4.0 career yds per carry = bland, never more than 23 receptions in any season).
The o-line is above average to good when healthy, but they are a thin, aging group, and when injuries pile up- as they have the last 2 seasons- it quickly becomes a serious issue.
And of course, the defense is just horrendous. That really needs no further explanation.
One thing about the NFL I don't understand, is how teams have a tendancy- sometimes- to reflect the complete opposite of their head coach.
Here is what I mean, the Bengals coach, Marvin Lewis, was hired as a defensive guru, out of Baltimore. Now, they have no D, and a ton of O. Brian Billick left the Vikes as an offensive 'genius', yet he won a super bowl with the most pathetic offense in the post-forward pass era. And he's been in Baltimore how long now? Like 9 years? And he still has yet to put anything resembling a coherant offense on the field. Same thing with Dungy, he leaves as a defensive mind, and although he had good D's in Tampa, look how long it took him to put together a decent defense in Indy.
Here is my theory on this, let me know if you agree with it, and if not, let me know yours.
I think that they get so arrogent, and so confident that they are so smart in whatever there supposed field of expertise is, that they don't pay enough attention to that when they become head coach.
In other words,- I'll use Billick as an example- Billick goes to Baltimore and says,
"Ahh, I don't have to worry about the offense, the offense will be fine, being as how I'm such an offensive genius, how could it not be great? I'll just hire some hack as an offensive coordinator, because I know everything there is to know about offense, so I don't want someone who thinks they know anything to come in here and step on my toes. And we don't need players either, just throw any old hacks out there on offense, players don't mean crap anyway, I'm so smart as an offensive mind, that I could score 50 with a bunch of pre-schoolers out there. But you know what? I better stack up on the defensive side of the ball, because I really don't know jackshit about defense, so yeah, I'm gonna need some real studs over there. And a coordinator too. Yeah, I'll find some up and coming genius, whose just as smart on D as I am on offense. Yeah, no stopping us now."
Now, I know I took that to the extreme a little, but that is the general thinking that I think takes place to lead to that kind of thing.
its too easy with viking fans
