LinvilleGorge

You know what would be FAR worse? Paying the wrong guys at those positions. If Icky doesn't improve in pass protection, Bryce doesn't step up, and we have long-term concerns with Moton's knee you're only going to make the situation WAY worse by paying them like what you wish they were.

A big part of it was fixing the QB position. We found Jake on the trash heap for Fox and Clausen sucked us to Cam for Rivera. If Bryce starts playing like what he was drafted to be a lot of problems will magically seem a lot less dire. Not saying we'll be instantly good but we'll instantly be competitive and more hopeful.

I get that PFF isn't the end all be all but at least it's an apples vs. apples comparison... Moehrig looks like he's elite in the box and a better blitzer but is an even bigger liability in coverage. Meanwhile, Chinn is on a 2 year $16.3M contract while Moehrig is on a 3 year $51M contract. We just keep falling in love with safeties from the '80s and '90s era of football.

I think you misread what I was saying. I was criticizing the move. If we were wanting to load up on in the box safeties we already had one on the roster, instead we played him out of position then decided to move on only to spend big money on a similar player then draft another one. That makes no sense.

I think everyone expected this. The question will be who will get the nod for a dress rehearsal once they're out of the playoff picture?

We're only the 31st dumbest team in the league!!! When and where is the parade?

Yeah, Ron's only real flaw as a coach was lack of adaptability. He and Shula both basically came up with a game plan and usually a pretty good one at that but if it didn't work there was no plan B or C. We're just gonna keep doubling down on A and hope it eventually starts working.

They might. But I don't see them getting a 1st AND an impact young defender and any 1st they would get would be from a team that expects that pick to be very low in the round.

What young defensive player do we even have that they would want? Horn and Brown are about all I can come up with and trading either is probably cap prohibitive even if we were open to it.

Especially in the NFL. These guys are on contracts. They can't get hurt in their fee fees and just hit the portal.

Dabo is a consummate college coach. He's a recruiter and motivator. The NFL is a lot more about Xs and Os. Great college coach but I don't think he'd translate well at all to the NFL level.

I don't want any part of trading away a 1st rounder when I'm still not sold on the QB position and if those concerns prove legit it's likely to be a VERY high one.

The baffling thing about Chinn is that he's clearly an in the box safety and when we played him as a primary deep safety and he predictably struggled we decided to move on. Then what do we do? We turn around and give an in the box FA safety big money and draft another one in the 4th. Make it make sense.

Yeah, I know the Panthers are acting like they definitely have the answers in Icky and Bryce but based on what I've seen out of them on the field I need to see a lot more out of them before I'm convinced they're worth the cap crippling contracts those positions demand. You can't pay a road grading LT who struggles in pass protection franchise LT money. And we're honestly still trying to figure out if Bryce is a legit starter much less a franchise QB.

Yep. I would've thought that watching a series of knee jerk desperation bandaid approach moves in recent years resulting in losing season after losing season would have eventually sunk in that's not the way to drag yourself out of the gutter. If we were a a playoff team who thought Hendrickson was the piece we needed to become a legit contender, sure. That's the type of team that a move like that would make all the sense in the word for. It makes absolutely no sense for a team that has more question marks than answers though.

I warned so many of the people who complained about him that they're gonna miss him when he's gone. They may not miss HIM, but they miss being relevant and we were relevant largely because of him even if they don't wanna admit it.

This. If there's an opportunity to trade a late round pick for a decent veteran bandaid, fine. Late round picks are basically scratch off lottery tickets. But trading premium assets for an aging big money player? That's the exact sort of thing we have absolutely no business doing right now.

No you didn't. He made a joke and provided a link for clarification. You made a post that had other posters thinking that Igo had died. Big difference. I keep receipts.

And we have to figure out if Bryce is our future.

I don't really care about the final score. I just want to see competency out of our starters and primary backups. Whose camp bodies end up putting more points on the board in the second half really just isn't relevant. But when you look at what our starters have done, it's not an optimistic picture.

Yeah, I considered that. It's possible. I don't think they would honestly be AS bad but the results could be for the very reason you state. I shudder to think what our D would've given up if our opponents thought they had to try to outscore us in shootouts.

The only two reasons why I think this situation might turn out differently is because 1) the Bengals have a rep of being one of the stingiest teams in the league and 2) they have an absurd percentage of their cap tied up in their QB and two WRs. I honestly thought they were in a situation where they had to let Higgins walk or tag and trade. I guess they just don't care that Burrow gets the hell beat out of him behind a shoddy OL every year and they can't stop anybody on D. Take away Hendrickson and I don't think they'd be as abysmal as we were last year on D but they might be close. They really are just completely bungling their window with a top 5 QB and probably the #1 WR in the league.

Yep. I have zero desire to moderate opinions and vibes. It is what it is. When it gets super snippy I just ask that those posters put each other on ignore. I want people to moderate themselves as much as possible.