NFL offseason discussion (up to but not including draft)

The Game Room
341

I don’t see the Browns replicating their success from last season because I honestly believe that Anderson isn’t all that great. He sucked towards the end of the year, his stats were padded by the first Cincinnati game, and he looked just awful in the Probowl.

Everyone likes their own team, I understand, and as a Bengals fan I am nothing if not an eternal optimist.

We have Carson and a good offensive line that was hurt and played uneven last year due to the injuries to our starting tackles and our center, leading to Carson hurrying many throws that resulted in INT’s due to pressure, despite the low sack given up total last season. Chad and TJ and Henry will be back.

ALL of our starting RB’s were injured last year, and when coupled with poor oline play, resulted in even more pressure on the passing game and Carson to try to win games. So, Rudi was hurt, Chris Perry was hurt all year, Kenny Irons never saw the field due to preseason ACL injury…and we had Kenny Watson and DeDe Dorsey, hardly starters, to carry the load. Even when Rudi did play, he was especially slow, whether from age or injury is uncertain.

The Bengals haven’t had much resembling a defense lately, and last year was particularly bad in light of the fact that we lost ALL of our starting LB’s except Landon Johnson to injury. Yep, ALL of them. Well, odell thurman was suspended, but indications are that he will return, along with Ahmad Brooks (injured, needed hammy surgery), Lemar Marshall (ruptured achilles)…and we also have a promising pair of 2nd and 3rd year CB’s that were first round picks in Johnathon Joseph and Leon Hall, as well as up and comers at safety in Chinedem Ndukwe and marvin White, coupled with the return of Ethan Kilmer, who is a baller returning from injury.

We have never had a good defensive line, but we are in the process of addresing that, letting dead weight like Justin Smith go, adding Antwan Odom, we’ll see Frostee Rucker, Johnathon Fanene and Robert Geathers…plus…we pick 9th and are going to try for Sedrick Ellis, and will likely have 3rd and 5th round compensation picks (Steinbach, Kitna)…

The future is bright for the Bengals…and we got ourselves a new, respected d-coordinator, too.

342

I see the AFC North as a competitive division. Nobody’s going to really suck.

Well, maybe the Browns.

343

No, no we don’t.

FTR, I think the Bengals are rat fucked until they get rid of Marvin Lewis.

344

Probably Cinci and Balt won’t suck as much as they did last year, but they may have similar records due to the difficulty of the schedule. The odds of the Browns finishing last in the division are pretty slim…

You seem biased against them, which is a bit unusual - most Detroit fans I know seem to have a mutual sympathy being two teams with recent chronic suck combined with being in seperate conferences and not having any rivalry. What’s up with that?

345

Nah, I’m not biased. I just wanted to fire you up a little bit. I do think that the odds of the Browns finishing last in the division are better than their odds of finishing first. I dunno. I’m not quite convinced yet about the Browns. They’ve made some strides and some acquisitions, so let’s see if they jell together and make a good defense.
Any Lions/Browns pseudo-rivalry comes from the Tigers and Indians. It’s just overflow from that.

346

(Missed the edit window)

At its heart, Detroit is a baseball city. We’d go bonkers if the Lions ever won anything, we had a million people downtown when the Wings won, and we love it when the Pistons win, but Detroit really is a baseball city, much like New York City really is a basketball city.

347

I tend to be really knowledgable about my team and pretty knowledgable about the AFC North, so I generally don’t get riled up by comments that seem to indicate only casual knowledge of the division. I was willing to defend my claims though.

Pittsburgh and Cleveland both finished 10-6 - a few bad calls from 9-7 and 11-5 respectively. Cincinatti finished 7-9 and Baltimore 5-11. Since then, Pittsburgh has suffered a significant loss in FA but mostly stayed pat, Cleveland has addressed two of its most glaring weaknesses (three if you count defensive coordinator), Cinci has the inmates running the asylum, all sorts of locker room problems, and haven’t improved so far, and Baltimore has a combination of inexperience and too-old former stars, a new coach that’s some special teams coordinator no one has heard of who has to struggle to take the leadership of the team from Stabbin’ Ray, and is the only team to lose to the Dolphins last year.

I’m not predicting a Cleveland superbowl win here (yet!) but it’s pretty unreasonable to guess that they’ll finish last.

348

I’m inclined to agree here. I’m not sure what would make one assume that the Ravens, Bengals or Steelers would improve from last season’s totals. They might but it’s not based on anything that’s happened so far. The Browns have gotten better in FA and the rest of the division has stood pat at best and I’d argue all have gotten worse.

349

I don’t think Pittsburgh’s loss was all that devastating. Alan Faneca is a very good blocker, but the Steelers have had a good track record of keeping players until they start to go down.

All in all, I think it should be a fun division to watch. It should be competitive.

350

How can you say that?

We had some off-field issues in 2006 and in the 2006 offseason, we had MAJOR injury problems that exceed those normally accrued by your average NFL team last year (most teams don’t lose entire position groups and do well as a result…we lost all but one starting LB and ALL THREE starting RB’s to injury, PLUS BOTH our Pro-Bowl-caliber tackles were injured for all or most of the season…kinda hamstrings the offense, you know?).

We haven’t had any more issues since, and most of our “crimes” were petty shit like DUI’s and weed, at least compared to the Tank Johnsons, Steve Foley’s and the Kiels of the world. Oh yeah, and Leonard Little and that DE from KC whose name I always forget.

We’re getting ALL our LB’s back, we have signed a very good DE in Antwan Odom, we WILL draft for defense, Carson looks to rebound, we get back Kenny Irons, we still have our wideouts, we’re going to acquire a pass-catching TE like Utecht or a draftee…

We also will have vast improvement in our secondary. We have back to back first round CB’s in Hall and Joseph (whom was also hurt a good portion of last season), we have emerging talent at the safety positions, and our defensive line WILL be improved.

At least, that’s how this homer sees it…

351

Bump-chicka-bump-chicka-bump-chicka now-now…

352

Psst… a DUI is usually a felony. Besides, that’s was Leonard Little’s crime too - he just happened to kill somebody while DUI.

353

Psst…a first DUI is a misdemeanor.
Just FYI.
Killing someone while driving drunk is DEFINETELY a felony. But it was OK, Little didn’t play for the Bengals, so he got a slap on the wrist…see the injustice yet?

354

I don’t really understand why Tank Johnson keeps getting held up as the poster child for severe crimes as a player. The guy illegally owned and carried guns. This is pretty stupid and it’s a crime, but he’s never been accused or brandishing it or getting into any bar fights. In most other states it would have been legal for a person to carry a handgun in his car with a concealed carry permit. Illinois doesn’t allow it, but I’m sure that huge percentages of players carry guns.

You might not like it and it’s a crime, but is that really worse than DUI arrests, vehicular manslaughter, domestic violence and murder. The guy illegally owned guns and mouthed off to a cop when drunk outside a club. In the grand scheme of things that’s a lot more smoke than fire.

355

I didn’t pay much attention to the Bungles last season, but I’m pretty sure your team just about quit on their coach, one player reportedly clocked your coach in the FACE!!, and the team still made costly mental mistakes all season long. Ask any Eagles fan how keeping (and refusing to trade) a disgruntled WR works. Hey, I’m an Eagles fan, ask me. It doesn’t. It sucks.

Aren’t the Bengals getting some hotshot player back from a two year suspension this year? Odell Thurman, right? Wasn’t he good?

356

That was actually in the '05 playoffs where Chad decked Marvin.
You’re right, though, FoieGrasIsEvil that simply getting healthy for another season will be an improvement for your team. I was thinking in terms of roster changes. You gained Odom, but lost Smith, who, while a bust for the 4th (?) pick in the draft, wasn’t that bad.

And it’s true that most of the off the field troubles for your team were minor to moderate - no one, for instance, was involved in or covered up murders - but they happened with a comical frequency. You know how much effort it takes to steal the criminals of the AFC North title away from the rats? It shows a lack of discipline. It seems like Marvin has lost control of the team.

Here are my predictions at this stage:

Browns 10-6
Steelers 8-8
Bengals 7-9
Rats 6-10

357

He was decent. Remains to be seen exactly how rusty he’ll be - he’s spent one season of his NFL career on the field, and two away from it.

I would be surprised if he’s able to play at a high level right away.

Foie, you’re quite right. I retract my statement.

358

The Lions release Kevin Jones and Kalimba Edwards. Kevin Jones was released before an escalator clause and Kalimba never came around and was productive.
We signed Tatum Bell to a year contract. It looks like we’re taking a running back this year early again. Whee!

359

Wow. Spend a first-round pick on running back, let him play for three years, and then just when he’s getting really good (and you get a new offensive coordinator who might run the ball occasionally) - release him.

Brilliant plan.

360

Underrated receiver coming out of the backfield too. See kids, this is why I wanted to keep Martz. Switching offensive coordinators like this is a bad idea. Just give me an offensive coordinator for 4 years and a stable rotation of offensive linemen so we can evaluate our talent.
We resigned Tatum Bell to a year contract. Shoulda seen the writing on the wall there. Okay, here’s the plan. I’m feeling a crazy acquisition of draft picks coming soon. There’s got to be a method to this madness. To get nothing for Jones is silly.
This sucks. I hate football. Let’s go Tigers!