NFL 2014: Preseason Edition

[Rhom]

That was a very, very typical occurrence in the non-draft slotted contract era.

Shit, Michael Crabtree didn't even step onto the field until around midway through his rookie season.

Also, Brady didn't lose his job to Derek Anderson, unless the job you are talking about is second string QB. The starter to open that year was Charlie Frye. Anderson came in in the second half of the opener.

Jesus, being a Browns fan is really depressing a lot of the time.

By the way, I'm sure you recognized it in your own way... but just in case you missed it, yesterday was Tim Couch's birthday.

Its hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that he turned 37 and Drew Brees is 35. Seems like forever ago that Couch played, and yet he should be just now winding up his career. :crying:

[Nictarion]

Players? Replacing Marvin Lewis with the next up and coming OC isn't going to make Andy Dalton make better decisions in the heat of the moment (like not diving forward and fumbling the ball untouched) or make a wide open AJ Green catch a perfectly throw deep ball that would have resulted in a TD or Gio Bernard fumbling the ball on the opposing 5 yard line after the Bengals drove 80 yards. It sucks that these types of situations happen in the playoffs but I don't think any coach can influence these types of mistakes that happen on the field in isolated circumstances like a single playoff game. It sucks that they happen but I put it on the players, not the coaches in those situations.

I agree. It's on the players. Bad luck has factored into Marvin's winless streak in the playoffs. I'm not the biggest fan of Marvin Lewis, but I don't think he's the problem either. I remember what it was like before Marvin. As you know, it wasn't pretty.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

With Manning (the good one) Brady and Brees having all had great season in their mid to late 30's, I think we forget that most quarterback are done by the time they're 33.

[Maithanet]

With Manning (the good one) Brady and Brees having all had great season in their mid to late 30's, I think we forget that most quarterback are done by the time they're 33.

Most quarterback's can't play at their level at any age. A quarterback's physical tools start to erode around 28-30, and from there every year gets harder. But Peyton Manning with 20% less arm strength and running speed is still better than all but a handful of NFL quarterbacks. Whereas for most "average" guys, once your skills start to fade, they quickly move from average to below average and are relegated to a backup role. This goes doubly so for the more athletic quarterbacks who rely on their legs as well as their arm to make plays.

[DanteGabriel]

I agree. It's on the players. Bad luck has factored into Marvin's winless streak in the playoffs. I'm not the biggest fan of Marvin Lewis, but I don't think he's the problem either. I remember what it was like before Marvin. As you know, it wasn't pretty.

I've tended towards the not-quite-enough view on Marvin Lewis as a head coach, but I wonder how different perspective might be on him if not for Kimo von Oelhoffen doing the Bernard Pollard on Carson Palmer's knee in that year the Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl against Seattle.

ETA: Oh Jerry Jones, never change:

When Dallas Cowboys season-ticket holders open the envelope with their tickets this week, they might be shocked to find what's in there.

Along with all the preseason and regular-season tickets, there's a sheet of playoff tickets, including a ticket for the NFC Championship Game, a game the team hasn't played in since the 1995 season.

http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story/_/id/11295007/dallas-cowboys-include-playoff-tickets-package-season-ticket-holders

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

Most quarterback's can't play at their level at any age. A quarterback's physical tools start to erode around 28-30, and from there every year gets harder. But Peyton Manning with 20% less arm strength and running speed is still better than all but a handful of NFL quarterbacks. Whereas for most "average" guys, once your skills start to fade, they quickly move from average to below average and are relegated to a backup role. This goes doubly so for the more athletic quarterbacks who rely on their legs as well as their arm to make plays.

I think it's strange that Matt Schaub, who was never a physical tools guy, fell off a cliff so dramatically last year. Did losing 5-10% of his arm strength suddenly make it that much easier to intercept him. Did a couple pick-6's early in the season just wreck his confidence?

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

ETA: Oh Jerry Jones, never change:

http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story/_/id/11295007/dallas-cowboys-include-playoff-tickets-package-season-ticket-holders

That's cute.

[Mexal]

I've tended towards the not-quite-enough view on Marvin Lewis as a head coach, but I have to wonder how different perspective might be on him if not for Kimo von Oelhoffen doing the Bernard Pollard on Carson Palmer's knee in that year the Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl against Seattle.

We'll never know but you really have to consider what Marvin Lewis has actually done. We all look at the playoff loses but forget what came before, the situations he had to deal with and where we are today.

A little history lesson.

1991-2003: Bengals were the worst team in the league. Maybe 2nd worse if we think about the Lions during this time which were also pretty atrocious.

2003: Lewis is hired from the Skins. He inherits the first round pick, chooses Palmer and has some talent on the team. Team finishes 8-8 after finishing 2-14 the year before and doing this with John Kitna.

2004: Palmer's first year starting. Chad Johnson is becoming a star. Rudi Johnson is looking good. Bengals finish 8-8

2005: Offense looks explosive. Defense bends A LOT but gets a lot of turnovers (see Saints/Packers defense in their SB wins) and finish 11-5. Palmer's knee is destroyed on 3rd play of game after completing a 66 yard pass to Henry (who also gets injured and is out for rest of game).

2006: Palmer comes back from knee injury, plays well and we need to win 1 of last 3 games to get into playoffs. Get destroyed by a Manning lead Colts team (fair enough). Come back in Denver at end of game to tie and holder on XP fumbles and we lose by a point (not Lewis fault). Play Pittsburgh in final game, have a 39 yard field goal to win the game in regulation and Shayne Graham misses, sending to overtime where we go on to lose on a slant. Again, not Lewis fault. Additionally, 10 or so arrests this offseason which leads to us being known as a team that takes anyone so from now until forever, Bengals get mocked with anyone who has off the field issues.

2007: Meh year after all the arrests, Johnson is getting out of control.

2008: Johnson changes name to Ochocino before season starts. Palmer hurts elbow, does not get surgery and we play the year with Ryan Fitzpatrick as QB. Ugly as you can expect. Zimmer is hired.

2009: Change offense from a passing team to rushing team because Palmer can no longer throw, Zimmer has made defense strong, Johnson isn't the same WR and no one else steps up. Make playoffs but get destroyed.

2010: Palmer insists on signing TO. Johnson and TO work terribly together, team fails miserably, offense is stagnating with same OC that is best friends with Mike Brown and he refuses to fire.

It's been very up and down until this point. The team was mostly constructed by Mike Brown who had a very active role. Zimmer was hired because Bresnahan was terrible but they wouldn't fire Bratkowski. Lewis was forced to deal with the arrests of 2006. Palmer's two injuries which lead to his complete deterioration. The increasingly out of control Chad Johnson. And an offensive coordinator that he clearly no longer wanted. At the end of 2010, Lewis contract was up, had an offer for extension on his table for over a year which he did not accept and now Carson Palmer wanted to be traded and refused to play another down for Cincinnati.

In any other organization, Lewis would have been fired, a new up and coming OC would have been hired and we would have started over. Reports came out in the media that Lewis didn't want to sign the extension unless certain conditions were met. These conditions were control over his coaching staff, more control over the player personnel and access to an indoor practice facility for when the weather got bad since we were the only team north of Mississippi that didn't have one, or something like that. A deal gets worked out, Lewis re-signs for 2 years and then this happens.

2011: No QB, no WRs, one CB (Joseph left) and no OC as Lewis finally was able to fire Bratkowski. That's what the Bengals were looking at. They were projected to finish 0-16 by ESPN and one of the worst teams in the league. What happens? They hire Jay Gruden from the UFL (out of the box thinking), draft AJ Green and Andy Dalton, trade Carson Palmer, sign a deal with University of Cincinnati to use their practice bubble and make the playoffs unbelievably.

2012: Another great draft. More talent brought in. Dalton improves. Green improves. Draft an OG in the first round for the first time ever. Grab Sanu and Jones in the 3rd/5th to add to Green from 2011. Draft Still/Thompson in the 2nd/3rd to add to Geno Atkins and Peko. And draft Iloka in the 5th round to cover a big time issue at SS. Bengals make the playoffs again.

2013: Another good draft. Eifert in the first, Bernard in the 2nd. Hunt in the 2nd to cover when MJ or Dunlap leaves (turned out to be MJ). Williams/Burkhead adding ST value and depth. Hamilton with talent at WR who hits PS and is impressing. Bengals make the playoffs again despite their two best defensive players (Atkins, Hall) having season ending injuries and the defense having 9 guys on IR. Both OC and DC go on to become HC and we promote from within as part of the plan.

2014: Another solid draft with Dennard to add depth to CB core and add young guys to the aging vets, Hill to add some power instead of BJGE behind Bernard, Clarke to become this year's Hunt who learns for a year before contributing. We're following the SF model of drafting guys and letting them learn before asking them to step up because we have good talent in most positions. This is a luxury that we never had until these past few years as we needed the drafted players to fit the Skins model of replacing holes with rookies.

Note: In this time, the Bengals have drafted almost all character guys, there have been very limited arrests if any and all the problem players (Benson, Johnson, TO) have been sent on their way while guys with pasts like Adam Jones or aging vets like Newman, have re-established themselves. The team is tight knit, young and hungry with a mixture of youth, talent and vets. Mike Brown has come out publicly for the first time and said that he no longer runs the team but lets Lewis and Blackburn (his daughter) handle everything. This has been speculated since 2011 that this was happening and he has finally admitted it.

This was a long rebuild. This wasn't just about players, but changing an entire culture of an organization and an owner, something that is incredibly difficult to do, especially when losing was embedded into Cincinnati for so long. I don't believe that any other coach could have done this (well maybe Harbaugh, Belichick but you get the point). Lewis is highly respected throughout the NFL and highly respected within the locker room, especially by an owner who has singlehandedly destroyed the team from the moment he took over in 1990, to the point that not one but two franchise QBs had requested trades. Maybe we're at a point where Lewis has done everything that he can possibly do and we need fresh blood, but I cannot stress how much work it took to get from 2003 with everything that happened to 2013 where we are known as one of the most talented teams in the league, where we have guys like Geno Atkins, AJ Green, Gio Bernard and Vontaze Burfict (who only joined the Bengals because Lewis took the time to really get to know him and fought for him) who set the tone for the offense and defense. This is a young, physical and hungry team and it is being made in Lewis image, which in my opinion, has only started in 2011 when he truly started getting control over the team. The future is bright and I think a playoff win and more is in the cards assuming we stay healthy and Dalton doesn't regress (which from TC, seems like he's getting better again).

[DanteGabriel]

You've got a good point Mex -- no one should discount the headwaters against which Marvin Lewis swam. Getting ownership to agree to some changes, which had long hamstrung his predecessors, he deserves a ton of credit for that. And now that you point it out, they did improve after he did that...

[Mexal]

You've got a good point Mex -- no one should discount the headwaters against which Marvin Lewis swam. Getting ownership to agree to some changes, which had long hamstrung his predecessors, he deserves a ton of credit for that. And now that you point it out, they did improve after he did that...

Yea. Once I wrote it out and really saw the culture change, I became even more impressed with what he has managed to accomplish. As I said above, not sure if he has taken it as far as he can and we need someone new to take us over the hump, but I'm still willing to give him a shot to continue what he worked so hard to get started in 2011. Not all Bengals' fans agree with me and mostly because they have become accustomed to winning and want the ultimate results without thinking back to how far we've come and why those high expectations exist in the first place.

[Kalbear]

Thanks, mexal. That was an excellent post. And it does refute much of my issues.

I guess that I still see a lot of flaws in the day to day decisions and handling that appears to be at least somewhat related to non player issues. It isn't just fumbling luck or bad plays - it's that the team seems to lose a lot of heart in those circumstances, and grasps at straws. Maybe it's not Lewis - but it is decision making and panicking under pressure.

[l2 0 5 5]

I've tended towards the not-quite-enough view on Marvin Lewis as a head coach, but I wonder how different perspective might be on him if not for Kimo von Oelhoffen doing the Bernard Pollard on Carson Palmer's knee in that year the Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl against Seattle.

ETA: Oh Jerry Jones, never change:

http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story/_/id/11295007/dallas-cowboys-include-playoff-tickets-package-season-ticket-holders

As a Steelers fan I can honestly say that probably saved us that game. No fluke though because we went on to beat the Colts in Indy the next week and they were the heavy favorites. We played a near perfect game that day.

[Mexal]

Thanks, mexal. That was an excellent post. And it does refute much of my issues.

I guess that I still see a lot of flaws in the day to day decisions and handling that appears to be at least somewhat related to non player issues. It isn't just fumbling luck or bad plays - it's that the team seems to lose a lot of heart in those circumstances, and grasps at straws. Maybe it's not Lewis - but it is decision making and panicking under pressure.

Yea, I don't disagree there. When the lights are brightest, these players so far have shrunk. I keep hoping the year will come where they break down the barrier and get the monkey off their back. Dalton isn't the first player to lose his first 3 playoff games (see Peyton Manning, Matt Ryan) so I do have hope he can overcome his aversion to the spotlight.

[Rhom]

Now comes news that both Crabtree and Brandon Lloyd will be missing at least two weeks of Niners training camp with injuries... Fantastic.

[l2 0 5 5]

Charlie Casserly on NFL Network just said he thinks the Dolphins are a playoff team. I don't see it.

Some nice players on the D in Wake and Grimes, but nothing that overly scares me.

They're running a new offense this year that Tannehil has to learn which can be tricky. I'm not that sold on him to begin with. Knowshon Moreno (like Decker) was a product of a Peyton Manning offense and won't be nearly as productive in Miami. Wallace is proving to be way overrated, and I don't think they have any depth behind him. Not to mention the huge makeover on the O line, and Pouncey is out for a while. I just don't see how this team could make it to the playoffs.

Thoughts?

[Littlefingers In The Air]

Dolphins? Well, they're not winning the division, but I don't think a 6th seed wild card is out of the question. The only locks are New England, Denver, and Indianapolis. I'd say Cincinnati is a good bet to win the North again.

Dolphins are probably competing with Baltimore, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Kansas City, and New York for those wild card spots. As a betting man, I'd put money on Kansas City and Pittsburgh, but you never know.

[l2 0 5 5]

Dolphins? Well, they're not winning the division, but I don't think a 6th seed wild card is out of the question. The only locks are New England, Denver, and Indianapolis. I'd say Cincinnati is a good bet to win the North again.

Dolphins are probably competing with Baltimore, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Kansas City, and New York for those wild card spots. As a betting man, I'd put money on Kansas City and Pittsburgh, but you never know.

Yeah I can seem them around 8 or 9 wins at most, but not a sure fire bet by any means. I see the wild card spots going to either Cin/Pit, SD/KC. Most competitive divisions in the AFC.

[Week]

That offensive line is a complete mess. I don't see much positive coming from that offense. Knowshon isn't really in the conversation as the starter - he's been nicked up and came into camp heavy. Lamar Miller has another chance to impressively put up unimpressive numbers.

[Jace, Extat]

Casserly has always defended Tannehill. I love the guy's commentary, but he never seems to admit he may have been wrong about something.

[James Arryn]

Now comes news that both Crabtree and Brandon Lloyd will be missing at least two weeks of Niners training camp with injuries... Fantastic.

Glenn Dorsey goes down today. I'm going to stop reading 49ers headlines.

Oh, and on another note, Aldon Smith...who everyone says has been by a mile the most impressive player in camp...is apparently facing a "significant suspension". League sending a message that it won't tolerate certain kinds of behaviour, I guess.