Dehner on Bengals Offseason Debates

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Jmble
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Dehner on Bengals Offseason Debates

Post by Jmble » Thu Oct 28, 2021 4:22 pm

Just a good column from Paul Dehner at The Athletic regarding the offseason debates
Dehner Jr.: Bengals landed on right side of every offseason debate to bust open playoff window

The opportunity for victory laps inside Paul Brown Stadium is not in short supply these days as the national media reconnects with this franchise for the first time since they stopped calling on them to be disbanded for drafting Ja’Marr Chase and calling Cincinnati a quarterback wasteland.

As the Bengals have set themselves up not just to be in the thick of the AFC championship discussion this year, but also into the foreseeable future at the front of their rookie quarterback contract window, it’s important to pinpoint the decisions the front office made despite large swaths of folks — occasionally myself included — criticizing during this past offseason.

The Bengals have been proven correct across the board on the most fiercely debated decisions. Often overwhelmingly so. This goes well beyond Chase versus Penei Sewell.

There are six major decisions that have accelerated the advanced timeline and arrival of the Bengals out of the rebuild and into relevancy.

1. Patience with Zac Taylor and Lou Anarumo
Admit it, at one time or another you tweeted or posted on Facebook or just screamed into the universe to fire both of these guys. It’s OK, you can be honest here.

Owner Mike Brown and the Bengals front office, defined by patience and continuity over the years, leaned on their most valued characteristic once more. Rather than hitting the reset button after two abysmal years, they took a more nuanced view in assessing the situation. Accounting for injuries, another roster turnover and the incremental culture progress were the reasons to stay the course.

How many teams in the league would have bailed on one or both? I’ll answer because we’ve seen it happen: most.

Yet, defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo and head coach Zac Taylor are paying off the patience in spades. Through seven games, Anarumo conducts the best defense seen in Cincinnati since Mike Zimmer departed for Minnesota, ranking in the top five in both Football Outsiders DVOA and points allowed per drive.

Continuity with the coordinator and system, plus understanding exactly what they were missing in this system from a personnel standpoint, made all the difference. That was made possible by Taylor and the front office not giving up on the vision despite the disappointments.

Brown stood by Taylor but didn’t mince words prior to the start of the year. Taylor had to prove himself with wins immediately. They believed in him, the offseason, the vision and the culture, but promises had run out.

“We have to win more,” Brown said in July.

In October, they are doing just that and are set up to do so for a long time in large part because they didn’t give in to public pressure to fire everyone.

2. Chase over Sewell
While the debate must be acknowledged in this story, it hardly feels worth providing further detail. Going for Chase over Sewell was viewed as a philosophical shift in how the modern offense is assembled and also one without a totally wrong answer. There was merely an answer that fit better for the Bengals.

As I dissected and reported in May, it wasn’t easy.

Betting on Chase, his connection with quarterback Joe Burrow and the ability to hit the Bengals offense in the exact way necessary to unlock everyone was their argument.

There is no more arguing. Merely those on Team Sewell, who called for the Bengals to be kicked out of the league if they didn’t take the offensive linemen, admitting defeat.

3. Franchise tag or re-sign William Jackson III or Carl Lawson
The decision to use the franchise tag was hotly debated for weeks. The Bengals eventually opted not to use it, meaning they wouldn’t be bringing back either edge rusher Carl Lawson or cornerback William Jackson III for one more season.

There was blowback, most of it regarding Lawson. When they passed on bringing back Lawson and instead paid New Orleans edge Trey Hendrickson, the critics took shots. People pointed to how many of Hendrickson’s sacks during his breakout in New Orleans came by virtue of pressure from his teammates. Critics argued his 13.5 sacks were the product of circumstance rather than a true coming of age. The Bengals personnel staff didn’t buy it.

Nobody is taking those shots now. Hendrickson instantly became the driving force behind the Bengals’ revitalized pass rush. He ranks in the top six among all edge rushers in pass-rush productivity, win percentage, pressures and sacks, according to Pro Football Focus. It’s unfortunate Lawson went down with a season-ending injury in New York this preseason. But the Hendrickson decision has been undeniably the correct move, and his energy in games and practices is a distinctive characteristic of the overachieving defense.

Jessie Bates joked last week about “Blackout Trey” because he figuratively blacks out when playing football and talks all kinds of trash in the process. The attitude plays perfectly along with the rest of a defense feeding off the no-name aspect to its rise.

As for Jackson, PFF graded the 2016 Bengals’ first-round pick 120 out of 132 qualifying cornerbacks in coverage grade this season. The Washington defense has been one of the biggest disappointments in all of the NFL. The Bengals essentially signed Chidobe Awuzie and Mike Hilton for the same cost as Jackson.

Awuzie has been a revelation and ranks second on that same list of cornerback coverage qualifiers. He’s playing like one of the best corners in the NFL. Hilton brought his loaf chart, an attitude of accountability and physicality off the edge from the slot position over from Pittsburgh. Even Eli Apple, who brought an understandable amount of skepticism upon signing as a depth piece, has settled in as a solid secondary piece.

The Bengals have tried to fix the defense with free agency and trades over the course of the past two years by adding D.J. Reader, Trae Waynes, Larry Ogunjobi, B.J. Hill and Vonn Bell. The idea of using the available cap space on defense last year wasn’t just debated, it was trashed when originally reported. In retrospect, it’s hard to imagine where this team would be had it gone any other way.

4. Gamble on linebacker development
The Bengals were supposed to be looking at veteran linebackers. They couldn’t possibly go forward just with the underperformance of Germaine Pratt, Akeem Davis-Gaither and the hope that Logan Wilson would ascend in a larger role.

The Bengals pointed to all the injuries on the defensive line as a bigger reason you didn’t see better play from the linebackers. They felt it would be unfair to bring in replacements or veterans to push players they still believed in.

Now, here we are with Logan Wilson emerging as one of the best young linebackers in football, having already picked off six passes in his first 19 games. Davis-Gaither progressed to an expanded role and a significant jump in level of play. Pratt hasn’t been perfect, but did force the game-deciding fumble in the opener against Minnesota and is fourth on the team in stops with only three missed tackles.

The Bengals have bet on linebacker development before, only for it to blow up in their face, but this group has made good on the faith.

5. Buying into Quinton Spain/Riley Reiff instead of Joe Thuney
How many times did Joe Thuney’s name get uttered on Cincinnati sports radio during the three-week period leading up to free agency? Dozens? Hundreds?

The idea of paying top dollar for the guard from the Patriots to help solve all the protection problems was offered as the clear solution and one the Bengals would be dumb to not pursue.

When Cincinnati wasn’t willing to even enter the conversation for Thuney when he eventually signed for five years and $80 million, the thought was here we go again.

The Bengals instead saw reason to believe in Spain. They’d seen enough of his personality and potential during the half-season he joined the team to think he could be an answer to help solidify the interior when given a full camp and preseason to take on the starting role.

Seven games into the season, Spain leads all guards in the NFL in pass-blocking efficiency having allowed just four pressures in 249 pass-blocking snaps. Overall, Spain grades out as the 13th-best guard by PFF, and Thuney allowed nine pressures and is ranked 20th for Kansas City.

Plus, Spain played a major role in bringing along second-round draft pick Jackson Carman after the rookie showed up overweight to training camp and played a role in the growth of chemistry among the offensive linemen, pushing his linemates to start hanging out more to build trust.

He’s been motivated, productive and an integral part of the line solidifying.

Spain is making the veteran minimum of $1 million on a one-year prove-it deal.

Meanwhile, a steadying veteran like Riley Reiff landing in Cincinnati was an obvious move in replacing Bobby Hart. His veteran presence has improved the professionalism and served as the perfect example of how to play the position. He’s not a superstar but the Bengals weren’t pinpointing stars, they were pinpointing reliability. Few have provided that as much as Reiff.

6 Drafting Evan McPherson
How can you draft a kicker? And in the fifth round?

Those questions were asked loudly in the days after the draft.

Yet, special-teams coordinator Darrin Simmons saw something unique in Evan McPherson and argued for the Bengals to select him over other options available with the 149th overall pick.

He believed the kicker would end up winning more games for them than any position player would at that point in the draft.

Seven games in, McPherson has hit two game-winners and converted 3 of 4 attempts from 50-plus. He was nearly perfect throughout camp and preseason. Outside of the gust of wind over the south bank of Paul Brown Stadium against the Packers ruining an early celebration, he’s instantly upped the confidence level in scoring points the moment the ball crosses midfield.

Nobody is bemoaning not taking running back Kenneth Gainwell or any of the other prospects available at that point. And the Bengals ended up hitting a running back home run in the sixth round anyway when they landed late-round steal Chris Evans.

All of these moves accelerated the Bengals’ timeline to contend. For a team that almost never participates in free agency, the Bengals have performed nearly flawlessly there the past two seasons. Add in back-to-back draft classes headed by Offensive Rookie of the Year candidates (Burrow would have landed at least in the top two had he stayed healthy in 2020) covered with mid-to-late round steals, and you have cornerstone draft classes stacked together to form the future. You can see the building blocks of these draft classes in the same way you saw the 2010-11 classes blast open the window to the five consecutive playoff appearances.

Each deft move put in place a roster built for the long haul with the franchise quarterback at the helm of a group that will grow together over the next few years. Nearly the entire defense will be under contract in 2022. The only free agents or potential departures are Trae Waynes (salary dump) and Larry Ogunjobi. It’s hard to imagine the Bengals not making a run to keep Ogunjobi. Plus, they will add a healthy Joseph Ossai back to the mix.

Offensively, Burrow, Joe Mixon, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd, Chase and Jonah Williams are all locked in through at least 2023.

As great as the flashes of 2005 and 2015 were as the team’s best seasons of this century, neither owned the sustainability of this group. There were character concerns (2005) and limited quarterback play (2015) that hovered over the long run. It’s hard to see those asterisks on this latest group.

That’s all due to a front office that somehow played a series of challenging decisions to perfection.

There’s a long way to go in this season. A fall from grace is always one snap away in the NFL, but the Bengals front office is watching a series of ideal offseasons blow the playoff window wide open before almost anyone imagined.

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Bengals1
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Re: Dehner on Bengals Offseason Debates

Post by Bengals1 » Thu Oct 28, 2021 7:15 pm

There’s a long way to go in this season. A fall from grace is always one snap away in the NFL,.....
Yeah.....considering how fragile this franchise has been almost since its inception I'd wait a bit before declaring victory on all these points.... 8-)
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orange_black
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Re: Dehner on Bengals Offseason Debates

Post by orange_black » Fri Oct 29, 2021 9:11 pm

I'm still not sold on Zac taylor
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Joe Bananas
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Re: Dehner on Bengals Offseason Debates

Post by Joe Bananas » Fri Oct 29, 2021 9:28 pm

orange_black wrote:
Fri Oct 29, 2021 9:11 pm
I'm still not sold on Zac taylor
Same. I think we have won 2 or 3 games on Burrows intuition, talent, football peerless, and just the overall mindset of and for the game. The defense has been great imo. Wish they would create more turnovers though.

And I agree with B1 as well. It was 1 game. Are we that good or was the Rats off kilter a bit that day. Did they overlook us? Serious question there.

But I'm happy. I wanna stay happy. It's been a great week. Sunday was awesome! Monday was great.

I do believe if this team stays healthy we can make a goooooood run!
I was crazy back when being crazy really meant something.

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