La Canfora: Marvin Lewis "Very, Very Unlikely" To Return; Carson Palmer Could Be Gone After This Season

position: o-line

in the past when someone on the bengals line got expensive because of their abilities, they were not retained when the contract came up, nor was an adequate replacement drafted.

I agree that offensive line is a need we have to keep addressing. But with your example, the only person that it really applied to was Eric Steinbach. Levi Jones and Willie Anderson were released — after getting ridiculous amounts of money 2-3 years prior and now both are out of football.

We didn’t re-sign Stacy Andrews — and no one really cared — and Eric Ghiaciuc was released, as was Scott Kooistra. The issue isn’t so much we didn’t retain guys; it’s that we haven’t really looked at upgrading the position beyond undrafted free agents with the lone exception of Andre Smith, who could be argued as being a gaff by the front office (though he started to really come around before his injury this year).

the bengals lack any successful o-line draft pick in the first 3 rounds for how long? the bengals line is a patchwork of low round draft picks and non drafted players.

True. But it could be argued that the reason for that is that other areas of the team needed to be badly addressed. Sure, you could look back now and note that some of these guys we drafted as needs didn’t work out. But at the time, we drafted them because they were a need.

the bengals choose to go without a true blocking fb in 2010. in 2009 the bengals rish the ball for 2056 yards for 9 TDs while averaging 4.1 yards per rush.in 2010 the bengals have 1012 yards with 4 tds while averaging 3.7 yards per rush.

The Bengals didn’t bank on Vakapuna injuring his shoulder either. And in 2009, Reggie Kelly was used as a fullback as much as Jeremi Johnson was. Yet, I totally agree. We HAVE to upgrade the position for next season. I’ve argued that they haven’t taken the position seriously for the past three seasons.

perhaps these 3 points might show why some fans believe the GM could be responsible for the issues ailing the 2010 running game in cincy.

That’s assuming that the front office gives the GM full control and he’s not just a face that Mike Brown throws out there just to appease fans. A GM would be great, or at least a football guy managing everything related to the field. But I fear that Brown isn’t the type of person to easily relinquish control.

was the part about blowing up the franchise and starting a rebuilding phase. people wanting to point fingers about what went wrong with the last 19 years of rebuilding etc.

i imagine the outcries will get a little louder as hall and jo-jo are allowed to leave in 2011 and 2012.