COMMENTARY: Bengals Offense Is Jay Gruden's Best Yet (The Irony Is Of Course Noted)

One commenter on the site -- though admittedly we're not sure if there's a bit of silly exposition at play here -- argued that "Jay Gruden needs to go". Translation: Fired. Now the core of the community reacted as expected, with a face palm to the exhausted face, shock n' awe'ing an assault against the comment but let's consider a few things first.

Gruden is preparing for the Oakland Raiders this week, only his 28th game plan (including Wild Card game) as an offensive coordinator in the NFL; a stretch of games that Cincinnati has a winning record. But still... his 28th game plan. And during that time A.J. Green and Andy Dalton have been nominated for numerous awards, including Green's AFC Offensive Player of the Month this year, despite both players having virtually no developmental period with Gruden during an empty NFL lockout last offseason.

Currently the Bengals have scored 248 points this year (not all on offense, admittedly), which puts them on pace for 397 points. That's the most a Bengals offense has scored since 2005 (421) and the second-most during Marvin Lewis' tenure. Additionally the Bengals have set a pace to generate 5,644 yards of offense from scrimmage (or 352.8 yards/game). Again. That's the second-most yardage by a Bengals offense during Lewis' ten-year tenure; the 2005 offense generated 5,730 yards.

And through their first ten games this year, the Bengals have scored 30 points three times already; threatening every season for most in the past ten years -- 2010 (3), 2007 (3) 2006 (3), 2005 (6), 2003 (4).

And think of the crew he's doing this with. A.J. Green, a superstar talent that would start for any NFL team in the history of the sport (that might be a little homerish), true. But then you have an inconsistent tight end, a developing quarterback with anxiety tendencies, combined into an offense with a suffocating inferior complex on third downs. You've also had eight different starters at the interior offensive line (not including the tackles) and a middle-of-the-road rushing offense with literally no explosion.

Not bad for an offensive coordinator developing his 28th game plan in his one-plus year of NFL experience as an offensive coordinator.

So let's fire him.