FLASHBACK: Reaction To The Bengals Hiring Mike Zimmer

We were prompted to dig into the way back machine, only to find an old post from January 16, 2008 after the Cincinnati Bengals announced that Mike Zimmer was named as the team's defensive coordinator. My reaction back then was a little lukewarm:

I'm not degrading Mike Zimmer one bit. I think it's a good hire. Why? Because of the available candidates available, the Bengals got the most established that would reasonably be in Cincinnati. No chance of Rex Ryan. No chance of Tim Lewis. No consideration for Donnie Henderson.

Just ignore that. Moving on.

And Zimmer has produced results with the Cowboys taking younger players and establishing them as stars -- pun intended. It's not that I don't believe Zimmer can do it. That invading thought that no matter who the Bengals hire as defensive coordinator, it won't make a difference. But we'll see. We have all off-season to speculate.

Yea. Deflated, irritated and infuriated, encapsulated an attitude that defined the whole "losing culture". Chuck Bresnahan's defense ranked 27, 30 and 28, which has generated Victorian-like stories similar to that of King John. In a sense we didn't react to the hiring as much as we were defeated with the idea that no matter who the Bengals would hire, the defense wasn't just going to get it.

Since then the Bengals have made three playoff appearances with a hard-charging the defense that's ranked inside the the top-seven without once falling outside the top-15.

Anyway, it's always neat going back in time to see how we reacted to something and how things have changed since. Next lesson. Adam Jones.

And no, we didn't have a single comment on that story. It was that long ago.