Sick this morning

[HoosierCat]

Wow...Lippy gone, ticket prices being slashed, tell me the times aren't a-changin'.

Props to Brown for (belatedly) getting smart about marketing the team.

[derekshank]

Wow...Lippy gone, ticket prices being slashed, tell me the times aren't a-changin'.

Props to Brown for (belatedly) getting smart about marketing the team.

So... how about a quick recap of the last several months.

Fires Bob Bratkowski

Hires Jay Gruden

Drafts AJ Green and Andy Dalton.

Ships Ochocinco out of town.

Extends Andrew Whitworth and Leon Hall.

Trades Carson Palmer for a king's ransom.

Offers BOGO, costing him $200,000+ out of his own pocket.

Lowers ticket pricing for 2012.

Man... I hate that guy.

[HoosierCat]

Wow...Lippy gone, ticket prices being slashed, tell me the times aren't a-changin'.

Props to Brown for (belatedly) getting smart about marketing the team.

So... how about a quick recap of the last several months.

Fires Bob Bratkowski

Hires Jay Gruden

Drafts AJ Green and Andy Dalton.

Ships Ochocinco out of town.

Extends Andrew Whitworth and Leon Hall.

Trades Carson Palmer for a king's ransom.

Offers BOGO, costing him $200,000+ out of his own pocket.

Lowers ticket pricing for 2012.

Man... I hate that guy.

Funny, I was just outlining exactly all of that for a post tomorrow on CJ.

[HoosierCat]

And with a last-minute nomination for D*ckhead Sports Commentator of the Year: Mike Florio! The Bengals just announced they are cutting prices on 14,000 season tickets by up to 33%, and what is Muckraker Mike's headline?

Bengals Won't Increase Season Ticket Prices for 2012

F**K YOU, FLORIO!

[COB]

Wow...Lippy gone, ticket prices being slashed, tell me the times aren't a-changin'.

Props to Brown for (belatedly) getting smart about marketing the team.

So... how about a quick recap of the last several months.

Fires Bob Bratkowski

Hires Jay Gruden

Drafts AJ Green and Andy Dalton.

Ships Ochocinco out of town.

Extends Andrew Whitworth and Leon Hall.

Trades Carson Palmer for a king's ransom.

Offers BOGO, costing him $200,000+ out of his own pocket.

Lowers ticket pricing for 2012.

Man... I hate that guy.

Funny, I was just outlining exactly all of that for a post tomorrow on CJ.

In addition, we've all seen complaints, recent and not so recent, that state the scouting department is not big enough. Thus the coaches have to do a lot of scouting and have, it is presumed, an outsized input regarding who gets drafted and what free agents get signed.

Any reasonable analysis of the last several drafts and free agent signings can come to only one conlusion: The Bengals' scouting and drafting methods are working.

Think of recent draft picks like Dunlap, Green, Dalton, Atkins, Gresham, Maulaluga. They just aren't whiffing on these high picks like they once did. And free agents? Howard and Lawson signed as free agents have worked well. In my opinion Howard is a better WLB than Rivers, he's a real find.

Just guessing, but our coaches have been looking at players for a long time. They appear to know what they're looking for, and they're finding it. Maybe forcing your coaches to be heavily involved in scouting is working.

In addition, Brown's odd loyalty works in developing late round picks. Instead of just churning, hoping to hit a home run, the Benals are willing to stick with guys like Rucker and Fanene, and in about 5 short years you have a decent part-time player. I'm being glib, but it's really true. Guys like that don't grow on trees. Teams often just run another version of the same guy in and out at the bottom of their roster, and they don't improve that spot.