Your Greatest Concern Player Wise

[ArmyBengal]

I was thinking about many of the position battles that are looming and it made me wonder about what people thought were our biggest concerns.

I'm curious how the safety position is going to shake out with Williams at the SS, but the defense is pretty solid besides that.

I'm curious if Kirkpatrick is going to play to his first round selection ability and get over injuries.

I'm curious about the OLB's on this team.

An area not dicussed much is the interior of the o-line. Zeitler is a stud and there isn't much to discuss there.

The LG and OC positions are still an area of big concern for me.

Does Boling improve ?? Does some take his spot ?? Does Cook or Robinson man the OC spot ??

I was watching a lot of highlights from last year and I was surprised how many times there was a lot of push up the middle of the o-line.

People like to place blame on Dalton (No i'm not saying he's without issue) but there were many times where he couldn't step into throws.

Those times resulted picks and poor passes.

Anyway, maybe having more weapons that AJ Green will help him and give him outlets when his pocket breaks down.

Any thoughts to areas of concern for 2013 ??

[Stripes]

It is difficult not to worry about MLB as long as Rey is listed at the top of the depth chart. Still, last year was definitely his worst as a pro so it might not be unreasonable to expect improvement simply for the sake of returning to his mean. He does seem to struggle with confidence though so my concern is that he'll be conscious of his own struggles and overcompensate to correct them -- leading to a continuation of the issue. That and he just isn't fast enough to cover most skill players consistently. The addition of James Harrison may provide some of the necessary flexibility to make changes later if he sucks (that change probably being a switch with Burfict). I would prefer not to have to do that.

I'm a little concerned about kicker. Nugent has had some very high moments for us when he hasn't been hurt, but there's the rub. I don't necessarily criticize the Bengals for taking him over Josh Brown, because his career has been pretty mediocre despite his contributions for the latter half of 2012. I can't say Nugent leaves me feeling good either though.

Huber better not have one of his dud seasons. He can't seem to decide whether he's terrible or excellent.

[skyline]

Center. Cook and Robinson both seem like they can get by, but I don't think either of them are up to the ability of the rest of the line.

I'm sure MLB will be mentioned regularly as well.

[TJJackson]

C E N T E R

I hope there is another good one in the 2014 draft

[kingwilly]

biggest concern I have is Dalton.

So goes Dalton, so goes this team.

[ArmyBengal]

Yeah, I forgot to mention Rey as well.

At this point in time all we can do is hope it gets better.

We have no other choice.

Then again, what the hell do we know ??

All we do is look at a bunch of dumbass websites.

Rey's headed to the pro bowl...

[Dimster28]

Then again, what the hell do we know ??

All we do is look at a bunch of dumbass websites.

exactly, thats why i have no concerns, because it is not my place to worry about this, it is coaches job to be concern about this stuff. my job is to cheer and enjoy watch games on tv

[ArmyBengal]

You are allowed to have an opinion.

Acknowledging it's from a fan's perspective, what do you think?

Everything is perfect I suppose?

[COB]

By far it's Dalton. I'm very worried he won't make progress. The conventional wisdom is give him more weapons, which they've done. This year is a make or break year for him.

[Sea Ray]

C E N T E R

I hope there is another good one in the 2014 draft

Let's hope this position is truly up for grabs. Robinson played better than Cook last year but I'll accept that Cook never got up to speed. I want to see Cook have to earn his job back this year

[Sea Ray]

Of course the obvious answer is injuries. IMO most NFL teams look good in May. The rosters are stacked full of talent. But how do they look come Labor Day when your #1 pick is out (Kirkpatrick), your speed RB is out(Bernard), your LG is gone for the year (Wharton) and you basically have no center? That changes everything from what we thought we had in May. I could add in some other injuries that we started the year with like Gresham, Rey M and Dunlap but you get the idea.

As a fan, I just want health. We had a sh*t*y summer last year healthwise. We need to do better this year

[membengal]

For me, its Rey and the infatuation this team has with propping him up in the middle.

[GapControl]

yeah it is injuries of course. if i had to pick a spot on the team, it is the middle of the o-line with cook, robinson, and boling the primary suspects. i can`t blame dalton for a so called lack of presence if there isn`t a pocket to first exercise presence in

[HoosierCat]

In no particular order...

Linebacker. Not just Suckaluga, I'm not sold on Harrison either. And our depth at the position is a lot of wishin' hopin' & prayin'.

Safety. Nelson is good but after that? Mays is junk, Williams is raw. Iloka? I would not be at all surprised if they had to go get Crocker off his couch again.

Corner. Kirkpatrick is still an unknown and both Newman and Jones are, by NFL standards, old farts. I think they are OK on paper here but it's a position I could see going south fast if injuries and/or Father Time make an appearance.

Wide receiver. There is still nothing proven after AJ. I think, emphasis on think, they will be OK with Sanu, Jones and Eifert. But we haven't actually seen it work yet.

Offensive line. Whit has been slipping for a couple seasons, Boling was OK but not great and center was a mess last season. They picked up some interesting prospects in the draft but no one who is ready to step in day one.

[Wraith]

Andrew Gregory Dalton

It all comes down to this, can Dalton progress like Brees did and Brady did early in their careers and fix the flaws in his game or does he regress. If Dalton continues to improve this is a Super Bowl team talent-wise IMHO.

[HoosierCat]

I'm still not getting the continued agita over Dalton. He continued to improve last year and there's no reason to think he won't build upon that in 2013. One of the advantages of being a decrepit old man like me is that I remember very well what bad quarterbacks looked like. I watched Klingler and Smith and O'Donnell and Frerotte and all the rest and Dalton doesn't look anything like those guys. What he does look like is a guy trying to win games with an offense built with large amounts of spit and baling wire. Eifert and Gio are a strong step toward fixing that. There are still question marks on the oline and at wide receiver.

[ArmyBengal]

Not trying to be funny, but I still don't think the "Be all, End all" to this team is Dalton.

Is he a very important part of what the Bengals do ?? Of course, i'm not trying to say he isn't.

What I am saying is, I think Dalton is good enough right now to win a Super Bowl.

I keep going back to this, but Trent Dilfer was good enough to win a Super Bowl with the Ravens.

In all of Dilfer's seasons as a starter, he's never thrown for the yards Dalton has in each of his seasons.

Dilfer never had a 27 TD season and he never had a season where he completed 62% of his passes.

Dilfer has also had seasons where he threw far more interceptions than Dalton.

The 2000 Ravens didn't have a top end WR on the roster either.

What did they have ?? A good RB, Jonathan Ogden, and one of the best defenses ever.

The Bengals have a top 10 defense and a bunch of other talent.

Is Dalton a big part of what we do ?? Again, yes. Can we win a Super Bowl with him ?? I think the answer is yes.

Dilfer is a Super Bowl winning QB.

[Wraith]

I agree, I am not sure we could ask for more out from a QB starting his third year out of college. This being said my point was that the rest of the team is pretty damn strong.

If we compare our position groups against the others in our division (not including QB for the moment)

WR: I will absolutely put our WRs ahead of any others in the division. Sanu, Jones, Hamilton, Hawkins, and Green make a much better corp than we rolled out with last year at this time.

RB: No doubt that Ray Rice is the best RB in this division but I really believe Bernard can give us the same flexibility and our "Thunder" back is better than theirs.

FB: Whatever.

TE: No question with the addition of Eifert that we have the strongest TE corp in the division. Eifert, Gresham, and Charles can't get much better than that

OT: Whitworth was injured last year and he says he will be 100% by training camp. If healthy he and Andrezilla are the best Tackle tandem in the division and we have good depth behind them

OG: Yanda is awesome but Zeitler is not far behind and I like our depth better than any in the division

C: This is our weak link but we have three starting caliber Centers on this roster right now, keep the best 2.

DE: Hunt, Dunlap, Gilberry, Geathers, MJ. Best in the division 'nuff said.

DT: Atkins is the best DT in the league and getting better, Peko is still very good and Still and Thompson have gobs of talent.

OLB: Compared to the rest of the division I will take Harrison, Porter, Burfict, and whoever wins the battle between Moch, Maybin, Lamur, and Joiner against anyone else in the division as well (yeah even Pittsburgh)

MLB: Rey and Rey.....yeah not great but Maualuga I believe is better than what he has shown so far.

CB: Again I like Hall, Kirkpatrick, Jones, and Newman as a group better than anyone else in the division if Prater or Ghee can put it together to round it out the better

S: Nelson is a fine safety I still think we may add a position here with either Woodson or Rhodes. Williams, Iloka, Sands and Mays are dripping with talent but nothing has been shown on the NFL level.

K: Very solid

P: Very, Very Solid.

Best squad in the division which gives the Bengals an excellent shot of getting to the SuperBowl it just hinges on the QB play...Is Flacco the Regular Season version (when he was statisticly the third best QB in the division) or the Playoff version where he was a superstar? Can Ben stay healthy? Can Dalton progress, stop staring down receivers, put more zip on his intermediate passes and use the weapons he has been given? Do the Browns even have one? (sorry probably a cheap shot)

[membengal]

Dalton...he's no Klingler.

[redsbengalsbucks]

The only thing that worries me about Dalton is his backup. Dalton will not be the limiting factor on O, it will be the O-line, just like it was last season. Hopefully, they progress and get a little better in pass protection, which will give Dalton more time to hit his new weapons.

The two positions that worry me are MLB and S. Rey needs to prove the doubters wrong, but can he? Nelson is solid at one of the S spots, but can someone else be a reliable S?

If those two spots pan out as average NFL starters, the D will be spectacular and will put alot less pressure on the O to score bundles of points.

I am thinking Army has the model for the year, when he keeps comparing them to the Dilfer lead Ravens. The thing is though, this Bengals O is head and shoulders above what they put on the feild. The question then becomes can the D come close to what that dominate team did?

Even if Dalton holds form from last season, he is good enough. I think many people put the blame on him for the playoff loss last year, when a couple of dropped passes by Gresham could have turned that into a win fairly easy.

I for one am ready to see the product the coaches put on the feild.

WHO-DEY!

[ArmyBengal]

Even with the uncertainty at SS and Rey on the field, this was the #6 overall defense last year.

The defense did not lose the playoff game last year. That one falls more on the offense as a whole than anything.

If the defense stays in the top end range of things and the offense gets both Bernard and Eifert going sooner rather than later, it's on.

The lack of options in both the running and passing game last year were glaring.

Add a healthy Sanu back to the mix ?? Yeah, i'm excited about 2013.

[Walrus]

I feel pretty good about the roster, but have 3 areas of concern. The first two, MLB and C, have been discussed pretty well. Maualuga still has a lot to live up to. I'm not confident he's the guy the coaches seem to believe he is. At Center, while I don't hold too dim a view of Cook/Robinson, I do want to see one guy emerge as a tough, reliable starter. I think either one could be that guy.

My other area of concern is Bernard. We really need a legit threat at RB. I'm hopeful for him, but until I see him out there tearing it up, this will be an area of concern.

Honorable mention goes to the contract extension situations. I want them to get done and NOT to become any kind of distraction. I have no reason to doubt that Mikey will pony up for his own guys because he has a history of being pretty aggressive at getting good players re-signed. But, until it happens, I will continue to fret a bit. Because that's what I do.

[ArmyBengal]

There's reason to fret in my opinion.

While Mikey hasn't had a problem ponying up cash for his own guys, he hasn't had as MANY of his guys coming due at the same time in forever.

I've posed that question many times, but when was the last time the Bengals have had this many higher end guys due ??

MJ, Dunlap, Atkins, Green, Dalton and there are others that are just average that need to be considered.

The Bengals are finally getting to a point where they have the same problems as other playoff teams.

You can't sign everyone. You can't afford everyone. Some good players won't be with the Bengals in the next year or two.

Choices will have to be made.

The difference for me and why I remain confident is how the Bengals have been drafting lately.

They seem to have done a good job at bringing in depth behind their starters.

There are positions they still need to work on, but they are getting there.

[kingwilly]

Even with the uncertainty at SS and Rey on the field, this was the #6 overall defense last year.

The defense did not lose the playoff game last year. That one falls more on the offense as a whole than anything.

If the defense stays in the top end range of things and the offense gets both Bernard and Eifert going sooner rather than later, it's on.

The lack of options in both the running and passing game last year were glaring.

Add a healthy Sanu back to the mix ?? Yeah, i'm excited about 2013.

Agreed, and amen.

This is wh my critical player is Dalton. So goes Dalton, so goes this team.....

[ArmyBengal]

Even with the uncertainty at SS and Rey on the field, this was the #6 overall defense last year.

The defense did not lose the playoff game last year. That one falls more on the offense as a whole than anything.

If the defense stays in the top end range of things and the offense gets both Bernard and Eifert going sooner rather than later, it's on.

The lack of options in both the running and passing game last year were glaring.

Add a healthy Sanu back to the mix ?? Yeah, i'm excited about 2013.

Agreed, and amen.

This is wh my critical player is Dalton. So goes Dalton, so goes this team.....

Right up until Gresham wants to start dropping passes in a playoff game where the plan was built around him.

But I digress...