John Clayton on the Bengals

[bengal4life]

I don't know if anyone has read this article or not but I thought Clayton did a pretty good job at breaking down the LB position.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...john&id=2096905

check it out.

[d00leyn0ted]

Awesome. I usually can't stand that guy except when he's prodding that other idiot they pit against each other on sportcenter. It's nice to hear people taking positively about the team. Public image carries over to many other areas which is something Marvin has instilled in his players. Look at how Chad talks about promoting himself in the right way has a positive effect on the organization. I agree. PR is invaluable in certain areas. Now if Chris Berman would just kill himself so I don't have to listen to him make stupid third grader comments. He's always made fun of us and I don't care if he changes his tune when we're winning superbowls-he's a dick.

[redsbengalsbucks]

that is a nice write up for our bengals, but i did not like to see a comparision between palmer and mcnair even if it was cursory.

[bengal4life]

I agree I hear all about Palmer and Aikman but never Palmer and McNair. It's a good thing their just analyst and not talking truth. I don't want to ever believe Palmer is as injury pronned as McNair.

excuse me for mispelling pronned but this spell check is a piece of sh*t. :player:

[HairOnFire]

He didn't compare Palmer to McNair. He compared the way their two teams chose to develope the young QB's, allowing both to sit for a season instead of tossing them into the fray in more typical sink-or-swim style. And I'll argue further that Donovan McNabb could also be added to that group despite him getting a smattering of playing time very late in his rookie season. IMHO this speaks to the unusual level of control, stability, and long-term planning that the respective coaching staffs are built upon. Meanwhile, no real comparison of the players mentioned within the article is attempted.

[bengal4life]

I know that is what he was saying Hair, I don't know what I was thinking when writing that. Why would he just throw McNair in there, there has been more than several QB's that sit under the gun for a year before taking control of their offense?

McNair must have been the first QB to come to mind.

[redsbengalsbucks]

thanks bengal4life, glad somebody understands

[Kazkal]

That was the plan for Big Ben till maddox went down

[HairOnFire]

Perhaps it was. I'm guessing Clayton wanted an indisputable example of a proven QB who was developed in exactly the same manner as Palmer. Had he desired it would have been an easy trick to compare Palmer sitting out a season to failed examples of franchise QB's that were developed differently. Examples like Tim Couch, Ryan Leaf, or our boy Akili. But documenting examples of failure wouldn't make the writers point about the Bengals coaching staff being given far more control than you usually see.

And on that point I think the Jeff Fisher/Marvin Lewis comparison is pretty good even if Fisher wasn't mentioned by name in the article. Marvin Lewis, like Jeff Fisher and Andy Reid, was immediately given a tremendous amount of control and power. Some would even say it was a surprising amount of control. Regardless, the Bengal example is in stark contrast to other examples of unproven coaching staffs who gained those things only after several years of success. And again, it was that increased level of control that produced greater stability than normal, allowing the new coaching staff to plan for the long-term success instead of a short-term flash.

[CBin2k7]

Why so much hate on McNair. He lead his team to the Super Bowl, numerous playoff apperances. He was co-MVP two seasons ago. He has played well through numerous injuries. He has torched the Bengals. If Carson turns out to be what McNair is the Bengals will be something special.

But I agree that is not what the comparison is.