2 hours ago
(3 hours ago)samhain Wrote: It's unfair to the kid to have to come into an environment with the kind of negativity the fan base is currently showing. By all accounts, he seems like a high character guy that knows how to put in work. There's a lot to work with.
Fans should (and in many cases they are) direct their venom toward the front office Duke. It's not a Shemar Stewart problem. It's not an Al Golden problem. It's really not even a Lou Anarumo, Zac Taylor, insert coach's name problem.
It's a Bengals problem. It likely runs all the way to the top, and it's a consistent theme. They just love them some traits. The love traits so much that they will ignore production or lack thereof. Makes them go all weak in the knees every time.
It's like buying a 25k protection dog with the best bloodlines on earth and then chaining it up in the yard for two years. Take it to Petsmart for cheap, generic obedience training, then wonder why it can't do all of the things that other dogs of it's pedigree do regularly.
The family and Duke honestly think they can take a guy like this and squeeze max potential out of him, but a very long history suggests otherwise. The problem spans just about every position group other than quarterback and receiver.
You see teams like Baltimore and Pittsburgh make hay in the mid to late first like clockwork. Lots of DL, safeties, guards, etc. ROH caliber and sometimes HOF caliber guys. DeCastro, Heyward, Watt, Porter Jr, Hamilton, Linderbaum, Madibuike, and on and on and on. This shit matters. It matter when you're paying a star qb top dollar and need to find talent when FA is not a viable option. These are difference makers. Might not be at premium positions, but they impact games every single week.
The Bengals stick to their stupid high-value positions and just can't bring themselves to not look a gift horse like Starks or Harmon in the mouth. You can lie all you want, but we all know that not a single person on this board feels good about how Shemar will compare to those two after three seasons of NFL snaps.
Amen.
It is reaching/risking at a premium position instead of just taking the stud at a lesser position. We tgen compound the problem by taking the lesser positions later, when the studs are gone, and then we get more risks/busts & low impact guys there there, too (Carman, Carter, D. Sample, Volson, etc.).
