Recently former Bengals starting QB Boomer Esiason was questioned about his opinion on the ESPN ranking by the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Paul Daugherty. In the interview he shared a very straight, unbiased opinion on the situation (which to a few fans may sound a little harsh).
"Don’t you think we’d all be surprised if they weren’t ranked last? It’s never going to change. There is no expectation the team is going to win. There never has been. I can’t sugarcoat it."
Esiason isn’t wrong on this, he hit the nail on the head. Very rarely are there any outside expectations on this team, and if when there are any they tend to struggle. But looking at the Mike Brown era, the seasons where there were high expectations for the Bengals were few and far between.
Esisason followed with more insight on why this team struggles on the field. He seems to think Brown doesn’t care to put a consistent winner on the field.
"You can have all the money in the world. You can sock it away in a mattress. But the reason you’re in [the NFL] is because you’re competitive. You want to win. The family has never experienced that."
Again, Esiason is right with his Analysis. The Bengals do not seem to truly want to be competitive. Just look at the Free Agents they sign. How many of them are in their “prime”? How many don’t have criminal backgrounds? It seems year after year, they sign an over the hill player (who was let go from the team he spent his career with) and now he’s the new star Safety.
Esiason feels this too is one of the reasons this team struggles on the field. And why so many fans in a poll may be knocking the Bengals.
"Do they sign legitimate free agents? They get guys looking for a place to land. They got me off the scrap heap. T.O. , Cedric Benson. They’re a team of second chances."
If this pep talk from Boomer doesn’t get you fans excited for the (hopefully) coming NFL season, I don’t know what will. Does this franchise have some serious problems? Yes they do. But does that doom the future of team, before it’s held an official practice with it’s new franchise signal caller and new star WR? That part I can’t believe.
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