Bengals Conspiracy Theory: Stealth Tank was ALWAYS the plan

Throughout the Bengals community, there is so much animosity directed towards Mike Brown that it makes me question how much the average Bengals fan really knows about the transition of power that has been happening in the front office for the last couple of years.

"“I’m playing a role, but it’s a lesser role than what I use to do. My family has taken over most of what I use to do. I’m allowed to be around. I’m grateful for. But, others carry the ball much more.”  Mike Brown, 2019 Media Luncheon"

At this point, it’s fair to say that the balance of power has shifted to the younger generation. Paul Brown, Katie, and Troy Blackburn,  and Duke Tobin should now be viewed as the teams’ key decision-makers. This is critical to the theory that tanking was always the goal for this season. The end of the Marvin Lewis era could also be viewed as the end of the Mike Brown lead Bengals, which means that what we are seeing this year is phase one of the younger generation’s greater plans.

Hypothetically, If the Bengals had fired Duke Tobin and brought in someone with the title of GM, then everybody would expect the Bengals to take a year stinking it up to improve their draft stock and get ready to turn over the roster according to the vision of the new general manager. But the Bengals don’t do things in a traditional manner like other teams.

Instead, the Bengals found a head coach in Zac Taylor that is “in lockstep” with Tobin’s vision for this team’s future. This is how The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. described the relationship on his Hear Them Bengals Growlin’ podcast. Dehner Jr. also confirmed for me why he used that specific phrasing.

But if you were a young promising head coach being made to look foolish because management had seemingly failed to provide you with suitable depth, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to be slightly at odds with those decision-makers? Yet, that is not what recent reports suggest. Could it be because…