Why bring a Bengals fan is hard: A thread

This is only highlighting things from the Dalton era and onwards.

We had to deal with this all offseason

AJ Green’s injury history has limited one of the best WRs of the 2010s and made him one of those forgotten superstars

In 2019, the Bengals went 2-14. That’s the worst record they’ve had in a season since 2002. Their 0-11 start matched the worst start in franchise history as well.

The Bengals have not beaten the Pittsburgh Steelers since week 8 of 2015. Since then, the Bengals have endured many painful losses to Pittsburgh, including the 2015 wildcard game, 2017’s Monday Night game, and 2018’s week 6 game. They lost those games by 2, 3, and 8 respectively.

Our last first round pick that didn’t miss significant time (6+ games) in their rookie year was Darqueze Dennard. That means we’ve had 5 straight first round picks who’ve had injury issues as rookies.

In 2018, the Bengals traded down from pick 12 to 21 and acquired LT Cordy Glenn in the deal. At 21, we took Billy Price over players such as Rashaan Evans, Isiah Wynn, and most notably, Lamar Jackson.

Glenn only played in 19 games as a Bengal and Price doesn’t even start for us.

In 2017, the Bengals had pick 9 in the draft. They selected John Ross. At pick ten, Kansas City moved up to select Patrick Mahomes.

Mahomes has a league MVP, a Super Bowl championship, and a Super Bowl MVP, while Ross has only played in 50% of games he’s been eligible for. Sad.

In the 2015 draft, the Bengals had 9 picks. Only 1 of those 9 players are still on the Bengals today (CJ Uzomah).

The other 8 players were OT Cedric Ogbuehi, OT Jake Fisher, TE Tyler Kroft, LB Paul Dawson, DB Josh Shaw, IDL Marcus Hardison, DB Derron Smith, and WR Mario Alford.

From 2011-15, the Bengals made the playoffs 5 times. They proceeded to lose every one of those playoff games.

Andy Dalton had some of his worst games in the postseason. His playoff stats are below.

In 2015, the Bengals started 8-0. They proceeded to lose 2 straight primetime games to Houston and Arizona. After that, they got back on track, only to lose QB Andy Dalton in a week 14 loss to Pittsburgh. Dalton was in the middle of his best season yet, and he gets hurt.

2015 continued:

Two weeks later, AJ McCarron just needed to go into Denver on MNF and beat a Broncos team that was starting Brock Osweiler at QB. A win would’ve given the Bengals the top seed in the AFC playoffs. They proceed to lose 20-17 in overtime and have to be the 3 seed.

2015 continued:

The Bengals would’ve played the Jets in the AFC playoffs if it wasn’t for Ryan Fitzpatrick forgetting how to play QB and Pittsburgh beating the Browns. The Bengals now have to host Pittsburgh in the playoffs.

In that wildcard game against Pittsburgh, the Steelers nearly blew a 15-0 lead. After an interception from Vontaze Burfict, the game seemed like it was over, and it looked like the drought was done. Then this happens...

After that loss, the Bengals had some tough decisions to make. They decided to re sign George Iloka and Adam Jones over Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu.

In 2016, the Bengals went from a 12-4 team that easily could’ve been 14-2 to a 6-9-1 team.

In the 2017 offseason, the Bengals let two star offensive linemen (Andrew Whitworth and Kevin Zeitler) leave in free agency. The Bengals OL never truly recovered from this.
In 2017, the Bengals went 7-9 and gave HC Marvin Lewis a 2 year extension. After a 6-10 2018, he was fired.

To replace Marvin, the Bengals hired Zac Taylor. This hire led to a very rushed staff hiring process and lack of true scouting. This led to Drew Sample being the 52nd pick over guys like Juan Thornhill and DK Metcalf.

That’s the thread, I hope y’all like it.