Content available exclusively for subscribers
This team was in Mobile a couple of years ago.
Talking about the Cincinnati Bengals, who coached in the Senior Bowl in 2020.
So in Mobile, both Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell and Jets coach Robert Saleh were asked about the big leap the Cincinnati Bengals took this year.
From Mobile to the Super Bowl in two years.
For the uninitiated, teams with bad records from the season are asked to coach in the Senior Bowl.
So Saleh and Campbell, who are coaching in the Senior Bowl this year, were asked if the Bengals are an inspiration for their clubs.
“You definitely look at that,” Campbell said. “It’s living proof that it can be done.”
“When you develop within, you draft well, you select the right free agents and you build a culture that you believe in and you stay with continuity and you don’t fall into peer pressure with whatever Cincinnati has had to endure over the last couple of years, you end up reaping the benefits of your patience,” Saleh said.
If, and this is a big if, the key to making the leap the Bengals did, was landing a franchise QB, Joe Burrow, in the 2020 draft.
You can draft good players at cornerback, offensive line, wherever, but if you don’t land an elite QB, it’s hard to make the big jump the Bengals did.
The Lions don’t have an elite QB right now. They have Jared Goff, who the Los Angeles Rams traded to them because they clearly didn’t think he was elite.
The Jets have Zach Wilson, who has potential, but it’s still unclear what the Jets have in him after an up-and-down rookie season. We will find out in the next couple of years what they truly have in his player. Right now, nobody knows for sure.
The Jets tweeted today leading into a video about Wilson – “The start of something special.”
It’s good to have a positive attitude, but nobody knows right now if this is “the start of something special.”
Perhaps it is. Perhaps it is. Nobody knows. It’s a mystery.
You could put some highlights on social media of some impressive passes, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. There were a lot of plays in-between those highlight film throws that could have been better.
Wilson needs to take a big step forward next year if he’s going to get into the Burrow-zone.
He needs to work on his throwing mechanics, his footwork, the efficiency of his progressive scans and the sophistication of his eyes reading coverages.
We will see if he can improve in these areas.
I ran into a former BYU assistant in Mobile and he said Wilson is a very hard worker, and that coach, who helped recruit him, thinks he will take that next step.
But as for the Jets and Lions using the Bengals’ big leap as motivation, there is a big caveat to that theory.
People can talk about drafting well and having patience, but unless you land a top-shelf QB, you aren’t likely to take the quantum leap the Bengals did.
February 4, 2022
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Monday.