Twitter Round Up: The Colts & Creeping Nepotism and What Evan Mathis & Bernard Scott Have in Common

Sooooo...we still post here, seriously.  Even though "Friday Ramblings" refers not to last Friday but the Friday before.  I assure you we still care and are working diligently to try to repackage in fresh and creative ways the same shit we always say.  Since our last post, I am sure there is all sorts of breaking news about the Bengals.  For example, I hear we acquired a return guy who scored a touchdown against us last year as our new return guy.  Aw.  That's cute.  It almost makes me care about what else the Bengals may have done.  But, let's be honest, it's all meaningless.

In fact, let me make my Bengals prediction for the year and get it out of the way:  the Bengals will win about 5 games because we have an easy schedule and Zimmer can field a top 15 defense if you gave him only 1 first round draft pick, a bunch of retreads and like 5 homeless guys.

The Bengals will be pretty, pretty, pretty bad this year and will only become extraordinarily interesting (besides geeking out over things like comparing Gruden to Brat or seeing just how good AJ Green may actually be) if Carson comes back and causes all sorts of unprecedented drama.

Let's just move on.

Twitter.  Twitter, I uniquely have discovered, is rad.  You are doing yourself a terrible disservice if you are not on there following interesting people (like, say, Chris Brown @smartfootball).  Think of it as the greatest newsfeed on Earth for whatever interests you, no matter how obscure, creepy, and/or pointless your interests may be and likely are (#porcupinetree).  Seriously though, Twitter is legit, and unlike Facebook, actually becomes cooler when old people and shit use it.  In fact, most people who use Twitter are between the age of 30-49.  Aren't you glad you read WDR?  You are learning so much right now.

The point of all this is that Evan Mathis is on Twitter.  We have written about him extensively so I won't bore you with details...but here are the Cliff Notes.  Mathis graded out among those who watch and study film as a top guard in the NFL when he played with the Bengals.  This, of course, means the Bengals put him behind Nate Livings on the depth chart.  Livings, of course, graded out (and continues to grade out) as one of the worst starting guards in the NFL among those who watch and study film.  The Bengals cut Mathis.  And now he starts...for the Eagles...the NFL team that probably puts the most money, talent, process and effort into evaluating NFL personnel of any front office in the NFL.

\slits wrists

ANYWAY, apparently Mathis was watching a Hard Knocks compilation and saw the scene where friend of the Brown family, former high school AD, high ranking personnel employee in the Bengals "scouting" department, and human-in-troll-form Jim Lippincott cuts JD Runnels at 530 AM in the sort of classy way only the Bengals can lay claim to.  Things get interesting when Mathis tweets to JD "tell the world about the $20 pity check Lippincott wrote you."

To which the only response is...Holy shit.  Really, Bengals?

Well actually, not true, JD Runnels also had a response, it was:  "my 2.5 year old son's handwriting is better than Lippincotts".  BURNNNN, Lippincott.  Runnels just fucked you up.

Should Mathis continue strong play with the Eagles, I will be happy for him, and again pissed at the Bengals.  Worst of all, there's an analogy for Mathis on our team all over again.  Bernard Scott.  It sure seems like those who again, watch and study film (think Pro Football Focus), think Scott is BY FAR the superior back to Benson.  But it sure seems like we are ready to make Benson the workhorse despite this obvious fact.  I don't have a huge problem with Benson, but it seems to me like he should be featured no more, and probably less, than Scott at this point.  I don't know why we don't seem to recognize talent already on our team.  This seems to be more a coaching than Brown family issue.

But we aren't done yet, the Twitterverse had more gems to offer.  In this case, a foreboding outlook for the Colts franchise.  We here at WDR have pointed out that there is a model to follow from family owned and operated teams, the Colts and Steelers for example.  Well, perhaps we need to make that just the Steelers.  The Colts certainly have a big front office staffed with all the types of people and titles you hope to see when you visit your team's personnel department overview on their website.  However, you will also notice the names Irsay and Polian showing up a little more than should give you comfort.

Then you read this summary of Jim Irsay's tweets and you wonder if perhaps their owner may be slowly going off his rocker in full public view.  When all of sudden we're talking about neurological issues with Manning and Irsay is tweeting things like "got 2 code the darkness...prepare u 4 alternative journey" and responding to Colts bloggers directly saying "random or silly tweets,they r not..ur not hearing what I'm saying..riddle n codes r done4a reason,but it's there as a Colt fan", well, then, you should be terrified.

The Colts without Manning look, in a word, putrid.  No single player matters more to any NFL team.  The Colts have certainly made some savvy personnel moves in the past, but they never seem to have truly built a team with any sort of depth around Manning.  They are completely leveraged to Manning and if he's gone they will fall precipitously.  Fans should be worried their small market team, with creeping nepotistic tendancies, and an owner who tweets in bizaree riddles may be headed for a dark, dark place for a long, long time.

Comments

[Kevin Jones]

I was thinking the same thing about Isray. If you want to let your fans know Peyton will miss time just say it, don't go into a cryptic Ultimate Warrior promo.

[leftcoastwhodon't]

This post does nothing to further the ousting of Mike Brown. Stay focused.

[TigerJ@w]

Man, i was waiting for this type of article. This will show MFB what we are made of here!

[JM]

I see one of the major problems with this team making any progress this year being quality depth. One starting offensive tackle injury puts Dennis Roland back on the field. If Hall were injured, who's next? If Maualuga were injured, I guess they would call Dhani. Gresham gets injured, then who? I don't see how Dalton doesn't get hurt, and I'm confident that the defender that inflicts the injury will come through a guy named Livings or Roland. Dunlap seems a bit fragile also.

The secondary is still thin. Injuries happen on all teams. The Packers sustained major setbacks due to injury and won a Superbowl. It seems that when injuries hit the Bengals they aren't prepared to replace the injured player with something close to equivalent. After watching preseason, I would have to say that the steelers will dress 3 quarterbacks that are better than any one of ours.

SWB is probably right about the 5 wins, however one or two injuries to key people will make 5 tough in my opinion.

[Dan R.]

Nice to see you're still alive here. I hate it when you guys go AWOL and I'm left with nothing but Reedy and the rose colored glasses that is Cincy Jungle.

[Wyatt]

I love Cincy Jungle just because they are so ridiculous. Reading the comments there is akin to reading Steelers or Ravens fans on ANY website. It actually balances out the charming doomsayers around here. Of course, I don't take any of Cincy Jungle's opinion pieces serioiusly, but in that respect, it's like reading most of the comments around here.

Of course, this comment does nothing to further the ousting of Mike Brown, so I'd better stay focused.

[TigerJ@w]

So Wyatt, what is your projection in wins for the Mighty Bungles? 6??? 7??? 8??? Yea, I say, 8 will make you really, really, HAPPY along with the SHEEP! Enjoy the Circus!

[Wyatt]

Honestly? I'll be surprised if they win three games. Just because I'm able to pick out positives doesn't mean that I'm blinded to the fact that this team is flat-out awful.

And as for the sheep comparison? Aren't you just as bad, if not worse, because while the sheep blindly love the Bengals and derive enjoyment out of whatever they do, you blindly hate them and are miserable no matter what they do. At least they're blissfully ignorant of the way things are, which allows them to continue to enjoy something that they love. You're willfully ignorant of anything that would make this team even remotely enjoyable, so I ask you again - why are you still a fan?

[guttersnake]

1 - Fan (noun) : an enthusiastic devotee (as of a sport or a performing art) usually as a spectator --- Merriam & Webster Online

2 - "WE, the members of the Who Dey Revolution, IN OUR FERVENT DEDICATION to the Cincinnati Bengals and FANATICAL DESIRE to transform our hometown team into perpetual Super Bowl contenders, call for a popular revolution of FANS to demand comprehensive reform to the managerial decisions and approach of Cincinnati Bengals ownership, management, staff and players..."

Yeeaaaa, I'm with Wyatt on this one. Some of you guys are turning into Tea Party Bengal Fans where if in every post your not frothingly spouting profanities about Mike Brown and the front office then your sheep in tiger stripes. While I agree that bashing the Browns is as intergral to this site as the color orange, there are other levels of the manifesto that we are ignoring - like being diehard fans. If you've lost that, then you need to stop posting here because you're mucking the waters between "fervent dedication" and "fanatical desire" and just being a whiner and a hater. Ripping those of us who want to discuss our teams players critically (that means postives and negatives) doesn't accomplish anything; rather it turns this site into some sad SNL sketch that will only remains funny until the fourth season of same lines reharshed for the eleven-hundredth time.

This site earns credibility by being the historians and think tankers that Mike Brown can't be. Occasionally that means talk about what's going on good... and partly, that is so we can say "I told you so" later. And partly its so we can be fans and enjoy the few rays of sunshine we get.

So to those of you whom this applies to: I GET IT - YOU REALLY HATE MIKE BROWN! News Flash; so does everyone here. So does everyone in Cincinnati. So does everyone on Sports Center. So does more of America that voted for Obama.

Now here is the second peice of breaking news: the season starts in four fucking days against a division rivial that we can beat! Ummmmm... anyone feel like talking about that?

[PaulyOH]

I'm still waiting for Carson to pull his own version of Project Mayhem on Mikey Boy by actually reporting to the team....like on Friday.

[TigerJ@w]

@guttersnake, what Manifesto are you reading? LOL The only one I see to the left only talks about MFB and his CLAN. I think you and Wyatt are on the wrong site. There is gobengals.com and bengals.com that you can venture and divulge partaking in your Kool Aid Talk. I do not recall talking about how this team will be good? The manifesto you speak of is below the paragraph you copy and pasted. LOL MFB is not meeting any of those Demands. BTW, you do not run this site and you are not in a position to tell anyone to post here or not and neither am I. So do us all a favor and take your High Horse elsewhere to where the kool aid trough is awaiting you!

[Wyatt]

TigerJ@w: Nice to see reading comprehension is still not one of your strong suits. The manifesto, in its entirety, begins with "IN THIS TIME of perpetual Cincinnati Bengals incompetence and futility" and ends with "Does this help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl?" EVERYTHING in between those two phrases are a part of the manifesto, including the paragraph guttersnake was referring to.

Also, ironically funny that you call guttersnake out on not being in a position to tell anyone whether or not they can/should post here and yet do the same thing to him twice in the same post.

[guttersnake]

It's like I said, Wyatt; Tea Party Bengals Fans. The old mantra of 'if you don't agree that Mike Brown is the only thing we should talk about, then you and Hob are gay lovers' is just more and more common... and sad because it simplifies the matter.

Here is my challenge to Tiger J@w: Discounting the front office - what are the top three things that the Bengals should have fixed going into the first game that they didn't. Show us you still pay attention to the team enough to actually have an opinion on the roster strong enough to stand up to the fan base of this site.

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