Bengals’ Struggles Should Come As No Surprise

Remember all those improvements the Cincinnati Bengals made during the offseason, addressing glaring needs? Of course you don’t; it never happened. It was obvious to everyone who follows the team that the Bengals needed a serious upgrade at safety. Reggie Nelson was fine at one of the spots (although he hasn’t played well for the most part this season) but there was no way the Bengals could go into the season with Taylor Mays as the other starting safety. But that’s exactly what they did. When Jim Harbaugh arrived as the San Francisco 49ers head coach in 2011, one of his first orders of business was shipping Mays out for pennies on the dollar. A 2010 second-round pick, the 49ers traded Mays to the Bengals for a seventh rounder. Think about that for a second. Harbaugh knew that Mays would never be a good player in the NFL and was willing to take a seventh round pick for a guy who was a second-rounder the previous year. Also, it was obvious the Bengals needed to add depth at lineb...