Thursday, August 30, 2001
Colts offer QB model for Bengals
Team took off when Manning was drafted
By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer
For much of the 1990s, the Indianapolis Colts and Bengals took similar approaches toward ending their quarterback struggles.
In the early '90s, both spent first-round picks on quarterbacks, Jeff George and David Klingler. After they fizzled, both teams found relative success in retreads Jim Harbaugh and Jeff Blake.
After limited auditions by other veterans, with the Colts always staying a step or two ahead of the Bengals, both teams returned to the draft. And that's where the paths diverged.
In 1998, the Colts landed their quarterback in the first round. Peyton Manning has started all 48 games of his NFL career and twice led Indianapolis to the playoffs. In 1999, the Bengals drafted Akili Smith with the third overall pick, but after 15 NFL starts, he's now a third-stringer, although a shoulder injury is partly to blame.
The Bengals are still looking for Mr. Right. Jon Kitna, who will get the nod tonight in the preseason finale against the Colts — and who was named the regular-season starter Monday over Scott Mitchell — will be the Bengals' ninth starting quarterback since 1992 when he opens the season Sept. 9.
The Bengals' quarterback merry-go-round has spawned an ineffective pass offense that has ranked in the lower half of the NFL six of the past nine years — including last season, when the Bengals bottomed out at No.31 at 122 yards a game — and contributed to the NFL's longest playoff dry spell.
With instability at quarterback, “You never get the consistency at any position across the board,” said tight end Tony McGee, the senior Bengal on offense with eight years. “After awhile, if you
play with a guy, you develop confidence in each other. I think that's plagued our passing game.”
But Kitna doesn't have the clear mandate afforded Manning, who won't play tonight because of a knee sprain suffered Friday at Minnesota; veteran Mark Rypien will start. Colts coach Jim Mora is saving Manning for the opener. Kitna needs all the work he can get with the first-team offense after the Bengals' five-week quarterback derby split practice time three ways.
“Kitna won it, but by a nose,” Bengals president Mike Brown said. “So it's his now to hang onto. In this life, we're all looking over our shoulder, and he's no exception to that.
“While we don't know for sure that we have an ultimate answer, we know one thing — we're better than we were.”
Mora has the ultimate answer.
“It's difficult to be a good offensive team without a good quarterback,” Mora said. “Every year, you're training a new guy. That's a hard position to train someone new every year.”
Yet that's what the Bengals have done almost annually since drafting Klingler in 1992 to replace Boomer Esiason.
Esiason, Klingler and Jay Schroeder started before Blake gave some stability to the position in late 1994. Blake started every game in 1995 and 1996, going to the Pro Bowl after the '95 season. But he lost the job to Esiason in 1997 and to Neil O'Donnell and Paul Justin the next year, after Esiason retired.
In 1999, Smith's four-week holdout forced Blake to open the season. Smith started four games as a rookie before a toe injury ended his season. He was handed the job in 2000 before losing it to Mitchell. Smith has not practiced for two-plus weeks because of tendinitis in his right shoulder.
Brown, a former Dartmouth quarterback, is almost desperate to find a quarterback. He thought he had one in Klingler and then Smith, but Brown lost patience with Smith barely into Smith's second NFL season.
“I'm of the opinion that you can't win in this league unless your quarterback carries his full weight,” Brown said. “You know you have it when you see it.”
Manning, a two-time Pro Bowler who has passed for more than 12,000 yards in three years, is The Man in Indianapolis.
“I wouldn't trade Peyton for any guy in the league,” Colts owner Jim Irsay said. “Having a franchise quarterback doesn't guarantee you will win the Super Bowl, but not having one makes the task that much more difficult.”
The Colts were within a “Hail Mary” pass of going to the Super Bowl after the 1995 season with Harbaugh at quarterback. With Manning, though, there's no need for prayers.
The Bengals and Colts both suffered through difficult seasons in 1998, each going 3-13. The Colts stuck with Manning through his rookie growing pains and were rewarded with a 13-3 record in 1999 and a 10-6 mark last year.
Meanwhile, the Bengals have changed quarterbacks five times in the past three seasons and are 11-37.
This season, coach Dick LeBeau wants to strike a balance between comfort and results.
“Our players will have to be productive,” he said. “We're not just going to start a pat lineup. I want structure. I do not want our players playing while looking over their shoulder at the coach on the sideline.”
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Colts offer QB model for Bengals
