Player confidence

[Johnny Nix]

As in any job, confidence in yourself and your coworkers can make a world of difference in job performance. When your confidence is lacking, you start to question how and why you do things, or maybe you process things slower because you might be worried about messing up, so you end up messing up. With our oline constantly hearing about how bad they suck or Andy hearing about how AJ McCarron would be better, do you think these things start to take their toll? At the end of the day they are Human beings just like us. Should we as fans be more supportive? Would it make a difference in play if instead of writing constantly about how a certain player sucks or they will never win the big game, we were more optimistic? Or should it all come with the territory of being a professional athlete? I think about the Patriots, about how confident every guy out there is in Tom Brady taking the field. They know they are going to win and play well. They play fast and aggressive. I’ve just noticed the Bengals look like a bunch of guys waiting for something bad to happen or someone to mess up. 

[theJ]

I think it definitely plays a part, yeah. As a very amateur athlete myself, I know I perform better when I'm confident in my ability. 

It's part of why I think it might have better to let an McCarran go for whatever they could have gotten before to get rid of that distraction. 

It's also why I'm not a huge fan of giving no PT to young players. They need that PT in situations they can succeed in if they're to live up to their billing. 

All that said, coaches can do more than fans to build up that confidence. But the fans can do their part by holding back the boo birds when they're not entirely warranted, or just chilling a little bit on their anger in general when there's really nothing to be gained from it. 

[Futbudds]

I’ll second the coaching part J. The locker room has to have zero confidence that Marvin will be back next year and if he is that would be worse for the locker room confidence. I keep going back to Gio’s tweet during free agency. The offense sees Andy and the o line every day (every practice day) and they have to see the road ahead when the two best o linemen leave. It seems like everybody freakin saw that coming except for Marvin, Brownie, and PA.