Core looking great!

[masterpanthera_t]

(06-01-2017, 06:23 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: I don't understand your line about Core being nothing more than potential.  He played three games, started two, and had a very nice outing in his last game with AJ Green and Tyler Eifert on the sideline.  Malone is the one who is purely potential at this point.  Extremely raw coming out of Tennessee.  If he doesn't show the ability to pick up the offense and improve his route running, he will not make the starting roster.  I honestly think that he will, but remember, he wasn't even taken with their first pick in the 4th round.  Core was a 6th rounder.  Not a huge difference.

In the end, I think there will either be an injury that allows them all to stay, or the Bengals go light in another position group and keep 7 WRs.  If they were to release Core, he would be a Raven overnight.  Or a Brown.  

IIRC, Core got playing time as a receiver in the final couple games of the season after the bengals were eliminated from the playoffs.  He did ok, but I still stand by the statement he's nothing more than potential at the moment.  I've not watched a single minute of tape on Malone, and don't claim to know his game, so I'm not disputing whether he's raw or if he's a better player than Core.  However, I'm going by the grape vine according to Hobson (which of course does come with a lot of fluff) where people within the team believe he's ahead of Marvin Jones at the same time of their respective careers, and the fact that the Bengals claim they had Malone rated higher than the fourth round (again, draft day exaggeration could always be in play).  I've also been saying all along that Malone isn't expected to play much if at all this season, but he's a longer term prospect that they believe can become as good or better than Marvin Jones.  That remains to be seen, but the point is Malone is not getting cut this year barring unforeseen circumstances.  As far as differences between what rounds they were selected, I guess this is not really a major point of contention, so I'd rather not focus on that.

As for your point about Core getting picked up if he's getting cut, well I've said so much in other posts on this thread.  Considering that Cobi Hamilton was picked up by the Steelers to play ST last year, I would be completely not surprised to see something similar within the AFC North with Cody Core.  I've also argued within this thread that we should keep 7,  as I would hate to lose Core after we've developed him from a 6th rounder (I am not sure if the dude would be in the NFL at all if the Bengals didn't draft him in the 6th, but this is my own opinion without any mention of it in any articles, and I leave open the possibility that I am wrong if an article mentions that some other team was planning to take him or inviting him as an undrafted free agent.  I don't say this to diminish Core, but to make the point that we should make sure to keep and benefit from a player that the rest of the NFL may never have paid any attention to and whom we developed into a good player.)   The point is not that I don't think Core is a good player, in fact, I believe he will become a 3rd or 4th receiver for the Bengals with a lot of playing time by next year, but at least based on the roster right now and the WR chart in particular, it's going to come down to whether the team views Erickson or Core as the more valuable player (and also whether the team keeps 6 or 7 WR).  If Erickson were cut, he too would find a team overnight in the AFC North or elsewhere.  The same holds for Malone if he were put on the practice squad.  Having said all that, I hope to be wrong, and Core actually elevates his game to such a level that he takes over as the 2nd WR and pushes LaFell out of the starting lineup.