09-02-2017, 05:52 PM
(09-02-2017, 05:44 PM)ElkValleyBengal Wrote: You'd probably be very hard pressed to find an impressive list, regardless of team.
And the Bengals knows this. The PR side of it says that they don't use free agency heavily to preserve the Comp picks because they know that fans like their draft picks.
I can't remember a draft where fans on this board weren't excited. Fans tend to think that they got 5 impact starters from every draft. In reality we're lucky to get 1 or 2 starters and that's a 2-3 years from the draft in most cases.
Look at the John Ross hype train. He won't be playing in our 1st 2 games and has yet to catch a pass in a preseason game. He may eventually be a special player, but even with 1st Round picks...they generally don't improve you that much day 1.
The Bengals try to sell fans on the fact that they don't sign starters in free agency because these 5th, 6th, and 7th Round picks are coming in and improving the team. It generally doesn't happen with draft picks.
So you look at it this way...we lost 2 starters in Zeitler and Whitworth and we probably drafted 1 guy who is a starter this year in Mixon. The rest of the guys will be depth guys in rotations...which you need...but we lost more than we gained.
