The 2012 draft was a masterclass by the front office

[Shake n Blake]

(08-19-2015, 02:42 PM)djs7685 Wrote: 1. Using 2011 to somehow diminish 2012 doesn't make much sense. Why can't they both be GOOD drafts? They were, not just one of them, they were both very good draft classes. Kirkpatrick, Zeitler, Sanu, Jones, and Iloka coming out of the same draft class is impressive whether we had 10 picks in the first 3 rounds or in the first 7 rounds. I don't see why you're using these weird qualifiers to diminish this draft class. So what if we had 10 picks in the first round alone? The success rate for your average draft pick isn't very high, the fact that we got 2 top 10 (arguably top 5) guys at G and S, along with a solid #2 WR, solid #3 WR, and potential #1 CB is pretty much absurd and unheard of.

2. I watch tons of football around the league, I recognize a lot of those names and even remember when some of them came out of college, so it's not global name recognition I'm looking for. I also NEVER said the drafts that I posted as my examples were bad. I was merely using random team's drafts as examples of what your average draft is going to look like. Some of them were solid, others were very lacking. Even the teams that "draft well" don't have a very high success rate overall, you're bound to miss sometimes. Some of the guys on those lists were starters, but were they good starters? I think you're barking up the wrong tree if you want to insinuate that I need to learn more about other teams. I'm not your average Bengals fan that doesn't pay attention to sports outside of this team, I probably know more about the Raiders than some folks living in Oakland, and they're probably my least favorite team to watch.

1. I'm not using 2011 to diminish 2012. I think they were both good drafts. This thread is about how awesome the 2012 draft was. My point is that I don't see it as much more successful than some of our recent drafts. 2011 was better IMO. Coming out of a draft with 5 solid players is absurd, I agree there, but as I've pointed out, we don't have 9 picks in the first 5 rounds every year.

Counting how many draft picks we had isn't a "weird qualifier" and I have no idea why you'd see it that way. I just prefer to look at that draft with a little perspective. If you give any team that is solid in the draft 9 picks in the top 5 rounds, they're going to come out with a really good haul more often than not. All I'm saying is that the 2012 draft wasn't some epic, franchise changing draft. When you factor in the extra picks, it's about what you'd expect from the Bengals these days. We've improved in the draft.

2. Just looking at the first team you listed, the Lions:

- Ansah is a Dunlap-like player for them with 15.5 sacks in 2 seasons. 
- Slay started all 16 games with 62 tackles and 2 INT's for the 2nd ranked defense. 
- Warford has started 29 games and was named 2nd team all-NFL by PFF in 2013. 
- Devin Taylor has been a rotational player with 30 tackles and 2.5 sacks in 2 seasons. 
- Sam Martin has been among the league's top punters, averaging 46.7 yards/punt in his career. 
- Corey Fuller caught 14 passes for 212 yards last season
- Theo Riddick caught 34 passes for 316 yards and 4 TD's as a pass catching back last year

Every year you'll see multiple teams with drafts as good as the one we had in 2012, and we did it with a boatload of extra picks. That's why I'm saying it was "good" but not an epic home run. I didn't think people would be so appalled by me saying that. I'm complimenting the 2012 draft, I'm just not gushing about it as much as some.