11-27-2019, 10:53 PM
(11-27-2019, 07:18 PM)Nately120 Wrote: All I'm saying is in the past 2 drafts we watched the Lions take Ragnow and then we just took "the other center" and we watched the Steelers move up and take Bush and we took another lineman so here we are with a bust C and an IR-ed lineman. Maybe everything is fine, maybe we just got screwed, who knows.
I'm not even using hindsight so much as I'm saying it seems like we get caught with our proverbial pants down in the 1st round a lot lately.
2019 Lap said day before the draft that they'd take Jonah if he was still there. Jonah wasn't talked about more because they thought it likely he was gone by then.
2018 the issue was evaluation. There were two Centers with 1st round grades (Ragnow and Daniels) and we took one with a second round grade (I know some had him higher but you can't convince me that a Center has a first round grade if nobody thinks he's got all-pro potential) - it may just be coincidental that he happened to play for Ohio State and would therefore sell season tickets.
The other thing to consider is if you have a player ranked the 11th best in the draft, where should you pick them? Should you trade up to take them at 8 to stop someone jumping in front of you? If you are picking at 11 should you be "targeting" the 11th best pick and saying they're going to be the one or should you be coveting a player you've got ranked at 6-8 to fall to you? If the players ranked 6-8 are all off the board by the time you pick at 11 have your pants been pulled down? Or should you be coveting the 11th best player and then leave a player ranked 6-8 on the board?
The Steelers also jumped in front of the Bengals in the third round in 2018 for Mason Rudolph. Should the Bengals have jumped ahead to prevent that?
The Bengals haven't had their pants pulled down in the draft. They've had them pulled down in FA which has left them with too many needs rather than allowing them to draft BPA. The Billy Price fiasco doesn't happen if the Bengals had signed a viable FA C. If they'd signed a FA C that wouldn't have prevented them drafting Ragnow if he was available - he could have played G for a year. Instead they were forced into reaching instead of waiting for a C to fall to them.
For next year's draft the roster seems to have even more holes than ever. QB, LG, RT, LBx2 - and that's assuming FAs they want to keep like AJ, and Trey Hopkins are re-signed (and where do Dennard, Eifert etc stand?), before cap casualties/coaching scheme casualties (Kirkpatrick? Dunlap?) and general upgrading of depth. They may sign a few FAs but it's hard to see all those positions being adequately addressed so they can genuinely pick BPA.
