Phillips, Hopkins, Tate , Johnson

[*ochocincos*]

(12-30-2019, 12:43 PM)impactplaya Wrote: At the close of the 2019 season  there were some players made great Strides and the 4 I named IMO have made the biggest.
The curious thing is that....all 4 of these players
Are not high or even mid round draft picks.
Let's look at their short resumes

Phillips. 4 INT in less than 100 snaps. Given a high grade
By PFF.

Hopkins..just got a extension. Enough said

Tate. 40 catches. Very reliable 1st down target

Johnson..stout In pass protection in his 2 games
Bengals scored 68 points in the 2 games he played. Definetely a lock on the roster next season.

The thing is. Some of these guys are out playing
1st RD draft picks.
That's a bad and good thing.
Explain to me why these non 1st Rd draft picks
Are escalated their games ?
While others are regressing.
I'm not a fan of Tobin and the scouts
But props for finding them gems
Who can be potential core players ahead

This depends which 1st rounders you are referring.
Tate started coming along while John Ross was on IR, so that's how that came to be.
Fred Johnson took over at LT because the only healthy LT is disgruntled and the 1st round draft pick wasn't able to play.
Price just flat out got beat out by Hopkins, who has gone from UDFA to practice squad to not good starting RG to quality C. He's really worked his way up.
Phillips doing well isn't really an indictment on the 1st round CBs the Bengals have because WJ3 has been solid and Dennard too. Kirkpatrick being out has given Phillips more opportunities. What I would look to do in the offseason is move Kirkpatrick to another team and retain Dennard so that the starting CBs are WJ3, Dennard, and Phillips.