02-18-2020, 01:17 PM
(02-17-2020, 03:54 PM)ochocincos Wrote: As much as I've traditionally agreed that someone being drafted in 1st round should be good enough to start in Year 1, this doesn't seem to be a priority with the Bengals.
They look to get a guy with big potential and fill with mid-tier vets to start until that draft pick is ready to take over.
As such, the Bengals very rarely ever go into a season where they feel they HAVE to start a rookie. The only times where I can recall it being an absolute necessity were Dalton, Bodine, and Price.
We needed Jonah Williams last season.
We needed Billy Price in 2018.
We needed someone in 2017. Went 7-9 and had the 26th ranked offense.
We certainly could've used William Jackson (or someone else) in 2016.
Ogbuehi probably wasn't a bad idea in 2015, considering Whit's age and we didn't have many big weaknesses.
Newman = see Ogbuehi. Newman was ancient and we had a good team. It certainly wouldn't have hurt to have someone contributing though.
Eifert started every game in 2013, and I'd say it was necessary. The 2 TE concept was a huge part of the offense that year, and we jumped from 22nd in yards (2012) to 10th.
We needed Zeitler in 2012 and I'll excuse redshirting DreKirk, even though we had several needs.
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Overall, this team just needs their top picks to contribute more than other teams due to our "no free agency" stance. I think you're looking at it from a perspective of "have we needed the players we drafted", which to me isn't really the point. For example, we didn't "need" John Ross, but I'm sure that awful team could've used someone.
When we were a playoff team, we didn't particularly need anything, but a dynamic rookie could've contributed or been an x-factor, ala Chris Perry in 2005.
The training, nutrition, medicine, fitness, playbooks and rules evolve. The athlete does not.
