I would have take Harmon too.  He is a big disrupter in the middle of the defensive line which is exactly what the Bengals defense needed.  He led the NCAA in pressures at 55.  The next closest DT was 12 behind.  Nolen had 35 pressures for comparison although did have 6.5 sacks to Harmon's 5.  Instead of taking Harmon we let Pittsburgh take him 4 spots after us.   All we can do now is hope Harmon is a flop and Stewart lives up to his hype.  Stewart is a Bengal now so he gets my support even though he is not who I would have picked.  Also, in the 2nd round I would have taken Ratledge over Knight.  Knight was projected as a later round pick and protecting Burrow would have been one of the top priorities with one of the top guards still available in the 2nd.

(Yesterday, 04:31 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: I would have taken Harmon.

Harmon and Ratledge in the first two rounds would have completely changed this draft for me.

(Yesterday, 04:39 PM)bfine32 Wrote: IDK if I would have taken any listed over Stew but Barron. Harmon. Pearce, Campbell, or even Starks would not have made me mad.

(Yesterday, 04:55 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: I probably would have panicked and picked Donovan Jackson because I really wanted Booker and there were 4 OL off the board already.
But we ended up landing Fairchild and Rivers anyways and I feel great about it. Plus we now have Myles Garrett v2.0

(Yesterday, 05:03 PM)Clark W Griswold Wrote: I would not have minded Starks or Campbell (or even Emannwori) at 17.

I would rather have Stewart over Pearce and I did not want them to use another early pick on a CB.  Time will tell if I was right or wrong.

(Yesterday, 08:05 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: Harmon and Ratledge and this draft would've been a A from me. Harmon is perhaps a little similar to Stewart having high missed tackles but being a good chaos creator. I just would've liked that coming from the DT position and not allowing QBs to step up. Plus the DE value was good late and looked as though it would be that way pre draft. 

(Yesterday, 08:11 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: I did like Harmon and Jihad Campbell. But I would've taken just about any of the olineman. I especially liked Simmons because even with the risk of the knee he could play guard and was potentially the best tackle in the draft. Those guys aren't found at pick 17 very often and could of set us up for the next decade.

17 was a tough position, especially with Graham and Nolen gone. Harmon is the only other player I could see as addressing a need. I felt Campbell, Starks and Pearce would have been a reach. 

Last year we got lucky with with the RT - albeit; it was a gamble based on the low number of college starts for him. Stewart does seem like a gamble based on low sack production. Hoping this works as well.  

I’m pretty sure I heard this on Ken Broo sports talk on 700 this morning. I forget the name of the draft guy he was interviewing. The gist was not getting overly hung up on the sack totals. Stewart’s disruptions lead to sacks, hits, fumbles etc for his teammates.

No one knows what he will be, but he will at some point be playing opposite one of the nfls best sack artists and perhaps he can benefit from what Trey causes on the opposite side.

(Yesterday, 10:36 PM)BenZoo2 Wrote: I’m pretty sure I heard this on Ken Broo sports talk on 700 this morning.  I forget the name of the draft guy he was interviewing.  The gist was not getting overly hung up on the sack totals.  Stewart’s disruptions lead to sacks, hits, fumbles etc for his teammates.  

No one knows what he will be, but he will at some point be playing opposite one of the nfls best sack artists and perhaps he can benefit from what Trey causes on the opposite side.

That is certainly true.  Just because you don't finish with a sack doesn't mean you aren't disrupting the play, helping your defense by causing chaos to the opposing offense.

(Yesterday, 11:02 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: That is certainly true.  Just because you don't finish with a sack doesn't mean you aren't disrupting the play, helping your defense by causing chaos to the opposing offense.

Looks like we have Trey for one more season. So I sure hope he or Murphy actually start to get sacks or 2026 will be another awful team.

(Yesterday, 11:08 PM)Ell Prez Wrote: Looks like we have Trey for one more season. So I sure hope he or Murphy actually start to get sacks or 2026 will be another awful team.

Sacks still are very important though.  As a defensive player you can cause chaos on an offense but when you are facing guys like Mahomes, Allen, Jackson you have to make some sacks.  How many times have you seen a defense cause chaos, break down the offense but the defender fails to make the sack and the QB absolutely burns the defense on a broken play?  Just causing chaos isnt enough.  The elite teams the Bengals will be competing for a championship against will make plays if you dont get to the QB.

(Yesterday, 09:02 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: I would have take Harmon too.  He is a big disrupter in the middle of the defensive line which is exactly what the Bengals defense needed.  He led the NCAA in pressures at 55.  The next closest DT was 12 behind.  Nolen had 35 pressures for comparison although did have 6.5 sacks to Harmon's 5.  Instead of taking Harmon we let Pittsburgh take him 4 spots after us.   All we can do now is hope Harmon is a flop and Stewart lives up to his hype.  Stewart is a Bengal now so he gets my support even though he is not who I would have picked.  Also, in the 2nd round I would have taken Ratledge over Knight.  Knight was projected as a later round pick and protecting Burrow would have been one of the top priorities with one of the top guards still available in the 2nd.

We needed  DE much more than a DT.  We drafted two DT tackles last year and one FA plus resigned Hill. At DE, we have Tre who has asked for a trade, did not sign any DE in FA and have no one that has had a productive year, i could care less what Steelers drafted, that should not impact our #17th pick, you can debate what DE we should of picked  but DT was just not the way to go. 

 As for what is projected on paper and what teams see the value of the player is apples to oranges... part of one round to the other means very little when it gets it comes down to it, no one cares if a player when earlier to most thought, if they perform..... This draft had to have defense as the focus, we had a top 5 offense, it actually might be hard to duplicate that this year  and did not make the playoffs, the path to the playoffs is beating  Ravens, Steelers and Browns.  this teams on average plays the least 11 personal in the NFL,  which means we have to step up our LBs to stop the run.. i love Knight as our pick, he was not going to be there next round.. happy they took him.

(Yesterday, 11:19 PM)Essex Johnson Wrote: We needed  DE much more than a DT.  We drafted two DT tackles last year and one FA plus resigned Hill. At DE, we have Tre who has asked for a trade, did not sign any DE in FA and have no one that has had a productive year, i could care less what Steelers drafted, that should not impact our #17th pick, you can debate what DE we should of picked  but DT was just not the way to go. 

 As for what is projected on paper and what teams see the value of the player is apples to oranges... part of one round to the other means very little when it gets it comes down to it, no one cares if a player when earlier to most thought, if they perform..... This draft had to have defense as the focus, we had a top 5 offense, it actually might be hard to duplicate that this year  and did not make the playoffs, the path to the playoffs is beating  Ravens, Steelers and Browns.  this teams on average plays the least 11 personal in the NFL,  which means we have to step up our LBs to stop the run.. i love Knight as our pick, he was not going to be there next round.. happy they took him.

I was about to post that. DE is a glaring need. We're ok at DT. Nothing spectacular, but better than DE.

Ok, I’ve been looking for some positives. Let me start by saying that my goal, and should be every teams goal, is to get a game changing guy who can disrupt the pocket form the interior d line. This is the most important position in football after qb, and may be on the same level.
You win super bowls with guys who get loose inside. See Chris Jones and KC, A Donaldand LA(literally beat us) and the Eagles have had a few the last few years.
While looking at all thinks Shemar, I see a comp from247, out of high school, to Chris Jones. He’s got the lentgh and obviously more speed and jumping ability, my hope is that he can add 20 pounds of muscle to make up some of the strength difference and learn hand to hand combat like CJ and Donald have. No clue if the FO has plans to do that but that would be a way to maximize this athletic marvel

What better DE available at that pick rather than Stewart would be the question then?

(Today, 12:14 AM)wanga Wrote: What better DE available at that pick rather than Stewart would be the question then?

I don't know about DE, but Harmon at DT felt like a safer pick.

Let’s not discount the possibility of Stewart moving inside and ossai or Murphy playing end on third and long

I can see Stewart being a force inside on passing downs. I do think they took care of two needs with the pick. A 3 down DE, and inside rusher. With Sample back, and Ossai already a menace when he slides inside, I expect better pressure up the middle…

(8 hours ago)BenZoo2 Wrote: Let’s not discount the possibility of Stewart moving inside and ossai or Murphy playing end on third and long

Golden implied Stewart can be utilized in many ways since he's athletic and that's one reason why he and the scouts liked him.

(Yesterday, 11:18 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: Sacks still are very important though.  As a defensive player you can cause chaos on an offense but when you are facing guys like Mahomes, Allen, Jackson you have to make some sacks.  How many times have you seen a defense cause chaos, break down the offense but the defender fails to make the sack and the QB absolutely burns the defense on a broken play?  Just causing chaos isnt enough.  The elite teams the Bengals will be competing for a championship against will make plays if you dont get to the QB.

I get what you're saying and what you'd like but nobody in the NFL is sacking Allen or Jackson as both QB's were in the top 3 of least sacked QB's last season averaging less than 1.5 per game and Mahomes was ranked 18th because their OL just sucked. Yes, sacks are great but give me fewer sacks and lots of hits/ hurries because those wear down a team and cause fumbles/ int's.

If you go to the Draft Central sub-forum, and visit the thread '"what names do you want to hear and not want to hear tomorrow?" you can get a good idea of why posters blew up over this pick when it was first made.

For the two pages of that thread prior to the draft, no fewer than 11 posters stated the name they did not want to hear was Shamar Stewart.

That name never had a chance of going over positively on draft night in Jungle Noise.

(7 hours ago)Nepa Wrote: If you go to the Draft Central sub-forum, and visit the thread '"what names do you want to hear and not want to hear tomorrow?" you can get a good idea of why posters blew up over this pick when it was first made.  

For the two pages of that thread prior to the draft, no fewer than 11 posters stated the name they did not want to hear was Shamar Stewart.

That name never had a chance of going over positively on draft night in Jungle Noise.

Guilty as charged.  I was one of those listing him as don’t want.  I can’t say I love the pick now, but I don’t hate it either.  I’m certainly willing to give him a chance and hope the coaching staff can unlock his vast potential.  I do feel better about the pick after learning and hearing more about him after his selection.

Duke Tobin said we can’t afford to draft players and wait on them to contribute. Is he taking a shot at Lou Aranumo here? Regardless he means Dax Hill, Myles Murphy, and maybe Burton. Okay Duke maybe you can see that in this draft. Stewart depending on Trey is going to play. Stewart likely to replace Slaton a lot on passing downs. Knight 25 or not is going to play as it’s adios Pratt. Fairchild is almost guaranteed to play.

I’m not as upset with the draft itself as I am for them not cutting their losses on Trey and Pratt and getting more picks. Trey’s agent was given permission to find a team. Doubtful they had much luck. Pratt’s worth with the draft done is awful. Sucks for him and us.

(7 hours ago)Nepa Wrote: If you go to the Draft Central sub-forum, and visit the thread '"what names do you want to hear and not want to hear tomorrow?" you can get a good idea of why posters blew up over this pick when it was first made.  

For the two pages of that thread prior to the draft, no fewer than 11 posters stated the name they did not want to hear was Shamar Stewart.

That name never had a chance of going over positively on draft night in Jungle Noise.

I was one of them. But this was before I watched the film and people kept saying he was another Myles Murphy which he is not. Once I watched
the film I saw a very disruptive freak player. His size, strength and first step are elite. He just needs to keep his head up and learn to finish off the
QB, not too hard to coach up.

Shemar Stewart can set the edge in the run game against the biggest Tackles as well, so he can do what Hubbard did for us except he brings the
threat of elite speed to blow up plays for others as well as himself.

(7 hours ago)BenZoo2 Wrote: Guilty as charged.  I was one of those listing him as don’t want.  I can’t say I love the pick now, but I don’t hate it either.  I’m certainly willing to give him a chance and hope the coaching staff can unlock his vast potential.  I do feel better about the pick after learning and hearing more about him after his selection.

Yeah, I was actually pretty harsh on Shemar Stewart. His stats were not good at A&M, but he is the definition of stats don't show the player at 
all. He blew up so many plays for the Aggies that lead to stats for other players it is crazy. If he learns to finish himself who knows what his stats 
will look like in the NFL?

(4 hours ago)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: I was one of them. But this was before I watched the film and people kept saying he was another Myles Murphy which he is not. Once I watched
the film I saw a very disruptive freak player. His size, strength and first step are elite. He just needs to keep his head up and learn to finish off the
QB, not too hard to coach up.

Shemar Stewart can set the edge in the run game against the biggest Tackles as well, so he can do what Hubbard did for us except he brings the
threat of elite speed to blow up plays for others as well as himself.


Yeah, I was actually pretty harsh on Shemar Stewart. His stats were not good at A&M, but he is the definition of stats don't show the player at 
all. He blew up so many plays for the Aggies that lead to stats for other players it is crazy. If he learns to finish himself who knows what his stats 
will look like in the NFL?

Well, since you were one of the earliest and strongest advocates for Amarius Mims, on his bandwagon well before last year's draft day, I'm sold on any analysis you have. If you say Shamar Stewart is going to be a disruptive, freak player, who just needs some not-too-hard coaching, then I'm sold. I wish you sold me on him before the draft, as you did with Mims, so I could have appeared informed when the pick was made.