I think it's pretty clear that Safety is a need at this point. We never really recovered after Reggie Nelson left. Illoka and Smith are both mediocre at best in pass coverage. We need a ball hawk to help us with these TEs and RBs out of the backfield. Definitely not a bigger need than Oline, but I'd say LB and Safety are probably tied as far as need goes.

LB is a far bigger need, IMO. They’re all terrible other than Burfict.

I agree. As much as I like Iloka, he was a liability today.

Felt like they were throwing or running his way on almost every play for a while there.

Derwin ***** James. He can play de,lb,SS,fs,CB. Dude is 6"3 223. When u watch the tape, there's one comp that imediately springs to mind. The late great sean taylor.

(12-11-2017, 04:35 AM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: LB is a far bigger need, IMO. They’re all terrible other than Burfict.

Hard to argue there. But if we do prioritize a LB over safety, it has to be someone who is damn good at pass coverage because we are (still) getting shredded in the middle of the field.

(12-11-2017, 05:48 AM)treee Wrote: Hard to argue there. But if we do prioritize a LB over safety, it has to be someone who is damn good at pass coverage because we are getting shredded in the middle of the field.

Raquan Smith from Georgia looks every bit the pick of a top 10 pick. Dude didn't miss a tackle all season and is very instincive like burfict.

(12-11-2017, 04:45 AM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: I agree. As much as I like Iloka, he was a liability today.

Felt like they were throwing or running his way on almost every play for a while there.

Illoka has been targeted all season. Illoka, Kirkpatrick, and A. Jones were the weak points of the secondary this season. Looks like we're comfortable moving forward with Dennard and WJ III, which is great. I really hope they have plans on getting a top notch FS to patrol the deep ball and give us more options in the box.

I wasn't really against the Ross pick, but I definitely wanted Hooker more...

Derwin James IF we go defense. We need o-line really bad.

(12-11-2017, 08:16 AM)Takedown Wrote: I wasn't really against the Ross pick, but I definitely wanted Hooker more...

Derwin James IF we go defense. We need o-line really bad.

Ideally, we'd go S, LB, or OL in the first and second, and pickup a high tier FA with whatever of those three that we didn't get in rounds 1 & 2. Maybe even trade up into the first again with someone like Kirkpatrick along with our 2nd and snag another instant contributor. 

(12-11-2017, 04:35 AM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: LB is a far bigger need, IMO. They’re all terrible other than Burfict.

And Burfict has another concussion...Everyone talks about his suspensions missing time, but those "C-Words" are starting to add up and that's not good.

(12-11-2017, 08:31 AM)treee Wrote: Ideally, we'd go S, LB, or OL in the first and second, and pickup a high tier FA with whatever of those three that we didn't get in rounds 1 & 2. Maybe even trade up into the first again with someone like Kirkpatrick along with our 2nd and snag another instant contributor. 

Just based off of our draft history, I doubt we go S in R1. I think realistically we go o-line.

(12-11-2017, 03:55 AM)treee Wrote: I think it's pretty clear that Safety is a need at this point. We never really recovered after Reggie Nelson left. Illoka and Smith are both mediocre at best in pass coverage. We need a ball hawk to help us with these TEs and RBs out of the backfield. Definitely not a bigger need than Oline, but I'd say LB and Safety are probably tied as far as need goes.

Safety production, or lack thereof, is largely a function of the players in front of them.  If they have excellent DT and LB corps in front of them, it greatly impacts their ability to play the position.

Fej made a lot of solo tackles yesterday, in space, against some very good RBs.  He wasn't getting a lot of help back there in coverage from the LBs, either.

I think the Bengals showed their depth of starting-caliber talent is paper thin at LB and DT yesterday.  

We passed up on the Ed Reed of this generation for John Ross.

They don't prioritize the position.

(12-11-2017, 04:35 AM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: LB is a far bigger need, IMO. They’re all terrible other than Burfict.

Pretty much all of the above.

I got lambasted early in the year when I posted the PFF grades that we had about 10 guys that played regularly grading out as Poor.

(12-11-2017, 10:39 AM)jj22 Wrote: We passed up on the Ed Reed of this generation for John Ross.

They don't prioritize the position.

The two top guys this year, James and Fitzpatrick are both closer to Ed Reed than anybody in last year’s draft. I’d even argue James is a combo of Reed ball skills and Polumalu’s run stopping and pass rushing skills.

I don't think we need yet another SS prototype.

(12-11-2017, 08:52 AM)Synric Wrote: And Burfict has another concussion...Everyone talks about his suspensions missing time, but those "C-Words" are starting to add up and that's not good.

Yeah...it's possible his career gets cut short for multiple reasons.

Center, guard, OT, LB, safety, WR. Lot of holes to fill on this team.

Iloka is a more athletic version of Ryan Clark he is a very good player but when you ask him to be more than what he is he struggles. We need a guy who can play sideline to sideline and let Iloka play deep part of the field.

Is Iloka big enough to play a hybrid LB type like we did with Mays?

By my estimate we need at least one safety, 2 Lbs, a defensive tackle, 2 offensive tackles, a new center, a guard, and a RE.

The spots that aren't immediate needs have guys in them who are quickly aging. This is now a total rebuild