(05-30-2019, 12:14 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Top 3

1977...Whitley, Edwards, Johnson, Breeden, Wilson...Pete Johnson was the only Pro Bowler, but sheer number of starters for the Super Bowl run make this the top draft

(05-30-2019, 05:20 PM)ochocincos Wrote: 2012 was a pretty good draft even though only one player is still on the team. DK, Zeitler, Sanu, Jones, and Iloka were all impactful in the perennial playoff appearances culminating in the best team of this decade, 2015.

2012 was an incredible draft.  If the Bengals had made a run to the Super Bowl I would be talking bout it just like the '77 draft. 

Kinda hard to top 2001:

Justin Smith - 4th in franchise history in sacks
Chad Johnson - leading receiver
Rudi Johnson - 3rd in rushing yards
TJ Houshmandzadeh - 8th in receiving yards

4 all-time Bengals greats in one draft. A couple others:

2012
DreKirk
Zeitler
Sanu
Marvin Jones
Iloka

This was a pretty great draft looking back.

2006
Joseph
Whit
Rucker
Peko
Ahmad Brooks

I saw one reference to the 1984 draft. Among the players drafted were QB Boomer Esiason, S Barney Bussey, LB Leo Barker, OG Bruce Reimers, and C Bruce Kozerski who were all starters at one point. Reimers and Kozerski comprised 40% of arguably the greatest line in team history. In addition RB Stanford Jennings and OL Brian Blados were contributors off the bench. I don't remember how many of those guys played in the Super Bowl rematch with San Francisco

That draft had a chance to be epic, as the Bengals had three first rounders. Blados was the last of the three. LB Ricky Hunley never signed and was dealt to Denver, and DE Pete Koch did basically nothing. Don't remember if it was performance or injury related though.

(05-30-2019, 07:15 PM)ElkValleyBengal Wrote: I saw one reference to the 1984 draft.  Among the players drafted were QB Boomer Esiason, S Barney Bussey, LB Leo Barker, OG Bruce Reimers, and C Bruce Kozerski who were all starters at one point.  Reimers and Kozerski comprised 40% of arguably the greatest line in team history.  In addition RB Stanford Jennings and OL Brian Blados were contributors off the bench.  I don't remember how many of those guys played in the Super Bowl rematch with San Francisco

That draft had a chance to be epic, as the Bengals had three first rounders.  Blados was the last of the three.  LB Ricky Hunley never signed and was dealt to Denver, and DE Pete Koch did basically nothing.  Don't remember if it was performance or injury related though.

This draft added a ton of starters and good backups...…...Boomer was AFC MVP on the way to the SB

Just wonder how good it could have been if only one of the 1st rounders had been a stud

Hundley held out, Blados was a part time starter and Pete Koch as Lap says "looked like Tarzan and played like Jane"

(05-30-2019, 07:15 PM)ElkValleyBengal Wrote: I saw one reference to the 1984 draft.  Among the players drafted were QB Boomer Esiason, S Barney Bussey, LB Leo Barker, OG Bruce Reimers, and C Bruce Kozerski who were all starters at one point.  Reimers and Kozerski comprised 40% of arguably the greatest line in team history.  In addition RB Stanford Jennings and OL Brian Blados were contributors off the bench.  I don't remember how many of those guys played in the Super Bowl rematch with San Francisco

That draft had a chance to be epic, as the Bengals had three first rounders.  Blados was the last of the three.  LB Ricky Hunley never signed and was dealt to Denver, and DE Pete Koch did basically nothing.  Don't remember if it was performance or injury related though.

We used one of the draft picks we got in return for Hunley to draft David Fulcher, and I believe the other one also garnered us a starter.  So that eases the pain somewhat.

(05-30-2019, 07:15 PM)ElkValleyBengal Wrote: I saw one reference to the 1984 draft.  Among the players drafted were QB Boomer Esiason, S Barney Bussey, LB Leo Barker, OG Bruce Reimers, and C Bruce Kozerski who were all starters at one point.  Reimers and Kozerski comprised 40% of arguably the greatest line in team history.  In addition RB Stanford Jennings and OL Brian Blados were contributors off the bench.  I don't remember how many of those guys played in the Super Bowl rematch with San Francisco

That draft had a chance to be epic, as the Bengals had three first rounders.  Blados was the last of the three.  LB Ricky Hunley never signed and was dealt to Denver, and DE Pete Koch did basically nothing.  Don't remember if it was performance or injury related though.

Hey Pete Koch played in Heartbreak Ridge. That's something.

(05-31-2019, 10:16 AM)fredtoast Wrote: We used one of the draft picks we got in return for Hunley to draft David Fulcher, and I believe the other one also garnered us a starter.  So that eases the pain somewhat.

The Bengals traded Hunley's rights to the Broncos for three draft picks, which ended up being Tim McGee (1986 first round pick), David Fulcher (1986 third round pick) and Greg Horne (1987 fifth round pick).

Fulcher was a beast for the '88 Super Bowl defense. He went to three Pro Bowls ('88-'90) and was First Team All Pro in '89.

McGee ended up with 282 receptions as a Bengal including a huge year in '89 (65 rec, 1211 yds, 18.1 avg, 8 tds). He finished in the top ten in yards per catch 3 straight years ('88-'90) and in '86 he lead the league in total kick off return yardage and was 4th in average per return.

Greg Horne was our punter for 4 games in '87.

Considering that Hunley never amounted to much (7 seasons with 3 different teams. Only 30 career starts.) that was arguably the best trade in Bengal history.

I will add 1984:

Blados
Esiason
Stanford #%*^##~* Jennings
Bussey

What happened to Fulcher? Seems like he had a short career?

People have mentioned 2010, 2011 and 2012 quite a bit. I think they are all right, and three straight years like that set us up for all those playoff appearances.

It hurt that we never produced a playoff win, but that was still quite a run. And in my opinion, there were at least three of those playoff games that we just absolutely should have won. We had some players.

2001, 2010, 2011
Between those drafts we have 4 HOF caliber players Smith, Atkins, Johnson, and Green. We also have 4 ring of Honor guys in TJ, Dunlap, Rudi, and Dalton.

(05-31-2019, 08:53 PM)XsandOs Wrote: I will add 1984:

Blados
Esiason
Stanford #%*^##~* Jennings
Bussey

Why the hate for Jennings? He damn near won SB XXIII for us when everyone did nothing and is one of the greatest Bengal Kick Returners of all time

Revisiting the '84 draft, you can see a 16+ minute documentary on YouTube about it. It touches on, among other things, the Bengals having the number 1 overall pick that year acquired from Tampa Bay in the trade for QB Jack Thompson. The Bengals were going to draft Steve Young with that pick, but he landed an historic deal with the USFL's L.A. Express. The Bengals traded that pick to the Patriots, which probably explains all the first rounders they had. I'll leave it to Fred to do that research.

(06-01-2019, 03:41 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Why the hate for Jennings? He damn near won SB XXIII for us when everyone did nothing and is one of the greatest Bengal Kick Returners of all time

I don't read that as hate.

I read that as synonymous with Stanford The Man Jennings, if you get my drift.

1998 was an underrated draft:
Spikes, Simmons, Hawkins, Steve Foley, Mike Goff <-- All within 1st 3 Rounds. Then, Glen Steele.

Could have had Randy Moss that year, but still a pretty decent draft.

1999 may have been the worst draft in franchise history. Akili Smith, Charles Fisher, Cory Hall who actually contributed, etc.

2001:

Justin Smith, Chad Johnson, and Rudi Johnson and sandwiched in there between Johnson's was Sean Brewer...the chain-smoking TE. Found Houshmandzadeh that year too.

All of that brilliance and Brewer!

Who did we pass on? Steve Smith

1984
My perspective on the best draft is looking at impact only as a Bengal. So im going with the 1984 draft. Probably the best draft for depth over time we had. You had Boomer, Reimers, Kozarski three key starters on Super Bowl team. You had Jennings and Bussey who were nice bench players plus Blados who contributed over the years. Hell Leo Barker played for 7 years for us. Those seven players averaged 8 years with the Bengals.