This guy has caught a ton of flack for some big misses over the last few years.. Whelp, draft day is his moment and it seems he and his staff have hit it out of the park.

As with any draft, some of these guys will falter, but let's give Duke some credit. They seem to have heard Zac's message and have 'Taylored' their approach to fit what he desires.

I'm sure some will disagree, but I'm glad we have stuck with Duke.

(04-26-2020, 06:23 PM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: This guy has caught a ton of flack for some big misses over the last few years.. Whelp, draft day is his moment and it seems he and his staff have hit it out of the park.

As with any draft, some of these guys will falter, but let's give Duke some credit. They seem to have heard Zac's message and have 'Taylored' their approach to fit what he desires.

I'm sure some will disagree, but I'm glad we have stuck with Duke.

I think Duke has done a shitty job the past 4 years in the draft. He's a dude who got a job because of his dad basically.

(04-26-2020, 06:23 PM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: This guy has caught a ton of flack for some big misses over the last few years.. Whelp, draft day is his moment and it seems he and his staff have hit it out of the park.

As with any draft, some of these guys will falter, but let's give Duke some credit. They seem to have heard Zac's message and have 'Taylored' their approach to fit what he desires.

I'm sure some will disagree, but I'm glad we have stuck with Duke.

I agree, this year is definitely a change in philosophy.  Thus, no "Mike Brown picks"..  

From all of the atypical free agency activity, to flat out cutting Kirkpatrick, to actually drafting smartly.  Something is different.

How much of the previous 5 drafts were on Duke? Or Marvin? Or Mike?? We may never know... but I think it’s very likely that Zac has much more say in the draft than anyone else in the organization. Marvin (and assistant head coach Paul Alexander) may have had more say than we realize as well.

(04-26-2020, 06:44 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I agree, this year is definitely a change in philosophy.  Thus, no "Mike Brown picks"..  

From all of the atypical free agency activity, to flat out cutting Kirkpatrick, to actually drafting smartly.  Something is different.

Definitely. Watching the Bengals is going to be fun again.

(04-26-2020, 06:23 PM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: This guy has caught a ton of flack for some big misses over the last few years.. Whelp, draft day is his moment and it seems he and his staff have hit it out of the park.

As with any draft, some of these guys will falter, but let's give Duke some credit. They seem to have heard Zac's message and have 'Taylored' their approach to fit what he desires.

I'm sure some will disagree, but I'm glad we have stuck with Duke.

It does seem like a good draft class but let them earn the praise. Every single year at this time 90-95 % of the posters grade the draft an A, just like now. Do you remember your grades the last few years?

(04-26-2020, 06:57 PM)Circleville Guy Wrote: It does seem like a good draft class but let them earn the praise. Every single year at this time 90-95 % of the posters grade the draft an A, just like now. Do you remember your grades the last few years?

Hence the "As with any draft, some of these guys will falter" portion of my original post.

There will always be busts.

I would congratulate Zac more than Duke, Zac has clearly defined what him and his staff want in their players

(04-26-2020, 06:47 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Definitely. Watching the Bengals is going to be fun again.

Yeah, I think that as this year plays out, we'll start to see why the Bengals were sold on Zac Taylor.  Last year, he was rather handcuffed by the fact that he had to pretty much "play the hand he was dealt", in terms of personnel on the roster.  He was patient, waited a year for some "dead money" levels to go down on some contracts, and then started making changes.

I have no facts to back it up, but I kind of feel like last year was thrown away, or "tanked" if you will, specifically to put the Bengals in the position to have their pick of the draft.  Why?  To maximize the overhaul efforts that we've witnessed over the course of this offseason.

Do I like it?  Hell yes!  Trying something new, after watching them beat their heads against the wall for 30 years was torturous.  Will it work?  I don't know.  But, I feel like I have faith in the direction that they are heading.

(04-26-2020, 06:47 PM)Pat5775 Wrote: How much of the previous 5 drafts were on Duke? Or Marvin? Or Mike?? We may never know... but I think it’s very likely that Zac has much more say in the draft than anyone else in the organization. Marvin (and assistant head coach Paul Alexander) may have had more say than we realize as well.

The way that I believe the relationship works is that Duke and his team go out and scout with the purpose of identifying traits that the coach is looking for. I'd like to believe that Duke was directed by Zac on what he was looking for this year (production at top programs, team captains, position versatility, strong academics, intelligence beyond football, good character) and that is why the picks seems so far different in this draft. Marvin had his character traits and values he wanted, and Duke's staff would find guys that fit that. Not saying Marvin wasn't looking for the right things either, Marvin had plenty of great drafts, but I'm sure his approach is different than Zacs

However, I'm just as blind to the process as anyone else on here. So who knows.

(04-26-2020, 07:00 PM)corpjet Wrote: I would congratulate Zac more than Duke, Zac has clearly defined what him and his staff want in their players

Right, but Duke has to make sure his team is out there finding what Zac wants... its looking like a good working relationship, but we won't know until we see how these guys pan out.

I think this year is much more telling than last year though, that is for sure.

(04-26-2020, 07:00 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Yeah, I think that as this year plays out, we'll start to see why the Bengals were sold on Zac Taylor.  Last year, he was rather handcuffed by the fact that he had to pretty much "play the hand he was dealt", in terms of personnel on the roster.  He was patient, waited a year for some "dead money" levels to go down on some contracts, and then started making changes.

I have no facts to back it up, but I kind of feel like last year was thrown away, or "tanked" if you will, specifically to put the Bengals in the position to have their pick of the draft.  Why?  To maximize the overhaul efforts that we've witnessed over the course of this offseason.

Do I like it?  Hell yes!  Trying something new, after watching them beat their heads against the wall for 30 years was torturous.  Will it work?  I don't know.  But, I feel like I have faith in the direction that they are heading.

He did a lot of evaluating last year. Those who did not pass the test are no longer here.

(04-26-2020, 07:00 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Yeah, I think that as this year plays out, we'll start to see why the Bengals were sold on Zac Taylor.  Last year, he was rather handcuffed by the fact that he had to pretty much "play the hand he was dealt", in terms of personnel on the roster.  He was patient, waited a year for some "dead money" levels to go down on some contracts, and then started making changes.

I have no facts to back it up, but I kind of feel like last year was thrown away, or "tanked" if you will, specifically to put the Bengals in the position to have their pick of the draft.  Why?  To maximize the overhaul efforts that we've witnessed over the course of this offseason.

Do I like it?  Hell yes!  Trying something new, after watching them beat their heads against the wall for 30 years was torturous.  Will it work?  I don't know.  But, I feel like I have faith in the direction that they are heading.

Careful making claims like that around here..... I'm with you though. There were times that we were in games and Zac would slow the offense down. I remember screaming "We're behind by 3 scores early 4th quarter and we are taking our dear time running the clock for some methodically long drive, why!?!?!?! GO 2 MINUTE DRILL AND TRY TO WIN THE GAME!!!"... Zac is either a super genius or a complete fluke.. time will tell lol

I would actually say Duke has always been good at Drafting.
2016- Jackson, Boyd,
2017- Mixon, Lawson
2018- Bates, Hubbard
Those are six Pro bowl Caliber players right there all on our roster now. The problem he has had is with free agency but he was pretty active this off-season. While I think his signings other than Reader were just Ok and I still would have liked them to sign an OT. It was nice to see this team be aggressive.

I would say our curve to do better in the draft was helped immensely by drafting 1st in each round. Nonetheless, I still think they executed very well this year, so it seems.

There is no way Bengals were even thinking about tanking at the time of the draft last year. The Bengals won 6 games the year before and they had no idea that Jonah Williams, A J Green, and Clint Boling would all be gone before the 2019 preseason.

Skip to the Lou portion. at the beginning he says that the whole organization has been on the same page and was one of the smoother drafts...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G0dtC4eNbw&t=3s

Speaking of Duke, has he lost a lot of weight?

(04-26-2020, 07:24 PM)fredtoast Wrote: There is no way Bengals were even thinking about tanking at the time of the draft last year.  The Bengals won 6 games the year before and they had no idea that Jonah Williams, A J Green, and Clint Boling would all be gone before the 2019 preseason.

of course, but when those 3 guys went down in preseason, did they make the decision to focus more on the future?

I don't think they did, I think the team was just bad with a first year head coach who was over his head. It's still fun to imagine it was some genius plan.

I don't think so. I can't swear to it but it seems like he's always been a skinny guy.