01-17-2022, 10:43 PM
(01-17-2022, 09:28 PM)J24 Wrote: Duke is an underrated part of this teams success.
This is true.
I make a big deal about how much more money the team has been willing to spend, but I never acknowledge that a lot of big money free agent contracts go bad quickly. You have a higher success rate than with draft picks, but there are always a lot of big free agent busts. Teams generally re-sign their best players so most of the guys hitting free agency have some sort of question about them.
So I give Tobin credit for hitting on almost all of their big signings. Trae Waynes probably had as good of a health record as any free agent on the market.
And I have never seen a team go form zero to 100 so fast with first round picks. Even the best teams miss on first round picks from time to time, but the Bengals were on one of the coldest streaks I have ever seen.
13-Eifert....Elite talent. Could get in-and-out of cuts and run routes like a WR...... one full season at elite level
14-Dennard....Not bad, but again only one full season of top play in 6 years
15-Ogbuehi....Total disaster. Sometimes you "miss" on a first round pick because he never becomes more than an average starter. Ogbuehi could not even do that.
16-WJ3.....Really good player early in career. But only played 16 games once in 5 years.
17-Ross......See "Ogbuehi"
18-Price......See "Ross"
That was a total of about 4 total seasons of good play from 6 first round picks. Not all first round picks will be stars, but most at least provide a few years of decent starts.
Throw in the fact that the front office would not spend big money on free agents to make up for missing on those picks and there is no way the Bengals could survive that bad stretch of first round picks.
Now we have not only hit on our last two picks but they look like historically good picks.
