Yesterday, 06:47 PM
(02-18-2025, 09:15 PM)CJD Wrote: The expectation is that highly drafted players play well, yes. You can say it's all the front office's fault for drafting bad players, but very few of those 8 picks were considered "reaches" by consensus media boards. So either the entire NFL scouting world was wrong 8 times in a row for the Bengals' picks or Lou did not develop them.
I wanted us to keep Bates and Reader too. But the defense should not have bottomed out the way it did with the amount of draft capital invested into it.
I tend to look at the scouting department as being at fault. Just because you spend a lot of draft capital doesnt mean those draft picks are going to work out. How many years and draft picks have the Bengals spent on offensive line? Just because the Bengals are drafting those various offensive line positions doesnt mean they are doing a good job scouting the talent they used those draft picks for. Just because you spent a 2nd round draft pick on Jackson Carman, doesnt mean its the coaching staff's fault he didnt turn out to be a good football player. The Bengals have had one of the worst scouting departments in the NFL for years and I tend to see the failures on draft picks as being on the front office. The coaching staff can only do so much with what they are given.
