05-04-2016, 10:30 AM
(05-04-2016, 08:31 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: And I will say that this is a bit of a devil's advocate position, because I love the way our team drafts, but I find it funny that we get "holy shit" reviews from the rest of the NFL for drafting players that those same commentators (Mel Kiper, Todd McShay, etc) had high on their boards.
For example, I was watching the draft on ESPN (don't have NFL Network or I would not be watching it on ESPN) and it seemed like, for each of our picks, we selected one of the top 5 guys in Mel Kiper's "Best Available players" that kept scrolling on the bottom.
It happened for Tyler Boyd, Andrew Billings, Christian Westerman and maybe even William Jackson III.
Hell, Andrew Billings was on Mel's best available board for like 2 and a half rounds by that point.
I loved the draft and I look forward to seeing how the other picks, such as Nick Vigil and Cody Core, work out. But if our best picks were just us picking what the media pundits had coined as the best players at the time of our pick.....couldn't you or I theoretically draft just as well as the Bengals?
The answer overall is no. I understand what you are saying. If you played the media board you could get a good draft, name wise, no doubt, but more than likely you miss out somewhere.
Let's take this draft. The Bengals needed a WR and we're going to take one in round 1 if he was there. They all got took right before them. Instead of reading for a player that had a lower grade to fill a bigger need they went with what was on their board and took WJ3. Had they played the media board Billings would have been the pick, filling a need also but because of depth of DT, WJ3 was the better pick because depth of CB was not as good. This is the same with the next two rounds. Billings was higher on the media board than who they picked but the Bengals played their board and position depth chart to get to them the better overall value at the time for their team. Had we played the media board one of WJ3, Boyd, or Vigil would not be a Bengal. We would still have Billings but it looks better when you can get all the players high on your list than just one.
As we heard from the podcast the Bengals did not like a WR in round 3. We would have waited until round 4 to get one, only if one was there they liked. Imagine these boards and even pundits reaction if no WR was picked until 5 or 6. It would be madness. The media board doesn't as lays fit your need either. It might not be your type of player. That is why you play your board and not other peoples.
