Wiliam Jackson III Looking Good in Camp & Eager to Impress

[MrRager]

(06-05-2016, 10:21 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: I was actually going to try and debate this, but outside of the guys starting out of necessity I can't think of a single rookie who would've been an immediate upgrade over the veterans.

Kirkpatrick played behind Hall, Newman, and Jones who were all playing like they were men half their age. Dennard had the same problem sort of - I always admired Kirkpatrick's hustle, but he also committed a load of penalties and it might not of hurt to have Dennard play over him. Bernard was behind BJGE who, while not a world beater, was more than serviceable. Ced and Jake were behind Whit and Smith.

Looking back the last corners who played as rookies were Hall and Joseph, and they were replacing Ratliff and O'Neal - a bum and a modern Methuselah.

Yeah, I guess that is more of the point I was trying to make. It's not like we keep rookies on the bench who would have been clear upgrades. People make claims about the Bengals without looking at the NFL as a whole. Teams/coaches in general don't start rookies unless they absolutely need to or they are simply studs. The Bengals are no different in this regard. It's why I hate the, "Marvin is so afraid to start rookies!" narrative. He has played many rookies over the past few years, but because he didn't play that 6th round rookie you fell in love with doesn't mean he is allergic to rookies. He is fine with going into the draft with a hole and using a rookie to fill that hole. He did it with half of our current offense. Bodine, Zeitler, Dalton, Green, Gio, Hill, Eifert all saw significant playing time as rookies and it was the plan going into the draft all along. 

Off topic, but the same thing happens with people who hate on AJ Green. I agree he isn't the best receiver in the NFL, but he is elite and is around top 5. People will claim that he disappears sometimes and that makes him less elite, but, when you look at every other team in the NFL their number one will occasionally have a bad game as well.