11-21-2016, 12:24 PM
(11-21-2016, 12:04 PM)CincyWestside Wrote: We have heard a ton of issues with the Bengals over the course of the last few years: Marvin, Mike Brown, etc.
But I think an often overlooked issue we have been dealing with has been our draft classes. Think about it. How often have we gotten production out of our more recent draft classes?
I think the problem was that we got really lucky with a few draft classes a little while ago and built a core of players who could carry us to the playoffs 5 straight years. But we lost a few of them in Free Agency and have missed what seems like at least the last three years.
2010 - Gresham (even though Gronk was there), Dunlap, and Atkins.
2011 - Green, Dalton, Boling
2012 - Kirkpatrick, Zeitler, Still, Sanu, Thompson, M. Jones
2013 - Eifert, Bernard, Hunt, S. Williams
2014 - Dennard, Hill, Clarke, Bodine, McCarron, J. Wright
2015 - Ogbuehi, Fisher, Kroft, Shaw
2016 - Jackson, Boyd, Vigil, Billings
So as you can see, we really seemed to set our core players in '10, '11, and '12. Players like Dalton, Green, Dunlap, Atkins, Sanu, M. Jones, and Zeitler all have been great if not solid.
However, we seem to miss on a lot of high picks lately. Picks like Hunt, Dennard, Clarke, Bodine, Ogbuehi, Fisher, Jackson, and Billings all had high prospects, but none have panned out to much. It has really hurt this team to have to continue relying on older players like Peko, Winston, and Dansby to fill starter roles.
The last three drafts do not look good to this point, especially the 2015 draft. Drafting two people at the same position with your first two picks, and missing on both of them, is not good. I don't think he'll be a super star, but do think Shaw will be a quality NFL player (thankfully he jumped out of that window in college and dropped). Too early to tell with 2016 because Jackson has been hurt.
Interesting to note that if Gruden would not have fought for Dalton, we would have Kaepernick as our quarterback... how good do Green or Eifert look with Colin throwing to them every game?
