02-25-2017, 08:13 PM
(02-25-2017, 06:44 PM)Housh Wrote: We build through the draft, ignore free agency and play the cheap game when it comes to resigning our young talent. The Mike Brown model indeed works. If you have knockout drafts every couple of years. When I say knockout drafts I mean you drafted 4 starters in that draft.
With all this said I think its surprising how bad weve gotten at drafting over the past couple years. in 2008 and 2009 we drafted 5 guys each who stayed near the top of whatever team's depth charts they were on. That's great drafting. Your getting consistent talent.
2010 we drafted 4 guys who had the talent to be high on any team's depth chart. Once again great drafting. We lost Jordan Shipley to injuries but he had talent. You cant consider Shipley a failure in the draft department. The count is now 3 knockout drafts IN A FREAKING ROW. WOW. We would piggyback off these drafts for years to come. Heres something funny as well. In true "We pay our own" fashion of those 14 great players we drafted only 3 are currently signed to the team today.
In 2011 I don't even have to say anything about AJ and Andy but we also got Boling. So that's 3 guys who we hit on.
2012 we got lucky. We hit on 5 freaking starters. And all 5 are really really good. In true Mike Brown "we pay our own" fashion its possible that by the time we kickoff the 2017 only one of those guys is on the team due to free agency. Mike Brown lies to our face and people don't care. We DONT pay our own as often as people think. We pay the undeniable superstars that people would riot over if we didn't resign but we let a lot of good players WALK for NOTHING. Good teams don't do that as often as we do flat out. Mike Brown is CHEAP and doesn't get called out enough for it by fans.
This is where it gets painful. In 2013 we drafted only 2 good players and only one starter in Eifert. What makes that draft worse is we had an extra 2nd and an extra 6th and 7th. Jury is still out on Rex Burkhead and the lineman we drafted but as of now I can only count Gio and Eifert as hits. For only signing 1 concrete starter this draft is a BUST.
In 2014 we drafted 1 starter. Jury is still out on Dennard, McCarron and Clarke. But as of now only Jeremy Hill can be named as a hit from that draft. Seeing that that's the draft we drafted Bodine I seriously want to call that draft a NO HIT bust but im going to give Hill his respect.
2015 was one of the worst Bengals drafts of the last 20 years. That one is definitely a NO HIT bust draft. No starters. Quite possibly that draft may not even have any guys who BECOME starters later down the line.
Finally in 2016 we drafted Boyd and William Jackson III. If Boyd hadn't stepped up and played decent without AJ thatd be a 2nd NO HIT bust draft in a row. That draft still didn't produce any starters but at least it gave us some talent like Vigil and others. As of now by the standard I set to start this thread this draft is a bust. But please understand that I realize you cant really call a draft class a bust until after a couple years. Boyd and William Jackson III could very well be starters or us even next year.
So what does all this info tell you. One it tells you Mr. We pay our own has no problem with letting drafted talent walk to save a few bucks. It also tells you weve been feeding off the glory of 3 good drafts for nearly a decade. It also tells you the last 3 years of drafts have been HORRIBLE and a direct reason why the teams morale has been on a downward spiral. Its all fine and dandy to ignore free agency when your drafting guys like Dunlap and AJ Green. But when those drafts stop hitting things turn BAD, like what they are now in Bengal Land.
So in conclusion the Mike Brown model works, if you have a knockout draft every 4 to 5 years. Or have 2 or 3 in a row. But even when you catch lightning in a bottle and do it, Mikey wont resign the talent we do get anyway. Who would wanna be this man's coach? Why do we roll all this money over year to year for again?
You make some good points in this breakdown but I am really hoping that W. Jackson and Billings can save this draft. Im also not read to give up on Ogbuehi and Fischer yet. I think that they are going to settle down and be productive.
