02-28-2018, 04:28 PM
(02-28-2018, 03:13 PM)depthchart Wrote: There is no spin here, Fred.So what you are saying is, we tend to draft for future and they draft for now? There are exceptions to every rule, but I think you are on to something.
I simply made some comments about each player, including a comment that Jeremy Hill TOTALLY REPLACED Ben Jarvis Green Ellis who was not on the team during Hill's rookie year.
I used phrases like "general difference" and "not in all cases but generally".
The point with Eifert is that Gresham remained on the team his rookie season.
Cedric and Fisher were drafted with long term replacement of current starters in mind. Dennard and Jackson III drafted to eventually replace current starters.
The point is that the Steelers have more of a tendency towards quicker starter replacement with their draft picks, while the Bengals tend more towards drafting a pipeline of future starters.
It is not that what the Bengals do is totally flawed and that what the Steelers do is totally perfect.
As I said in the post, each team does some of what the other team does more of.
Successes can be shown on either side of the equation.
The overarching point is that the Steelers are tending to focus from draft to draft on the quality of the current crop of starters they will have on the field that given year. Targeting weak areas of the team with early picks that they often fast track into starting roles.
The Bengals are tending to focus on the replacement pipeline with anticipation of certain players leaving the team within 1 or 2 years of drafting the rookie replacement.
I think that a Shift in the BALANCE of what the Bengals are doing towards more of what the Steelers are doing is in order to create a more real time impact on the quality of the current starting Bengal team.
Doesn't mean we totally abandon the longer term starter replacement pipeline but instead tweak what we have been doing in the Steeler way direction as good opportunities present themselves. Especially when we have glaring weak starting links.
We may get say another 1st round corner to pipeline Dennard/Pac Man's departures with our 1st round 2018 pick and say a 2nd round pipeline DT just in case we can't sign Geno Atkins.
The longer term pipeline guys can and do pan out like Jackson III has, however, I think that the Bengals are over-using the approach.
Not saying to never do it again but without Free Agency being used enough, we may need to go the immediate starter upgrade route more often.
Worse case, we would still have the 2019 draft to say get the Dennard/Pac Man replacement or Geno leaving replacement if it came to that.
That is what the Steelers are generally doing. Waiting longer to react to coming starting player departures and/or reacting more in real time to upgrade current starting player weak links.
