Mason Cole

[*ochocincos*]

(03-21-2018, 02:55 PM)Au165 Wrote: Interior lineman is the place where mid round guys flourish. If you told me we needed tackles, which we still may but this conversation revolves around interior, I'd agree with you more. Clint Boling was a 4th round pick and while he wasn't great his rookie year, very few lineman are, he has developed well over the years. My point is the idea that if we don't take a guy in the first 2 rounds we are destined to fail is just false expectations. Plenty of lineman from early rounds end up failures just like plenty of lineman in the mid to late flourish, the draft and where guys are taken doesn't dictate how good someone will. 

This really is about fixing expectations, a lot of people have differing opinions of how to fix the team and many will be upset if their concern isn't addressed in the first round, we found last year that sometimes you can fix issues with 4th round picks. I think in this class there are plenty of 3rd and 4th round graded lineman that can make our team better, but with that said I am not opposed to one early I simply don't think it is a requirement if the board shakes out differently.

Agreed.

But I think for most people, the thought around taking players earlier is because you have less options to pick from the later you get.
Yet ultimately, a good scouting department can find those mid-late round guys who perform well. So you don't NEED to take someone early necessarily if you're good at finding those gems late.
I think though at this point, many fans don't believe the Bengals are good at finding those Day 3 gems and therefore must try to address early.

I'll add in though that the problem could very well have been Paul Alexander's approach at evaluating players and maybe Frank Pollack will have better success finding late-round gems. We'll have to wait and see I guess.