Draft Picks since 2013

[*psychdoctor*]

(12-06-2018, 02:39 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: There's been a lot of discussion on Duke Tobin and the recent draft picks lately and the opinions about who, how, why are sorta all over the place. How good or bad they are and who picked them ?

I'm not getting into who picked them here just my thoughts on the picks as players.

I set up a 5 star system:

5 stars being an excellent player - every game starter who is an impact level player
4 stars being a very good player - above average NFL starter, sees regular playing time and makes plays
3 stars being a solid contributor
2 stars being a role player - very average
1 star being a dud
0 stars being a wasted pick

I focused on the top 3 rounds because for a team that relies nearly solely on the draft you have to hit hoe runs here.

2013: four picks in the top three rounds

1-21 Tyler Eifert - 5 stars - Yes he's been injured/not available for half of his career or better, but I can't blame the Bengals for the pick. He's a game changer if he could stay on the field. In the big picture we've gotten little from him so there's an *

2-5 Gio Bernard - 4 stars - I'm on the fence between 3 and 4 stars here but trying to be totally unbiased I went 3.

2-21 Margus Hunt - 0 stars - wasted pick, BTW he still only has 4 sacks this season.

3-22 Shawn Williams - 3 stars - he's a solid contributor but I don't think he's anything above average

2014: three picks in the top three rounds

1-24 Darqueze Dennard - 3 stars, been injured but can't really say he's above average when on field.

2-23 Jeramy Hill - 2 star - No longer with team had a 8 game run and that's about it.

3-24 Will Clarke - 0 stars - wasted pick.

2015: four picks in the top three rounds

1-21 Cedric Ogbuehi - 0 stars wasted pick, the Jamarcus Russel/Ryan Leaf of 1st round LT's

2-21 Jake Fisher - 1 star - He's thus far been a dud, feel for the guy with heart issues, perhaps a miracle will happen ?

3-21 Tyler Kroft - 3 stars - He flashed last year but thus far overall he's been a role player

3-35 Paul Dawson - 0 stars - wasted pick

2016: three picks in the top three rounds

1-24 William Jackson III - 4 stars - He flashed last season and has contributed some this season. Being a bit generous here hoping he's just in a sophomore slump and suffering from awful coaching.

2-24 Tyler Boyd - 5 stars - a true gem !

3-24 Nick Vigil - 3 stars - He's struggled with some injuries and again bad coaching but I can't really list him higher, yet.

2017: three picks in the top three rounds

1-9 John Ross - 2 stars - Oh boy, can of worms here. Long story short thus far he's not contributed a lot for his draft position. Bad coaching/use is a factor in my mind. He needs to be a hit for sure.

2-16 Joe Mixon - 5 stars - very good player who with a better Oline and coaching could be even higher.

3-9 Jordan Willis - 2 stars - thus far he's been a disappointment overall.

2018: four picks in the top four rounds

It's really hard and a bit unfair to rate these guys already. You can even say that about 2017 picks. So just some thoughts

1-21 Billy Price - Been up and down, mostly down lately. Like Ross we really need him to develop and shine quickly

2-22 Jesse Bates - So far so good, seems like a solid pick

3-13 Sam Hubbard - He's been around the ball a lot and made some plays. I wonder if he would be better already with more playing time ? MJ is still on the field  - A LOT

3-14 Malik Jefferson - Hard to say ? Seems like a bad pick in the making but again - coaching ?

So out of 17 picks in the top three rounds since 2013 (excluding 2018 picks) we have IMHO:

One 5 star pick Tyler Boyd and Another 5 Star pick Tyler Eifert with an asterisk

Two 4 star picks William Jackson and Joe Mixon

Three 3 star picks in Shawn Williams, Darqueze Dennard, and Gio Bernard

So that's 7 quality picks and that's including one who can't stay on the field (Eifert) and it's debatable how deserving Dennard is being listed this high given his draft status ?

On the other end of the spectrum we have some major strikeouts !

Four 0 stars - including Margus Hunt, Will Clarke, Cedric Ogbuehi, and Paul Dawson
Two 1 stars - Jeremy Hill and Jake Fisher
Four 2 stars - Tyler Kroft, John Ross, Jordan Willis, and Nick Vigil

Conclusion: For a team that relies so heavily on the draft our results are poor. We took a giant leap to take Margus Hunt in the 2nd round. We failed miserably with Will Clarke, Cedric Ogbuehi in the first was a colossal mistake, Paul Dawson was a waste. We've drafted exactly one Olineman in the top 3 rounds since the giant FUBAR in 2015.

This is why we are where we are

What say you ?

The Bold above are the changes I would make.