Will they really pick a LBer in 1st round ?

[Ravage]

(03-28-2019, 01:20 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Will the Bengals really go with a LBer in the 1st round of the draft ?...With our GM now for 28 seasons we've drafted four 1st rounders. 

It's actually 5 LB's, not 4 (see below). That's actually a decent percentage if you think about it. Excluding special teams (K/P), fullback, and generalizing S's and LB's into one position group each, there's 12 main positions for a football team to draft: QB, RB, WR, TE, T, G, C, DE, DT, LB, CB, S. So, over 30 1st round picks across 27 drafts (this'll be MB's 28th draft coming up) if all things were equal you'd figure for about 2.5 of each position over those 30 picks and 27 years, and they've taken 5 LB's. So LB's are actually double the expected rate and tied with CB's as the most frequently drafted position under MB. And we've seen at least one of each of those positions under MB (all drafts '92-present). 

QB: Klingler, Smith, Palmer (3)
HB: Carter, Perry (2)
WR: Warrick, Green, Ross (3)
TE: Gresham, Eifert (2)
T: Willie Anderson, Levi Jones, Andre Smith, Ogbuehi (4)
G: Zeitler (1)
C: Price (1)
DE: John Copeland, Justin Smith (2)
DT: Dan Wilkinson (1)
LB: Reinard Wilson*, TKO, Simmons, Pollack, Rivers (5)
CB: Jonathan Joseph, Hall, Kirkpatrick, Dennard, WJIII (5)
S: Darryl Williams (1)

* Don't forget, while Reinard Wilson was a DE in college, the Bengals were playing a 3-4 back then and switched him to LB just like they did with David Pollack years later. So they've taken 5, not 4 LB's. I remember that draft vividly because I was listening to it on the radio while at work and when the pick was announced it was "LB, FSU, Reinard Wilson" and I got pissed...in front of customers. Got in a bit of trouble at work for that pick. They flipped him back and forth but Wilson was taken to be a LB in our 3-4.

(03-28-2019, 01:48 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Honestly i have no idea.

But i remember when the Bengals would NEVER use a first round pick on a TE or OG.

Or a CB...Jonathan Joseph in 2006 was the first 1st round CB the Bengals ever took save for the CB/S hybrid that was Rickey Dixon. And I remember Dixon as a S, not a CB while in Cincy.