Bengals have had 3 #1 overall picks since inception

[BoomerFan]

Nothing is guaranteed. You take him at #1 and you're hoping he'll at least play as well as some other successful first round QBs. One imagines he'll be better than Dalton at least in the sense that he could compete in the big games (primetime, playoffs).

That said, yes we do have to build a team around him. It seems like maybe we're making progress on the offensive line and this year we'll get 2-3 more guys to add to that project. We're solid at RB. We have some talent at WR and TE even if we move on from Green and Eifert (I like Eifert and maybe you keep him on the cheap 1 year/$4 million deals we've been paying him but...there are probably better players out there). There are coaching issues and I do hope we make some changes this offseason (no that won't be HC but they could certainly take a look at hiring an OC). Maybe you draft a mid to late rounder to add to one of those groups and make a free agency signing if both of Eifert and Green leave. Then you have the defense which is sort of a mess but does have little bits of talent here and there. This is probably not the year we fix the defense though hopefully we at least pick up 1-2 mid round picks to to make improvements.

Anyways, in a few years Joe could be in a much better situation, depending on how we draft.