2020 and Beyond Optimistic Look

[BengalChris]

(01-30-2020, 09:31 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Sample was drafted as a blocking TE, yet you only evaluate and dump pm him for receiving. Ge also got hurt early in game 9 and missed 7 games. Do rookies get better each game with experience or worse?

My point being you may be jumping the gun calling a rookie who played just over half the season a bust. Seems a bit rushed and harsh,

No, he was drafted to be a TE who didn't need to leave the field.

https://www.cincyjungle.com/2019/5/10/18531365/bengals-draft-2019-drew-sample-washington-huskies-football

Quote:Regardless, Mike Potts, the Bengals’ college scouting director, feels the like Cincinnati found a player who has yet to play his best football.


“Drew is a lot more well-rounded than just a run-blocking tight end,” Potts told Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Run blocking is the best thing that he does but what kept coming up in our draft meetings was do we want a guy that tested better that can take the top off the coverage or really stretch the seam and maybe you get two or three big plays a game out of that guy but you feel like you have to take him off the field in certain instances. We always talk about playtime percentages. Maybe that guy only ends up playing 30-40 percent of the snaps. Whereas, this guy, if you want to be in 11 or 12 personnel, whatever you want to be in, he conceivably doesn’t need to come off the field because he’s not a liability in the pass game.”

If you want to evaluate his play, evaluate against what the Bengals brain trust thought they were drafting, which is stated above. Of course, no one else seems to have thought that about Sample.

People questioned this pick right away and this was the Bengals answer. Of course, he turned out to be nothing like what the Bengals brain trust convinced themselves he would be.