Draft illusion and reality

[*bengalfan74*]

(02-11-2020, 11:26 AM)shanebo Wrote: The only thing I really got from this article is that our No. 1 pick is effectively already in, and it will be Burrow.  (I was never really that worried about Burrow refusing to come here -- I just don't see him risking sitting out a season when he just came off his best year ever and you have guys like Lawrence and Fields coming out next year.)

That said, this article is really some piece of work by Hobson.  He really pulled out all the stops cherry-picking stats, pulling quotes from pals, etc. to distract us from the fact that our team went 2-14 last year, has no LBs, has the worst O-line in football, a bottom-5 defense, and aging stars.  A few of my favorite quotes:

- "Since the new collective bargaining agreement that began in that 2011 season, the Bengals are one of 10 teams to make the playoffs at least five times. Over that span the Bengals have the 13th most wins in the league ... the Bengals have spent the recent past winning consistently in one of the game's toughest divisions."  (See?  We're really not that bad!  We've actually been the 10th (or 13th) most successful franchise over the last 9 years when it comes to making the playoffs and regular season wins!)

- "Mike Brown oversaw the drafts that yielded Palmer and Dalton, making the Bengals the only team in the last 16 years to draft two quarterbacks that both started more than 60 games for the teams that chose them."  (Don't worry, Mike Brown knows his QBs!  Just never you mind about Akili, and Klingler, and Finley, and Woodside, McCarron, Rowe ... And ignore the fact that at least 12 other teams have drafted one QB who is still active and started 60 or more games (13 if you go back 3 more years and count Brady), at least 5-6 of whom have won superbowls ...)

- "In the last few years alone the Bengals have spent millions renovating player and coach spaces at PBS, upgrading technology and video that enhance analytics and personnel, and head coach Zac Taylor's two biggest coaching staffs in team history." (Who needs an indoor practice area when you have great lockers?  And computers!  More crappy coaches, too!)

- "According to various reports cited by the Bengals, under the new CBA the team has averaged in the upper half of the NFL in annual salary cap spending. In the first five years of the CBA, the NFL Players Association reported the Bengals were ninth in aggregated spending."  (See, we do spend money.  At least as much as half of the other teams, at least since 2011, on average ...  And at one specific point in time we were ninth in aggregated spending, whatever that means ...)

Geoff has spoken, fellas, and it's not that bad!

I buzzed right past that part of it lol.