Article of Hope!!

[*ochocincos*]

(03-08-2020, 10:19 AM)Gamma Ray Tan Wrote: The Bengals future success will not begin on draft day, it will begin in 10 days when free agency starts. We will see just how much this organization REALLY wants to win. Burrow is not going to carry this team, it has too many holes to fill and banking on unproven rookies ( Ogbuehi, Fisher, Ross, Price, Sample) is the reason this team is where it is right now. Go get 1-2 difference makers in free agency.....THAT is where we begin our turnaround. Joe Burrow would approve.

To be fair, most of those rookies had veterans in front of them for at least a year or two before being put into a starting role.

When Fisher and Ogbuehi were drafted, Whitworth AND Smith were the starters.
When Ross was drafted, they had AJ, LaFell, AND Boyd ahead of him.
When Sample was drafted, he had Eifert AND Uzomah ahead of him.

Don't pretend these were rookies forced into starting.
It was the Bengals choosing to draft their replacements once contract was up.
It was a lack of development/quality drafting, not forcing players into starting roles as rookies.

The problem with their approach to FA is they rely too much on their draft picks to develop into quality starters.
The outside FAs they get are mid-to-lower tier and just stopgaps until draft picks develop.
If those draft picks don't develop, the team gets into the state it's in now.