This highlight has it all...

[Murdock2420]

(04-16-2020, 02:50 AM)Jhowdy54 Wrote: Ashley Ambrose was a stud DB as well.  I was too young to know in detail much about the mid 90s Bengals teams so I have a quick question.  What was the downfall of those teams?

I forgot about Ambrose, he was incredible as well.


Poor coaching was one of the biggest issues. Dave Shula was in over his head, and Bruce Coslet was better served as an O-Cord, not a head coach and that was followed by another great coordinator that wasn't really cut out to be a head coach in Dick LeBeau.

It also lined up perfectly with the death of Paul Brown and Mike taking over and being in way over his head. He tried to run it the way his Dad did, family and doing a lot of the work himself, but the difference was Paul was a football genius and Mike...well not so much.

Add in missing on 1st rounder after 1st rounder, and well that's why it is called the lost decade.

1st rounders after Sam Wyche was fired at the end of the 1991 season.

1992 - David Klinger - #6 overall - Big time college QB that set the record for TD's in a season and was super accurate and had all the talent to be a star, yet was put behind a bad O-line, with a young head coach and we ruined his career. (Is this foreshadowing to this year?)

1993 - John Copeland - #5 overall - In eight NFL seasons, he played in 107 regular season games, started 102 of them, and compiled 324 tackles, 24.0 quarterback sacks, nine forced fumbles, three interceptions and a touchdown on a fumble recovery. 

1994 - "Big Daddy" Dan Wilkinson - #1 overall - Marshall Faulk was the next pick... Wilkinson while solid never went to a Pro Bowl, never really stood out as much as you need from a first pick.

1995 - Ki-Jana Carter - #1 overall (via trade gave up the 5th pick and our 2nd rounder to move up) - Carter was electric and had the talent to be a Bo Jackson like player... however... Often considered a "bust" by media given where he was drafted, Carter was beset with injuries from his rookie season on. Carter tore a ligament in his knee on his third carry of his first preseason game of his rookie year, and never fully recovered. He missed the entire 1995 season. In 1997, he suffered a torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder with fears that he would miss the entire season. In 1998, he missed the entire season after breaking his left wrist in a game against the Tennessee Oilers. In 1999, he again missed the entire season after dislocating his right kneecap in a game against the Carolina Panthers. 

1996 - Willie Anderson - #10 overall - Absolute great pick. Followed it up with a 2nd round TE named Marco Battaglia out of Rutgers. 71 career catches, for 661 yards and 2 TD's. That spanned 8 seasons, like Drew Sample before there was a Drew Sample.

1997 - Reinard Wilson - #14 overall - Just another wasted first rounder, he wasn't flashy and lasted 6 seasons, 173 tackles and 24 sacks in his career. 

1998 - Takeo Spikes and Brian Simmons - #13 and #17 overall - This year was actually a good draft all around. Artrell Hawkins, Steve Foley, Mike Goff and Glenn Steele all contributed. Sadly, Spikes got sick of the losing and the culture that was here and left for Buffalo after 2002, only missed 1 game in his Bengal career. Pro Bowl player for the Bills in 2003 and 2004, had the team turned the corner sooner, maybe Spikes stays..he was a force.

1999 - Akili Smith - #3 overall - This will always be the draft where the Saints said, hey we will give you every pick we have for the #3 to take Ricky Williams....and we said, no thanks, we will take this one year wonder college QB. The final offer, which was refused by Bengals management, was for nine draft picks, several extra in that year as well as many the next year. Smith came to the foreground of draft discussions because of his performance in his senior season at Oregon, throwing 30 touchdown passes in only 11 starts in college. His Junior year was...meh at best and he wasn't viewed as a top guy, but his senior year launched him to the top of draft boards. In his 4 years as a Bengal he completed 46% of his passes, for 2,212 yards (threw for 3,763 his Senior year at Oregon) and had 5 TD's compared to 13 Int's. He was not good...

So, add up some bad drafts, and mix in a bad Owner who was lost, and a few bad coaches and well...you get the lost decade.