Instant Reaction Grade

[NATI BENGALS]

What are your feelings on our draft?

Round 1 Pick 11
(11)
Jonah Williams
OT
Alabama

Round 2 Pick 20
(52)
Drew Sample
TE
Washington

Round 3 Pick 9
(72)
Germaine Pratt
LB
North Carolina State

Round 4 Pick 2
(104)
Ryan Finley
QB
North Carolina State

Round 4 Pick 23
(125)
Renell Wren
DT
Arizona State

Round 4 Pick 34
(136)
Michael Jordan
G
Ohio State

Round 6 Pick 9
(182)
Trayveon Williams
RB
Texas A&M

Round 6 Pick 38
(210)
Deshaun Davis
LB
Auburn

Round 6 Pick 39
(211)
Rodney Anderson
RB
Oklahoma

Round 7 Pick 9
(223)
Jordan Brown
CB
South Dakota State

[CJD]

I gotta go with a B. This was a draft of highs and lows for me.
1st: A
2nd: C-
3rd: B+
4th: A, B, B+
5th: N/A
6th: A, B+, C
7th: A

There were very few "blow me away" picks where I felt like we got elite value. But, on the other hand, taking the free falling prospect seems great at the moment but hasn't really worked our for us recently (See the Billings pick and similar picks that were called A+'s for getting a "first round talent" in the fourth round, only for that player to turn out to just...be super overrated).

This draft felt a lot more like the coaches evaluated the players rather than paying attention to what Mel Kiper and Mike Mayock were saying.

The only truly upsetting picks were the 2nd round and then the 2nd running back in the 6th but, looking at the 2nd round, there really weren't many players there that I felt like I was shaking my first at the Bengals for passing up on. This draft was very deep, but not very top heavy at all. The 2nd round was basically the third round part 1.

And then the 2nd RB was mostly just "what? why though?" but if you are just following your board, then I understand it.

A lot of picks have the potential to not work out, but the potential is there for this to be a great team defining draft.

[Beaker]

B+

I like drafting to fix the O and D lines.

[NATI BENGALS]

The perceived talent and value of who/when we picked combined with the the lack of wow picks makes me want to give it a B-.

But I see 9 of 10 picks that should make the 53 man roster. Jordan Brown has a lot of guys ahead of him at CB. So I bumped it to a B+ for filling needs.

23
QB - Dalton, Finley*
RB - Mixon, Gio, Trayveon*, Mr Anderson*
TE - Uzi, Eifert, Sample*
WR - AJ, Boyd, Ross, Erickson, Malone, Tate
T - Cordy, Jonah*, Hart
G - Boling, Miller, MJ*
C - Price, Hopkins

24
DT - Geno, Billings, Glasgow, Wren*
DE - Dunlap, Hubbard, Lawson, Willis, Wynn
LB - Vigil, Brown, Jefferson, Pratt*, Evans, Davis*
CB Dre, WJ3, Dennard, Webb, Phillips, Harris
S Williams, Bates, Fej,

[JWW1971]

Who picked F?
wouldn't matter who we drafted, some people wouldn't be happy

[THE PISTONS]

(04-27-2019, 07:13 PM)Beaker Wrote: B+

I like drafting to fix the O and D lines.

I'm somewhere around a B or B+ too.

I really LOVED the Williams pick. I can't praise that enough. The teams above us did the right things to allow him to fall and then the team pulled the trigger on drafting him. Gotta love it when the top player falls at your biggest position of need. He should start Day 1 and be a huge upgrade to Hart. Getting an instant starter in the draft is good.

I think we reached on Sample some. I do think he can contribute right away as a blocker. I think he was underutilized as a pass catcher, so he may be a better Pro than a college player. Oddly, it seems like if you take TE's that are 1-dimensional receivers that it's nearly impossible to teach them to block like Chase Coffman. I think Sample can block, and he has pretty good hands. He'll just need to learn routes and tricks to get open which is teachable I believe. Maybe he will develop into a starting TE? Then a 2nd Round pick doesn't look so bad.

Pratt in the 3rd Round was a Safety and has coverage skills. That was a HUGE need. He should be able to play atleast situationally. I'm not willing to say that our LB issues are fixed. I'd still advocate that we sign a veteran LB if one is waived.

I like the Finley pick. We needed a young QB to develop as a backup. We saw how horrible Driskell was. Not going to anoint this guy our starter in 2 years though.

Then, some guys with potential. IF we hit on 1 pick from 4 on, we did well. Hopefully we have some quality special teamers in there too. I don't know a lot about most of those guys though, so I'll spare you analysis.

[CJD]

(04-27-2019, 08:22 PM)JWW1971 Wrote: Who picked F?
wouldn't matter who we drafted, some people wouldn't be happy

Someone named KingTiger. Has 0 posts despite being a member for 4 years.

You'd think someone angry enough to give an F would have posted about it by now XD.

[BengalChris]

From a pure talent upgrade perspective and new starters here's my view on grading this draft.

Pretty much you need at least two starters from a draft. Three new starters and you are doing good. Four new starters and it's a really good draft.

Jonah Williams should wrestle the RT spot away from Hart. That's one upgraded starter.

Is anyone else an upgraded starter?

My Instant Reaction Grade is a C because I don't see more than two guys wrestling away a starting job from the existing talent.

For me a 2nd round pick should be expected to be starter and Sample isn't, at least not this year.

Pratt and Jordan are probably going to be the next best options at starting this season and neither is certain.


Furthermore, the team completely ignored the fact that after Green and Boyd, there are no reliable WRs and both Green and Boyd are entering the final year of their current deals. There were productive WRs available.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

I will take the heat, A+.

Got the players our new Head Coach wanted all the while solidifying the trenches namely at O-line and making our Linebacker core into a good tackling one. Jonah was the best most versatile OT in the Draft, Sample was the best blocking TE in the Draft, Pratt was my favorite pick and my second favorite LB behind White.

Finley fits Taylor's system, Wren is a crazy talent, Davis is a smart MIKE that can diagnose plays and tackle well, both Trayveon and Rodney are extremely talented RB's, Jordan Brown is also very talented and could be a great ST'er.

[Nicomo Cosca]

I’ll go with a C+ for now. Wish we would have taken another LB earlier.

[*bengalfan74*]

I'll give it a solid B + There's three maybe four guys that could see a good bit of playing time, perhaps even couple starters ? It's not easy to do better than that.

[THE PISTONS]

(04-27-2019, 09:18 PM)BengalChris Wrote: From a pure talent upgrade perspective and new starters here's my view on grading this draft.

Pretty much you need at least two starters from a draft. Three new starters and you are doing good. Four new starters and it's a really good draft.

Jonah Williams should wrestle the RT spot away from Hart. That's one upgraded starter.

Is anyone else an upgraded starter?

My Instant Reaction Grade is a C because I don't see more than two guys wrestling away a starting job from the existing talent.

For me a 2nd round pick should be expected to be starter and Sample isn't, at least not this year.

Pratt and Jordan are probably going to be the next best options at starting this season and neither is certain.


Furthermore, the team completely ignored the fact that after Green and Boyd, there are no reliable WRs and both Green and Boyd are entering the final year of their current deals. There were productive WRs available.

After the way the draft played out, I REALLY wish that we signed a LB. I think it's still a hole for us. Pratt has potential, but there's no way we can pencil him in as a starter. And Nickerson/Evans aren't starters in the league. Then, IF there's any injury at LB...we're right back in the same spot we were last year.

Hopefully we can add a veteran LB still.

[samhain]

I really wasn't overly pleased with it as it happened, but looking at it as a finished product on paper makes me feel a bit better.

Love the Jonah pick. it was the absolute correct move. Like many others, I question the Sample pick. Maybe they found something with him. Who knows? I'd much rather have gotten Paris Campbell or Zach Allen there, but whatever.

Pratt was a need.

Getting Finley in 4 was a nice surprise, as many mocks I saw had him in 2, and I was convinced he'd eventually be a Bengal. Makes up for the Sample pick to some extent.

Don't know a lot about Wren. I really wish they'd have invested an earlier pick in the d-line.

Love the Jordan and T. Williams picks. I think Jordan will be a fine starting RG at some point, maybe sooner than we expect. It's just an opinion, but I saw one draft site say he was a bigger, more talented James Daniels. If that's true, then that was a coup of a pick. Trayveon was a really good value where they got him.

The rest is whatever. The Auburn kid doesn't impress me, but maybe he'll be good enough combined with Pratt to knock Hardy off the roster. Lord, I hope so.

I give it a B- for now. A lot of good could come from it. My biggest qualms are with Sample in 2 and very little to get excited about as far as improving what was arguably the worst defense in the NFL. We got a nobody in Anarumo to lead them after whiffing on 6 other guys. We got a couple of bottom feeders in free agency. Now we have a 3rd round backer and 4th round DT as the only real additions in the draft. That's not overly encouraging when it comes to urgency IMO. I think they needed to do better fixing the DL, LB corps and the coaching. Hopefully I'm dead wrong about this, but it seems like denial of a problem form a cumulative perspective.

[GodFather]

I will grade the draft with a head scratcher because I dont know who 90% of these players are. (Im not a college football guy) But one thing I do like is the positions that were drafted this year and hope that the O-Line is much improved this season to give the talent we have in the backfield a chance to produce and not get pounded before the play has a chance to develop.

[AlphaBengal]

B, would rather a linebacker than Drew Sample but other than that I'm happy with it. BPA at a lot of spots and you really can't go wrong with that.

[Circleville Guy]

I voted C. I like the balance of positions drafted. The TE pick at the spot he was picked just put me in a mood from the start. The QB pick could turn out to be interesting, I wonder if he or Andy is better suited for the run first option that they may be setting up for. There are guys worth hope for but I didn’t have that one guy that I am crazy hyped about. I was wondering if there was that one guy that anyone on here was just floored that they landed to us?

[NATI BENGALS]

(04-28-2019, 12:09 AM)Circleville Guy Wrote: I voted C. I like the balance of positions drafted. The TE pick at the spot he was picked just put me in a mood from the start. The QB pick could turn out to be interesting, I wonder if he or Andy is better suited for the run first option that they may be setting up for. There are guys worth hope for but I didn’t have that one guy that I am crazy hyped about. I was wondering if there was that one guy that anyone on here was just floored that they landed to us?

Honestly getting the first team All SEC RB Trayveon and the first team All SEC LB Deshaun Davis in the 6th round shocked the shit out of me as I saw their production numbers and honors scroll across the bottom of the screen. Loved those two picks. 

[SunsetBengal]

I went B+ as they definitely had a direction and plan that they were following. I like that they not only went after players that fit general needs, but it was obvious to me that they were targeting players with specific skill sets that fit the direction they want to mold the team into. I stopped short of "A", because there is always room for improvement.

[Circleville Guy]

(04-28-2019, 12:29 AM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Honestly getting the first team All SEC RB Trayveon and the first team All SEC LB Deshaun Davis in the 6th round shocked the shit out of me as I saw their production numbers and honors scroll across the bottom of the screen. Loved those two picks. 

Fair enough! Let’s hope that it translates and they both have long and productive careers.

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

I went A.

It was obvious that Taylor has a plan for this team and went about getting the type of players that he needs. He used half of those "useless" 6th round picks to move up to get the players he wanted. I hope he get's along with Duke Tobin. I'd like to see them work together for awhile.