We have kind of sucked at drafting lately...

[WeezyBengal]

Other than the obvious Burrow, Chase picks...who have we REALLY hit on lately in our drafts? Looking at the past 3 drafts...

Good, quality talent:
CTB

Jury is still out:
Dax, Turner, Murphy, Chase Brown, Battle. Because they are young or limited playing time. But none of these guys have shown anything to make us think they are going to be STUDS. Could still be good players, though. I will admit Chase Brown has the ability to be pretty damn dynamic.

Clearly not a stud, decent/borderline servicable, could be upgraded:
Volson

I mean that's really all we've gotten from the past 3 drafts. Two obvious elite talents, a good player, and some guys the jury is still completely out on. I know the 2023 guys need more time...but man. The 2021 and 2022 drafts were just really, really bad. That 2021 draft is almost a complete throw away.

[Hammerstripes]

(01-08-2024, 01:36 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Other than the obvious Burrow, Chase picks...who have we REALLY hit on lately in our drafts? Looking at the past 3 drafts...

Good, quality talent:
CTB

Jury is still out:
Dax, Turner, Murphy, Chase Brown, Battle. Because they are young or limited playing time. But none of these guys have shown anything to make us think they are going to be STUDS. Could still be good players, though. I will admit Chase Brown has the ability to be pretty damn dynamic.

Clearly not a stud, decent/borderline servicable, could be upgraded:
Volson

I mean that's really all we've gotten from the past 3 drafts. Two obvious elite talents, a good player, and some guys the jury is still completely out on. I know the 2023 guys need more time...but man. The 2021 and 2022 drafts were just really, really bad. That 2021 draft is almost a complete throw away.

5 contributors/future starters is a great draft.

[jj22]

Drafting late was a "new" challenge for the FO the last two years.

Their big successful reset came with top 5 picks in each round.

They'll need to find a way to draft well in the 20's (theoretically if they want sustained playoff success).

[Isaac Curtis: The Real #85]

(01-08-2024, 01:36 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Other than the obvious Burrow, Chase picks...who have we REALLY hit on lately in our drafts? Looking at the past 3 drafts...

Good, quality talent:
CTB

Jury is still out:
Dax, Turner, Murphy, Chase Brown, Battle. Because they are young or limited playing time. But none of these guys have shown anything to make us think they are going to be STUDS. Could still be good players, though. I will admit Chase Brown has the ability to be pretty damn dynamic.

Clearly not a stud, decent/borderline servicable, could be upgraded:
Volson

I mean that's really all we've gotten from the past 3 drafts. Two obvious elite talents, a good player, and some guys the jury is still completely out on. I know the 2023 guys need more time...but man. The 2021 and 2022 drafts were just really, really bad. That 2021 draft is almost a complete throw away.

What? 

2021: 
1st: Chase, HR 
2nd: Carman, whiff, still on team 
3rd: Ossai, jury still out, 68 PFF this year 
4th: Cam Sample: good depth piece 
4th: Shelvin, whiff, cut 
4th: D. Smith, still on team, never plays 
5th: McPherson, HR 
6th: T. Hill, backup C  
6th: Evans, 4th string RB 
7th: Hubert, got hurt retired 

8/10 still on team. 2 starters. 2 good depth pieces and 4 deep depth guys. 2 whiffs. 

2022: all guys still on team:
1st: D. Hill, rough 1st year at S but flashed. 
2nd: CTB, good pick, starter
3rd: Carter, better this year but mediocre
4th: Volson, starter, much improved late 
5th: Anderson  made team, STer, hurt 
7th: Gunter, made team 1stvyear, then PS 

3 Starters, 2 backups, 1 PS guy. 

2023: 
1st: Murphy: raw but got better late. 
2nd: Turner, faded late after good start 
3rd: Battle, absolute stud 
4th: C. Jones, 1 return TD 
5th: C. Brown, flashed that speed
6th: Iosivas, 4 TDs 
6th: Robbins, looks whiffy 
7th: Ivey  looked fantastic before getting hurt 

Everyone made the team. 3 starters. 

It is harder for rookies to make an impact on a SB level team. 

Thrilled: Chase, McPherson, Battle 
Very happy: CTB, Ivey
Happy: C. Sample, Volson, C. Brown, Iosivas 
Fine but still hoping for more: Ossai, D. Hill, Turner, Murphy, C. Jones 
Fine: T. Hill, Evans, Anderson, Gunter
Mild disappointment: D. Smith, Hubert, Carter 
Bust/whiff: Carman, Shelvin, Robbins

[*ochocincos*]

(01-08-2024, 01:59 PM)Hammerstripes Wrote: 5 contributors/future starters is a great draft.

I think OP using the term "kind of sucked" is a bit overkill.

I dunno what happened with Dax Hill the second half of the season, but he was playing well overall the first half. His coverage really fell off.
Jordan Battle played very well, but he had to push underperforming Nick Scott out.
I'm optimistic in both of the safeties going into next year really becoming a good tandem.

Chase Brown showed he deserves more opportunities based on his late-season contributions, but he's not shown worthy of taking the majority of reps.
But that's fine. The Bengals still have Mixon to share touches with, and Mixon is coming off yet another 1400+ yard-from-scrimmage campaign and only going to turn 28 when the next season starts.

Turner, like Dax Hill, had some great moments this season, but he's not a finished product. That's to be expected for players really getting reps their first year.
It's important for people to remember that Hill basically sat the bench all last year, so he and Turner both were pretty inexperienced when it came to NFL.
If I was going to look for one spot to add depth to, it would be CB with multiple CBs hitting FA.

Last, there's Murphy.
He was the obvious guy who was not going to be much of an immediate contributor because he had two established, good starters in front of him.
Murphy ended up with a respectable 3.0 sacks on only 290 snaps (165 pass rush snaps) as a rookie, and he looks like he will become the first guy off the bench when rotating in.

I think what some really wanted (and the Bengals arguably needed) was a lot of immediate impactful players, of which the Bengals didn't really get.
Sure, guys contributed, but we didn't see quite the draft impact for the 2023 Bengals that we saw the Chiefs get the year prior in McDuffie, Karlaftis, Pacheco, and a couple others that really helped get them to a Super Bowl and win.

With all the guys potentially departing in FA this year, the Bengals will likely need a 2024 draft class that gets at least 3 immediate impactful rookies to get them back to a deep playoff run.

[CJD]

2020 was a truly elite draft. Nearly every single pick contributed, with 5 of the 7 picks making it all the way through their rookie contract and 2 of them re-signed (with the other 3 likely to be re-signed as well).

2021 was rough, but we got two elite starters out of it. This honestly may be the draft that hurts us most in the next two years. So many picks, and so many misses. Especially early in the draft (2nd round pick, 3rd round pick and 3 4th round picks all miss to some degree.)

2022 has produced 3 starters, 2 back ups and 1 miss. It was a low volume draft at the end of each round, but they still got half their current secondary out of it. I expect this class to improve as time goes on.

2023 we got a promising pass rusher, the other 2 starters in the secondary and some exciting tools for the offense. It's way too early to judge this draft class, but I could see every single pick making the 2024 roster again (unfortunately for us in the case of Robbins but I doubt they cut bait on him after a single season). With a pick at the bottom of the round, this is a good amount of production and potential.

It's really just 2021 that is going to be painful going forward. But next year those contracts will expire, so this is the last year we'll actively suffer from that poor draft.

2024 will be a mid round draft, so we should get some good value out of that as well.