Grade the 2021 Bengals draft

[J24]

1st.) Jammar Chase WR LSU

2.) Jackson Carmen OL Clemson

3.) Joseph Ossai Edge Texas

4.) Cam Sample Edge Tulane

4b.)Tyler Shelvin NT LSU

4c.) D'ante Smith OT ECU

5.)Mac McPherson K Florida

6th.) Trey Hill C Georgia

6b.) Chris Evans RB Florida

7.) Wyatt Hubert DE

[Frank Booth]

C-

[Yogo]

I agree C-.

What did I observe?

1) We hit on no-brainers.
2) Drafting a K in the fifth round was the biggest upgrade, best move in recent draft history for us.
3) Rounds 2 and on were pretty much eh.

What it means for us in the future?
1) Trade low picks to move up for no-brain talent. We've got quality through our free agent pickups, so go for quality over quantity. Whatever leftover draft stock become lottery ticket gambles.

[CJD]

(05-02-2024, 05:50 PM)J24 Wrote: 1st.) Jammar Chase WR LSU

2.) Jackson Carmen OL Clemson

3.) Joseph Ossai Edge Texas

4.) Cam Sample Edge Tulane

4b.)Tyler Shelvin NT LSU

4c.) D'ante Smith OT ECU

5.)Mac McPherson K Florida

6th.) Trey Hill C Georgia

6b.) Chris Evans RB Florida

7.) Wyatt Hubert DE

1st.) Jammar Chase WR LSU

Grade: S. Perfect pick.


2.) Jackson Carmen OL Clemson

Grade: F. Complete garbage from day 1.

3.) Joseph Ossai Edge Texas

Grade: C-. Has shown some flashes, but completely bombed in his big chance last year. Lost snaps to Sample and Murphy and never looked like the disruptor he appeare to be in 2022. At this point, any contribution he provides should be considered a bonus.

4.) Cam Sample Edge Tulane

Grade: B. As a 4th round pick, he has consistently played in games and made an impact at times. He will never be a starter, but he's a decent reserve player who can flex inside on occasion. Not bad for a day 3 pick.

4b.)Tyler Shelvin NT LSU

Grade: F. Wasted pick.

4c.) D'ante Smith OT ECU

Grade: C. Even as a day 3 pick, he has been a disappointment. Smith has never earned the confidence of the coaching staff and has never challenged for playing time. He is a back up and may remain there for 2023, but he is also a possible candidate to be cut this training camp.

5.)Mac McPherson K Florida

Grade: A. While I don't typically endorse using picks on special teamers, Money Mac is the exception as he truly is a weapon for this offense.

6th.) Trey Hill C Georgia

Grade: B. A late day 3 pick who has stuck on the roster. You can do much worse this late. Although, I don't think he has any potential to ever be a starter.

6b.) Chris Evans RB Florida

Grade: D. This may be too low, but it just feels like he's wasted his opportunities here for some reason. Every time he was on the field, he seemed to make a good play. And yet, he is never given snaps. It has to be some deficiency he is showing in practice. The hierarchy was gone when Perine left. He should have challenged for RB2 snaps, but was usurped by a rookie. 

7.) Wyatt Hubert DE

Grade: F. Got injured. Retired. Unretired. Asked for his release. Wasted pick.

Overall, I give it a C-. Chase is the only one keeping it from being a solid F. We got 2 great starters, but one of them is a special teamer. We got 2 decent depth pieces in Sample and Ossai, 3 unknown/bad depth pieces that are on the edge of the roster (Hill, Smith and Evans) and 3 legitimately wasted picks (Carman, Shelvin, Hubert), one of which was a 2nd rounder (He would have been an unknown/bad depth piece if he were like a 5th rounder. As a 2nd round pick, he was a wasted pick). A truly dreadful draft.

[J24]

(05-02-2024, 05:50 PM)J24 Wrote: 1st.) Jammar Chase WR LSU- A++

2.) Jackson Carmen OL Clemson- F

3.) Joseph Ossai Edge Texas D+

4.) Cam Sample Edge Tulane B

4b.)Tyler Shelvin NT LSU-F

4c.) D'ante Smith OT ECU-D

5.)Mac McPherson K Florida-A+

6th.) Trey Hill C Georgia- C

6b.) Chris Evans RB Florida- B

7.) Wyatt Hubert DE- F

Best pick- Jamar Chase WR LSU- He's Been better than advertised as a WR. 

Worst pick- Jackson Carmen- We will always have that night in Buffalo but other than that meh.

Overall grade- A- Without Jammar and Money Mac we don't make a superbowl run.

Redo the  draft( can only replace a player with a player picked in same round and after pick)
1st Jammar Chase  WR LSU
2nd) Creed Humphrey C Oklahoma 
3rd.) Osa Odighizuwa 3T UCLA
4th.) Armon ST Brown WR USC
4b.)Camtyn Bynum S  Cal
4c.) D'Ante Smith T ECU
5.)Mac McPherson K Florida 
6.)Trey Smith OG Tenn
6b) Chris Evans RB Florida 
7th.) Johnathon Cooper Edge Ohio St.

[Bengalion]

C+ Still can't get over how we let the Chiefs steal Creed Humphrey in front of us (Samuel Cosmi is another OT prospect selected after Carmen that has turned into a good starter). Chase and McPherson saved this class from being a complete disaster.

[Bengalstripes9]

With Chase it deserves an A or a B.

Without Chase it deserves an F.

Any year you draft a top 5 player at his position is a successful draft.

It’s unfortunate they wasted the rest of the picks (except McPherson).
Hitting on a few of the rest of the picks could have built a Super Bowl champion team the past few years.

There are a couple picks that could pan out like Ossai and Carman, but up to this point they haven’t.

[casear2727]

(05-02-2024, 08:25 PM)Bengalstripes9 Wrote: With Chase it deserves an A or a B.

Without Chase it deserves an F.

Any year you draft a top 5 player at his position is a successful draft.

It’s unfortunate they wasted the rest of the picks (except McPherson).
Hitting on a few of the rest of the picks could have built a Super Bowl champion team the past few years.

There are a couple picks that could pan out like Ossai and Carman, but up to this point they haven’t.

I think Chase keeps it from being a D-.  C or above is very generous.  Picking Top 5 should always yield a very good player. 

[Bengalstripes9]

(05-02-2024, 08:37 PM)casear2727 Wrote: I think Chase keeps it from being a D-.  C or above is very generous.  Picking Top 5 should always yield a very good player. 

The Bengals came away with arguably the best player in the draft.
There were picks before and after Chase that were busts or not warranting a top pick.

I’d say based on that that’s a huge success.
Micah Parsons at 12 is the only one I see challenging Chase for top player in the draft.
Lawrence has been good. I think he was worth the top pick.
There are a couple good OTs in the top 10.
There are some good wrs and rbs in the first round.
But overall this draft had a lot of weak picks and weak first round picks.

[casear2727]

(05-02-2024, 08:47 PM)Bengalstripes9 Wrote: The Bengals came away with arguably the best player in the draft.
There were picks before and after Chase that were busts or not warranting a top pick.

I’d say based on that that’s a huge success.
Micah Parsons at 12 is the only one I see challenging Chase for top player in the draft.
Lawrence has been good. I think he was worth the top pick.
There are a couple good OTs in the top 10.
There are some good wrs and rbs in the first round.
But overall this draft had a lot of weak picks and weak first round picks.

Not doubting how great the Chase pick was, but how disastrously awful the trenches picks were.   We drafted SEVEN  players for oline and dline, none of them became a starter, only one was decent in rotation.  That is a horrid draft that set this team up for failure in the trenches all the way through to this year's draft.  

[jj22]

Y’all too hard on Shelvin. Without his big stop in the AFCC there is no Superbowl. He earns his A.

[jj22]

Chase carries this draft to an A.

The book isn’t closed on some of these players yet. Ossai and Sample have earned their stripes for their post season play. Don’t over think this. Even Carman paid his dues when we needed him the most during Championship runs.

Y’all name other A’s from other drafts outside of 2021 and 2020 and we’ll have to ask for something other than big post season contributions to try to argue the grade.

And that’s going to be tough.

[Nicomo Cosca]

Absolutely brutal outside of Chase and McPherson. But to their credit there was a handful of truly special players at the top of that draft (Chase, Sewell, Parsons) and they came away with one of them. So it’s hard to call it a complete failure. Still, only yielding one starter in a draft where you’re picking towards the top of each round is pretty terrible.

If they had hit on an OL in the 2nd (Creed, Cosmi, etc) if would have changed things quite a bit.

[Bengalstripes9]

Honestly I don’t think this draft was very good at all in terms of the talent available.

Bengals got a huge talent in Chase in a first round that probably had an overall batting average of .500 at best.
McPherson is good.
There are a couple players that could still pan out from the mid rounds.

But yeah, outside of Chase and McPherson it’s a terrible draft and deserves an F.

But they landed Chase and he could be the best WR in the league.
Any year you get a player like that it’s hard not to give the draft an A.

[Bengal Dude]

Jackson Carmen is the perfect example of why the FO and coaches need to agree on the player before drafting them. Pollack definitely deserves the criticisms he gets, but he didn't want Carmen in the first place. He was pushing for Creed Humphrey.

[puddycat]

C-. Bengals get credit for now blowing the Jamaar pick, but we should all remember that the other guy was Penei Sewell. He's an all-pro at RT, a position where we are on our fourth player in 4 years, having paid an average of 8M/yr. to start Adeniji and Prince once we got to the playoffs. Those two have zero starts between them since leaving the Bengals.
Overall that draft wasn't that good top to bottom. Carman was a miss. I think Ossai started out OK, better than Murphy did. The Bengals seem to have ADD in developing players. Either they hit, or we keep them on the roster hoping for lightning to strike. This terrifies me looking at Mims, Murphy, Turner, Dax Hill, CTB. If they don't get better, is there a plan B?

[Nicomo Cosca]

(05-03-2024, 02:57 AM)puddycat Wrote: Bengals get credit for now blowing the Jamaar pick, but we should all remember that the other guy was Penei Sewell. He's an all-pro at RT

I don’t think anyone could forget those debates…

The Bengals couldn’t have went wrong with either one, but Chase has been the slightly more valuable player.

PFF WAR since entering the league

Ja'Marr Chase 1.29
Penei Sewell 1.24

— Steve Palazzolo (@PFF_Steve) April 24, 2024

[Brownshoe]

Looking back at our old drafts just makes me think the Bengals are way worse than I thought at drafting. I just glanced at the last 10 drafts and we really didn't have any that stood out other than the 2020 draft. Honestly, I feel like we've gotten better in recent years. I always had it in my head that the Marvin years we had better drafts than under Taylor, but looking at it I would give the nod to Taylor.

[Nicomo Cosca]

(05-03-2024, 07:06 AM)Brownshoe Wrote: Looking back at our old drafts just makes me think the Bengals are way worse than I thought at drafting. I just glanced at the last 10 drafts and we really didn't have any that stood out other than the 2020 draft. Honestly, I feel like we've gotten better in recent years. I always had it in my head that the Marvin years we had better drafts than under Taylor, but looking at it I would give the nod to Taylor.

I’d say Marvin gets the edge until Zac produces a Whit or a Geno caliber player. Excluding layups like Burrow and Chase in the top 5 (Marvin had AJ anyway). The only other All Pro we’ve drafted other than Chase in the last decade or so was Bates who was Marvin’s last draft class.

The best player outside of the top 5 they’ve drafted under Zac is probably Tee. Who’s obviously a good player, but not on the level of those other guys.

[Bengalbug]

(05-02-2024, 08:47 PM)Bengalstripes9 Wrote: The Bengals came away with arguably the best player in the draft.
There were picks before and after Chase that were busts or not warranting a top pick.

I’d say based on that that’s a huge success.
Micah Parsons at 12 is the only one I see challenging Chase for top player in the draft.
Lawrence has been good. I think he was worth the top pick.
There are a couple good OTs in the top 10.
There are some good wrs and rbs in the first round.
But overall this draft had a lot of weak picks and weak first round picks.

Micah parsons has been better than Chase so far in their careers. But we sure did well.