I am a little confused here.

Marvin Lewis supposedly called Chad Johnsons bluff and told him to sit out the whole year. If Marvin Lewis is such a genius and new Chad wasn’t going to sit out and was going to play this year than why so many WR draft picks. Was it so much more important to fill the #3 slot than Draft for our defense? If so how many picks does it take to find 1 #3.

Why did we get so many WR in the Draft?

Does it take 3 picks for the #3 spot?

Wouldn’t 1, 2 or all 3 be better if they were used on defense?

Or is our defense going to have such a remarkable turnaround this year that we had picks to waste?
Also one of the defensive picks Shirly I have a big question mark next to his name because I have seen firsthand what Marvin is able to do with our troubled youth.

You are wise, young grasshopper.

Having said that, the artist formerly known as "Falc" will tell you its just another example of the Bengals idiocy. He may be right, but I think if the Bungs get a decent trade offer, they dump him and his orange shoes.

"The American Cancer Society says uninsured patients are 60 percent more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis."

Tj has one year left, and Henry is gone, and CJ's attitude/future is an unknown. Not sure why getting a few guys ready for the future was so dumb (unless they suck, of course).

*****************
"...I am afraid that there is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public." -Booker T. Washington, 1911

On the topic...

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080605/SPT02/806050369/1066/SPT

Can’t the Bengals use the franchise tag next year on TJ? Don’t know what the exact rules are with the tag but we seem to use it every year on mediocre players “Justin Smith”.

So if Marvin new CJ was coming back and they weren’t going to trade him then I still don’t understand the 3 picks. Especially if it is for uncertainty in receivers being here next year when he has his now, now, now motto. If you’re trying to go deep into the playoffs then why draft guys that probably won’t contribute that much this year.

I by no means claim to be an NFL expert but these picks make less since every day. Maybe, later on Ill see Marvin’s wisdom but not today.

I no Marvin likes quicker defensive players so maybe Simpson and Caldwell will be used on the defensive line.

"Having said that, the artist formerly known as "Falc" will tell you its just another example of the Bengals idiocy. He may be right, but I think if the Bungs get a decent trade offer, they dump him and his orange shoes."


How is it not idiotic?!?!??!?!? Especially when the franchise has too many defensive holes to fill. Quit defending Mikey, dude. Then again Bronco--what do you expect from somebody that still goes to the damned games?




"So he got fired? Big deal. It's happened to the best of us. So he got kicked out of his house by his 400 lb'ed wife?!?!? That's probably better for him anyways."-OldSchooler on ChrisMBHater's absence

Let's wait and see what happens this summer. It would have been more idiotic to trade him when you wanted and to lose 8 million dollars. The Yankees can do that, Mikey can't and won't. Its not a matter in that regard of winning and losing because doing that is losing ultimately. A team like Cincy cant take an 8 million lump and not have anyone playing for it.

The smarter move would be to move Chad after June 1.

I dont think its smart to keep him on the team after pre-season, but who knows? Maybe he has a career year because he has to...

"The American Cancer Society says uninsured patients are 60 percent more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis."

First of all...Marvin didn't know Chad would come back to the team.

Going into the draft the Bengals WR corps looked like this:

Chad Johnson
30+ disgruntled bi-polar WR who developed a nice case of the dropsies last year

TJ Houshmandzadeh
30+ #2 WR in final year of his contract

Antonio Chatman
Averaging 8 games and 11 catches per season over the past two years

Glenn Holt
Averaging 8 cathes and 74 yards per season dring his career

Marcus Maxwell
7th Round selection with 1 NFL game under his belt

Doug Gabriel
Career scrub who acted as the NFL equivalent of a sparring partner for Carson Palmer while his starters were skipping voluntaries

Considering Carson Palmer is by far the team's most valuable commodity, did it not make sense to surround with some more talent?

I didn't originally love the fact that the Bengals took Simpson in the 2nd Round but from what I've heard he wasn't making it to the 3rd. I think he's going to be TJ's replacement.

Getting Rivers and Sims to fill holes at their biggest defensive area certainly helped. Could they have done more? Potentially but they got consensus Top 5 selections at the two positions they needed most.

Caldwell was a steal in the 5th and let's not read too much into Urethra. He was six spots away from being Mr. Irrelevant. What kind of defensive difference maker were you looking for with the pick?!?

I didn't love the draft but I could at least see the logic of the picks.

Now, if you want to use history as a guide to the "Marvin Lewis: Draft Bum" stance...

These are the players still on this team from Marvin's first four drafts...

2003-Palmer, Jeremi Johnson and Kooistra
2004-Perry, Geathers and Andrews
2005-Ghiaciuc and Fanene
2006-Joesph, Whitworth, Rucker, Peko, Kilmer

27 picks...13 active Bengal players. Guess how many Pro Bowl appearances Marvin's draft picks have?!? 2...both Carson Palmer's. That's ignorant...

Later,
BFITO

"Caldwell was a steal in the 5th and let's not read too much into Urethra. He was six spots away from being Mr. Irrelevant. What kind of defensive difference maker were you looking for with the pick?!?"

Kirk Barton.

3 Time starter at OSU and 1st team all Big ten tackle. Yeah, I think he is WORLDS better than Urethra.

For the record, Caldwell was a steal. My issue was round #2 when you had Sweed, Laws and a few others there before Simpson...

I want to say that I read on Bengals.com that the coaches think that Caldwell is more ready than Simpson to go into the NFL.

I also read that they think urethra will end up on the practice squad probably as a tight end.

I understand your argument about a disgruntle Chad. Also I don’t believe they will let TJ go.
I still don’t see how the picks benefit us this year at all. If Chad is traded then yea I can see how it was necessary to draft 3 wr’s. Also won’t Chatman most likely fill the #3?

None of these guys are going to probably help the team this year. The only Player I see having any kind of Impact is rivers. Our defense will still suffer this year and we don’t seem to care about it today or in the future.

Just doesn’t seem like a “now” draft nor do we pursue free agents for a “now” year. The Bengals seem like their always going backwards or rebuilding.

Kirk Barton plays defense?!?

Hey, I'm not defending Marvin's drafting ability. I clearly stated I think his rotten history speaks for itself. There are lots of diferent selections I would have made this year.

I will say though that I think Laws would have been a bad pick. He's a similar DT to Peko. They needed a run stopper and got one. In his last year of college where he made a name for himself Laws played DE in the 3-4.

Considering the fact he played DE, a position which normally boasts better imapct numbers, he trailed Sims in both tackles for a loss and sacks.

I truly believe Sims will be a better NFL DT than Laws but time will tell.

Later,
BFITO

Fulcher, Bengals fans seem to have gotten so used to going 3-13, 4-12, and 5-11 every year, that their mindset is still that each and every pick that is taken should be taken to fill an immediate need/role.

Most of the 4th round picks and later are going to take time. That's just the way it is. If you're drafting every player based on 'hoping' they can improve your team immediately, you're going to be very disappointed.

This team was 7-9, and even though that record doesn't make us happy, it's not like the team went 0-16 and had openings all over the roster that could be filled and improved on by 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th round picks.

They got their LB/DT and a WR to replace Henry in the 1st three rounds. I really don't see what's so bad about the positional picks (unless, as I said before, they end up sucking, which is always a distinct possibility with this team). The bottom line is, it doesn't matter who they picked in the later rounds, odds are, in their first year, they weren't going to be good enough to supplant anyone already on the team anyway, so no use complaining about which picks we should have made based on how they could have helped us THIS year, because it probably wasn't going to happen anyway, no matter who they picked.

If they were 0-16, sure, maybe. That wasn't the case, and rarely is.

That's the kind of drafting this team did every year when they sucked before Lewis got here. Draft guys that you thought could fill a position that you needed filled in the 4th round and later, and then when they get here, they're just as mediocre as the guy they were drafted to replace. It's a good way to spin your wheels every year and make no true improvements to the team, imo.

The first 2 or 3 picks should fill needs. The last 4 or more should be viewed as picks that might play later when they get experience. You can't draft players in the 4th or later to fill immediate needs unless you think they will be better than who you already have on the roster, and chances are, that's not going to happen from those rounds.

Also won’t Chatman most likely fill the #3?

I sure as hell hope not.

I think you will see Simpson/Caldwell contribute more than you think this year.

Good post Chris. Any team/fan hoping to fill immediate needs in the 5th round and later is kidding themselves. As Chris noted the Bengals got DT/LB/WR in the first three rounds. I have trouble complaining about that.

To those who didn't like Simpson in the 2nd, how would you have felt if they went:

1st-Rivers
2nd-Sims
3rd-Simpson

That order would have been closer to their draftnik marks.

I know we have a tendancy to crap all over everything the Bngals do but I actually think they got good solid value in areas of need through the first 5 rounds (until Shirley).

In my opinion it is one of the better drafts I've seen in a long time with this team. As I said, time will tell, but so far so good in my eyes.

Later,
BFITO

Chapman blows...

I take that back.

He doesn't blow, but he cant stay healthy and when he was healthy, he didn't contribute.

Chris & BFITO,

I understand completely what you both are saying but I will have to wait and see what this brings. I mean the defense is a joke and I am tired of watching our defense run all over the field trying to catch the running back.

Rivers & Sims are all upgrades but what wouldn’t be, besides Peko and the Cb’s I think the rest are average at best.
If it was me I would have tried to put more depth into the defense and the offensive line. Personally I would have only chosen one receiver and that would have probably been Caldwell.
Will see how it turns out won’t be able to judge the draft for at least a couple years “unless their arrested”

I have no problems with this draft.

I contend the Bengals hevaily spent this draft on defense. I will use the draft value chart as a guide. I know that a lot of people dispute the values in the draft value chart, but it is a place to start discussion.

According to the chart the Bengals picks were "valued" follows:

Round Overall O/D Value
1 9 D 1350
2 46 O 440
3 77 D 205
3 90 O 140
4 112 O 70
5 145 D 33.5
6 177 D 20.6
6 207 O 8.6

The value of picks below 220 is less than 1.

So, the Bengals spent 1609.1/2267.7 of their draft value, or 71% of their draft on defense. Furthermore, 1555/2267.7 (68.6%) was spent on their two biggest defenseive needs, LB and DT.

There are 10 types of people in this world, those who undertsand binary, and those who do not.

Interesting Draw.

I guess I must be ignorant on Draft charts your post is the first time I have heard of such a thing. Nice post, dont know how much it actually means but it is interesting.

"Marvin Lewis supposedly called Chad Johnsons bluff and told him to sit out the whole year. If Marvin Lewis is such a genius and new Chad wasn’t going to sit out and was going to play this year than why so many WR draft picks. Was it so much more important to fill the #3 slot than Draft for our defense? If so how many picks does it take to find 1 #3.

Why did we get so many WR in the Draft?

Does it take 3 picks for the #3 spot?

Wouldn’t 1, 2 or all 3 be better if they were used on defense?"

The answer is that you don't draft for this year, you draft for years 2-5 down the road. Traditionally for the Bengals receivers totally blow after their 8th season. Pickens, Collinsworth, Scott, Brown, all of them were gone after year 8. Actually, they probably should have gone after WR last year. Waiting until next year would have been a disaster.

Overall, I would have given the draft a B or B+ if they had selected BArton instead of Urethra.

However, I don't think its as bad as some haters state. I also dont think its as bad as I thought the day after.



"The American Cancer Society says uninsured patients are 60 percent more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis."

Why we picked so many WRs as well. Why not take a flyer on more line help.

We have 2-3 guys on our OL line that either need a push or need to go. Anderson will be 33 and Williams 32 at the start of the season. We need to get younger guys in.

The DL has of course the Thornton hole. Peko I believe will be better if can get a good 300+ pounder next to him. Geathers and Odom I believe are going to be good together. LBs are a question mark but Rivers looks great so far.

I hate the more offensive thing. We got Utecht, TJ and Chad along with Simpson who I hope can replace Henry's production.

Peace

"I have no problems with this draft."


Why the hell not? I sure as fack did. Or did you forget that DT was almost totally ignored again. When I call you an idiot in 3 years, Draw--are you going to get all offended?




"So he got fired? Big deal. It's happened to the best of us. So he got kicked out of his house by his 400 lb'ed wife?!?!? That's probably better for him anyways."-OldSchooler on ChrisMBHater's absence

Falc,

I agree with you in that they should have traded up to get Dorsey/Ellis.

That was inexcusable.

However, I did like the Pat Sims pick up.

Most people had him as the 3rd or 4th best DT in the draft and we got him in the 3rd.

I liked Caldwell, Rivers, Lynch and even Shirley. Any starter we get beyond the 3rd round is like a lottery pick for the Bungs considering Mike Hole so it is what it is.

I'm not being optimistic, I'm being realistic about the Bungs under Mike Hole. Under Mike-hole, this was a decent draft.

"The American Cancer Society says uninsured patients are 60 percent more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis."

"I'm not being optimistic, I'm being realistic about the Bungs under Mike Hole. Under Mike-hole, this was a decent draft."


You can't really say until 3 years later. So we will see in 2011. Then we can pick it apart then. Deal?





"So he got fired? Big deal. It's happened to the best of us. So he got kicked out of his house by his 400 lb'ed wife?!?!? That's probably better for him anyways."-OldSchooler on ChrisMBHater's absence