Grading the 2024 Bengals Draft

[spicoli]

7 hours ago, sparky151 said:

 

Here's a set of quotes from several NFL executives on the Falcons draft:

What is wrong with you? Is this stuff really that important? You act like you’re getting paid to prove everyone wrong. It gets old. 

[sparky151]

15 hours ago, spicoli said:

What is wrong with you? Is this stuff really that important? You act like you’re getting paid to prove everyone wrong. It gets old. 

 

Er, it's a message board. Taking Penix at 8 after signing Cousins was so blindingly stupid that it's hard to imagine anyone would defend it. But a couple of people here seem to be contrarian on that point. IMO Terry Fontenot is giving George Paton a run for the title of worst GM in the NFL. I'm willing to listen to arguments that it was a clever move by the Falcons, just don't see anything to them. 

[claptonrocks]

1 minute ago, sparky151 said:

 

Er, it's a message board. Taking Penix at 8 after signing Cousins was so blindingly stupid that it's hard to imagine anyone would defend it. But a couple of people here seem to be contrarian on that point. IMO Terry Fontenot is giving George Paton a run for the title of worst GM in the NFL. I'm willing to listen to arguments that it was a clever move by the Falcons, just don't see anything to them. 

Allright I get your point to a degree but

in all actuality who gives a fuck what the Falcons do?

Maybe move on now or we could dissect the Panthers next..😎

 

[|BlackJesus|]

[dex]

Cincinnati Bengals

The draft reflected a team looking for one or two more stars, not just more complementary pieces. The big swings for tackle Amarius Mims and receiver Jermaine Burton on offense highlight that strategy. The fourth-round pick of oft-injured tight end Erick All did the same. The word “urgency” keeps coming up. Joe Burrow’s contract cap hit will start to be felt after this season, and the Bengals recognize how many pieces are in place to make a run with Burrow back healthy, a fourth-place schedule, and a young defense that took its lumps last year with eyes on a big jump in 2024. The Bengals are Super Bowl contenders. The swings they took during the draft might decide whether they end up there or picking in the middle of the pack again next April. — Paul Dehner Jr.

[dex]

From this statement from Mike Potts, I get the feeling that the Bengals might pick up a player or two after the June 1st cuts...maybe someone like Sameje Perine?

 

Potts on sticking and using all the late picks rather than trading, consolidating with a deep roster: “Football is a violent game. There is going to be injuries. Our roster right now after the draft isn’t what our roster will be a month from now, our training camp roster and certainly not October, November, hopefully into January and February. A guy that doesn’t have a clear fit to make it right now, you are going to be glad you had that guy later. You can have competition to push other guys to do better as well. It’s a great thing. You can never go wrong adding competition to the roster.”

[Cricket]

12 minutes ago, dex said:

From this statement from Mike Potts, I get the feeling that the Bengals might pick up a player or two after the June 1st cuts...maybe someone like Sameje Perine?

 

Potts on sticking and using all the late picks rather than trading, consolidating with a deep roster: “Football is a violent game. There is going to be injuries. Our roster right now after the draft isn’t what our roster will be a month from now, our training camp roster and certainly not October, November, hopefully into January and February. A guy that doesn’t have a clear fit to make it right now, you are going to be glad you had that guy later. You can have competition to push other guys to do better as well. It’s a great thing. You can never go wrong adding competition to the roster.”

While there is some kernel of truth to this, I see it as nothing more than rationalization at its finest.  🦗

 

 

[dex]

7 minutes ago, Cricket said:

While there is some kernel of truth to this, I see it as nothing more than rationalization at its finest.  🦗

 

 

I dunno, the Bengals front office were definitely laying the groundwork to trade up in the 2nd round if a certain player started to slide. I'm pretty sure that Johnny Newton was the pass rushing DT they would have moved up if he lingered on the board at all. They actually ended up with Kris Jenkins, but if they were eyeing him on the board for an hour, maybe they should have used a pick or two to move up for him. They just got lucky that Jenkins was still on the board at pick 49.

[Cricket]

3 hours ago, dex said:

I dunno, the Bengals front office were definitely laying the groundwork to trade up in the 2nd round if a certain player started to slide. I'm pretty sure that Johnny Newton was the pass rushing DT they would have moved up if he lingered on the board at all. They actually ended up with Kris Jenkins, but if they were eyeing him on the board for an hour, maybe they should have used a pick or two to move up for him. They just got lucky that Jenkins was still on the board at pick 49.

I think this supports my claim of rationalization. Maybe “we” were looking to use some draft capital to move up or to add more “sweet spot” picks…I was really hoping we would.  But “we” didn’t…and I think that Potts is just rationalizing that keeping all ten picks was the right thing to do.  
 

But, maybe I misinterpreted.     

[dex]

30 minutes ago, Cricket said:

I think this supports my claim of rationalization. Maybe “we” were looking to use some draft capital to move up or to add more “sweet spot” picks…I was really hoping we would.  But “we” didn’t…and I think that Potts is just rationalizing that keeping all ten picks was the right thing to do.  
 

But, maybe I misinterpreted.     

But if the player you would've traded up goes off the board very early in the 2nd- it may well have been Johnny Newton - what's the point in trading up in that scenario?

 

It was also said that while Aranumo was sweating out his chance to draft Kris Jenkins, Tobin and Potts were not strictly looking at DTs on the big board at that time. If Jenkins had gone off the board, then maybe Pollock gets the 2nd round premium pick with an IOL. I believe they had already roughly settled on going for off/def linemen in the first 2 rounds, Burton in the 3rd and All in the 4th. That reported theory gets validated when you look at how few WRs/TEs that they brought in for Top 30 visits for the premium/near premium rounds. 

[T-Dub]

46 minutes ago, dex said:

maybe Pollock gets the 2nd round premium pick with an IOL

 

 

Fine that he didn't but they could've addressed it with those 4th-6th rd picks.  Feel like McLachlan was an insurance policy for All, which begs the question of why not draft a single healthy TE instead.. Don't want another Eifert situation. Burton kinda sounds like a head case tbh & Jackson a bit of a reach.

 

First 2 rounds were solid but they really started gambling in the middle rounds.  It seems kind of desperate.  The team isn't devoid of talent, what they've lacked are solid & dependable guys to simply show up & play the position.  Once again too much chasing "potential" which is to be expected when coaches are making the picks.

[dex]

20 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

 

 

Fine that he didn't but they could've addressed it with those 4th-6th rd picks.  Feel like McLachlan was an insurance policy for All, which begs the question of why not draft a single healthy TE instead.. Don't want another Eifert situation. Burton kinda sounds like a head case tbh & Jackson a bit of a reach.

 

First 2 rounds were solid but they really started gambling in the middle rounds.  It seems kind of desperate.  The team isn't devoid of talent, what they've lacked are solid & dependable guys to simply show up & play the position.  Once again too much chasing "potential" which is to be expected when coaches are making the picks.

Agree on Jackson in the 3rd, but this was definitely not considered a deep Day Three draft class across the league. So many draftable players decided to stay in college another year. So all of the teams were just drafting whatever prospects seemed like values regardless of position.

 

As for Burton, I would never draft him for a team that had a QB controversy like the Raiders for instance. He could be a real problem there. But the Bengals with Burrow and the current WR players & position coach? A perfect match. I think Burton will love playing with Burrow, and Burrow will love throwing the ball to Burton (who did not drop a single pass his senior year).

[Cricket]

1 hour ago, dex said:

But if the player you would've traded up goes off the board very early in the 2nd- it may well have been Johnny Newton - what's the point in trading up in that scenario?

 

It was also said that while Aranumo was sweating out his chance to draft Kris Jenkins, Tobin and Potts were not strictly looking at DTs on the big board at that time. If Jenkins had gone off the board, then maybe Pollock gets the 2nd round premium pick with an IOL. I believe they had already roughly settled on going for off/def linemen in the first 2 rounds, Burton in the 3rd and All in the 4th. That reported theory gets validated when you look at how few WRs/TEs that they brought in for Top 30 visits for the premium/near premium rounds. 

At this point, I’m really not sure what you are arguing. 
 

Perhaps the Bengals’ plan was to use all ten picks from the beginning…and would validate Potts’ statement.  Not sure I’m buying that…but it doesn’t really matter.  
 

IF the team was hoping to make some moves during the draft to get more quality at the expense of quantity, then Potts’ statement would clearly  be rationalization…in my opinion.

 

At this point in time, it doesn’t really matter.  We got the ten guys we got.  

[T-Dub]

34 minutes ago, dex said:

As for Burton, I would never draft him for a team that had a QB controversy like the Raiders for instance. He could be a real problem there. But the Bengals with Burrow and the current WR players & position coach? A perfect match. I think Burton will love playing with Burrow, and Burrow will love throwing the ball to Burton (who did not drop a single pass his senior year).

 

He's meant to replace a guy that's demanding a trade and may hold out.  That doesn't seem like an ideal situation.  Then again I'm not sure how he'd handle being 5th on the depth chart either.  Really won't know what they've got until he's suited up in camp.  True of any draft pick but a lot of ours come with more questions than usual.

[|BlackJesus|]

5 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

 I'm not sure how he'd handle being 5th on the depth chart either.

 

I think it's likely that once the pads go on Burton will look like the second best WR on the team and more talented than Tee. I predict he's going to look a lot faster and smoother on his routes than Tee is.

 

Now, Tee will have the advantage of knowing the playbook, but he might also be disgruntled and running half speed through drills. 

[dex]

3 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

 

He's meant to replace a guy that's demanding a trade and may hold out.  That doesn't seem like an ideal situation.  Then again I'm not sure how he'd handle being 5th on the depth chart either.  Really won't know what they've got until he's suited up in camp.  True of any draft pick but a lot of ours come with more questions than usual.

For this upcoming season Burton is meant to replace Tyler Boyd. Cannot imagine him not being in the starting lineup from game one on.

[I_C_Deadpeople]

6 hours ago, Cricket said:

While there is some kernel of truth to this, I see it as nothing more than rationalization at its finest.  🦗

 

 

Pat Kirwan said the other day that you come out of every drfat with '3 or 4 good players and some question marks'.

 

Every mid to late pick is essentially a question mark. 

[T-Dub]

18 minutes ago, dex said:

For this upcoming season Burton is meant to replace Tyler Boyd. Cannot imagine him not being in the starting lineup from game one on.

 

I thought Iosivas & Irwin were supposed to do that?

 

21 minutes ago, BlackJesus said:

 

I think it's likely that once the pads go on Burton will look like the second best WR on the team and more talented than Tee. I predict he's going to look a lot faster and smoother on his routes than Tee is.

 

Now, Tee will have the advantage of knowing the playbook, but he might also be disgruntled and running half speed through drills. 

 

Or he may hold out.  My guess is not but it wouldn't surprise me either way.

[|BlackJesus|]

5 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

Or he may hold out.  

 

Tee has only made 9 million in his entire NFL career. His tag will pay him almost 22 this year.

 

So I can't see him holding out from more than twice all the money he's ever made in his life.

[T-Dub]

15 minutes ago, I_C_Deadpeople said:

Pat Kirwan said the other day that you come out of every drfat with '3 or 4 good players and some question marks'.

 

Every mid to late pick is essentially a question mark. 

 

Every round is questionable.  That degree of certainty is what generally separates one round from the other, which is why I don't like gambling on half of them.  They're gamble enough when you can eliminate things like health or character concerns.  Overlooking those things for the sake of athletic potential multiplies that risk. 

[Jamie_B]

28 minutes ago, BlackJesus said:

 

I think it's likely that once the pads go on Burton will look like the second best WR on the team and more talented than Tee. I predict he's going to look a lot faster and smoother on his routes than Tee is.

 

Now, Tee will have the advantage of knowing the playbook, but he might also be disgruntled and running half speed through drills. 

 

Burton has a ways to go before we can say he is going to be better than Tee. Right now he is mostly a deep ball threat. He need to add to his route tree.

[T-Dub]

1 minute ago, BlackJesus said:

 

Tee has only made 9 million in his entire NFL career. His tag will pay him almost 22 this year.

 

So I can't see him holding out from more than twice all the money he's ever made in his life.

 

 

No I think he'll show up eventually, but I wouldn't expect him day one of camp either.

[|BlackJesus|]

Just now, Jamie_B said:

Burton has a ways to go before we can say he is going to be better than Tee. 

 

Chase getting double teamed and with the 2nd best CB on Tee, I think will allow Burton to feast.

 

I would estimate that Burton's going to look real fast out there and make a few plays early in the year that will have everyone wondering how the Bengals were able to get him the 3rd Rd. He glides down the field with his strides and will likely have a few plays before defenses have tape on him where he does go routes for long TDs. 

 

Burton's issues are not on the field, they are off (if anything). If they can keep his head in the right place, he could really put this offense over the top. 

[T-Dub]

6 minutes ago, Jamie_B said:

 

Burton has a ways to go before we can say he is going to be better than Tee. Right now he is mostly a deep ball threat. He need to add to his route tree.

 

Yeah if they thought they could replace Higgins with a 3rd round draft pick this year they would've traded him.  If it were that easy they wouldn't have franchise tagged him in the first place.   

 

 

[Jamie_B]

Just now, T-Dub said:

 

Yeah if they thought they could replace Higgins with a 3rd round draft pick this year they would've traded him.  I mean if it was that easy they would've have had to franchise tag him in the first place.   

 

 

 

To be fair had Burton not been a "character concern" he would have been a minimum 2nd rounder, with some guys listing him as WR4 which would have made him a 1st round pick.

 

From what I have read though is that he needs to expand his route tree that that is the only "on field" concern.