9 hours ago, T-Dub said:

Every other team employs scouting departments so they don't make those kinds of mistakes and are able to identify under the radar talent. The Bengals are more interested in validating their own special way of doing things.

They do seem to have an arrogance about them - we can do the same thing with less - sort of approach. Those foolish Eagles and Chiefs spend too much money on scouts.

In a real organization, the debate is about whether a given prospect fits the team's scheme, how long it will take him to become a starter on that roster, if he has off-field red flags, etc.

The value of scouts is finding out the stuff that doesn't show up on tape or a stopwatch. Getting truth from Clemson coaches for instance.

Bengals would do better to go old school like when teams would show up at the draft in New York with magazines rating players. Or just crib off any of a dozen guys like McShay, Jeremiah, Brugler, etc. Gridiron Grading had McKinley Jackson rated as a UDFA and James Pearce way ahead of Shemar Stewart, Harold Fannin as a starting level TE, etc.

On 10/1/2025 at 10:53 AM, texbengal said:

I wasn’t a Stewart fan coming out, but so far - at least as a run defender, he looks like he can be a player. Whether guys like Murphy, Jenkins, DJ Turner, Mims (and sadly, many others) can also be that is still up for debate.

Which is an absolute indictment on the FO, yes, but I’ve gotta believe it’s on the coaches, too. I mean, can any team miss on that many young players? Are the position coaches that bad that they can’t develop guys? It’s crazy. Positionally, the positions addressed made sense - but so many are under-achieving, and/or not producing.

Anyway, next year, unless things change as the year progresses and guys develop, they definitely gotta address OL and all levels of the D.

im not sure there is much to debate on turner or jenkins, or even mims, murphy is a drop, ctb is a drop..

On 10/1/2025 at 5:58 PM, BlackJesus said:

If we learned anything from past drafts, it's that you need to draft players not positions. Especially as half these guys wash out anyway.

I think we need a stud RB for our new offense that will need to be redesigned for next season.

As for QB, I would use Mateer as Burrow's backup. Since we see the cost of not having a good one.

i dont know what the fuck you are watching.

On 10/3/2025 at 2:36 PM, spicoli said:

We keep losing and we’ll put ourselves in position to grab a stud like Caleb Downs.

Can’t say my feelings would be hurt by that.

downs is good.

On 10/21/2025 at 1:06 AM, I_C_Deadpeople said:

I think the only possible way we could be successful (or better said more successful) in the draft is with more picks each year. We should be always looking to trade down so we have quantity over what the team thinks is quality. Our “targeted” players we pick instead of trading down seldom work out so with a limited staff I think quantity would work better than guessing at quality.

bengals do always look to trade down, done it many times. lower picks = lower quality players..

On 10/21/2025 at 11:38 AM, sparky151 said:

Bengals could be much better drafters if they had a better process. Bengals are famously "traits" drafters, ie going for potential even in early rounds. Mims and Stewart would be examples. They used to draft for need and flubbed that with Ogbuehi and Price.

They need to roll the dice less in early rounds and more in later rounds. The Ravens have good drafts because they draft good players. They let guys like Linderbaum or Hamilton or Starks fall to them.

You might remember Golden saying after the draft that players had to have certain measurables per position. Nothing wrong with good measurables but what we need are good players. Bengals had a need at LB and couldn't sign Shaun Dolac as a UDFA. He was the MAC DPOY last year and tested well athletically. He led college football in tackles. And now he's playing for a better team than the Bengals (the Rams). Bengals couldn't risk their last draft pick on a guy who is better than their 2nd and 4th rounders?

you have absolutely no idea WHAT SO EVER what the bengals process is.. none.. zero.. not a single percentage point do you know what the bengals draft process is...

not even a hint...

you dont know what firms they use, what analytics they use, what agencies they use, none of it...

and over a 10 year span every team drafts pretty much the same success rate...

so your pitching an imaginary problem to be fixed with solutions who arent privy to the current process of.

this is basically what sports reporting is now.. people with no idea what is going on saying things into a vacuum full of people who have no idea whats going on.

20 hours ago, sparky151 said:

In a real organization, the debate is about whether a given prospect fits the team's scheme, how long it will take him to become a starter on that roster, if he has off-field red flags, etc.

The value of scouts is finding out the stuff that doesn't show up on tape or a stopwatch. Getting truth from Clemson coaches for instance.

Bengals would do better to go old school like when teams would show up at the draft in New York with magazines rating players. Or just crib off any of a dozen guys like McShay, Jeremiah, Brugler, etc. Gridiron Grading had McKinley Jackson rated as a UDFA and James Pearce way ahead of Shemar Stewart, Harold Fannin as a starting level TE, etc.

fucking at it again..

A BUNCH OF EGOTISTICAL BILLIONAIRES LIST EVERY FUCKING CONTRACTOR OR AGENCY EMPLOYEE THEY USE AS A STAFF SCOUT, THE BENGALS GET IDENTICAL INFORMATION AS OTHER TEAMS, ASIDE FROM A FLUKE ONE OFF RELATIONSHIP HERE OR THERE THERE ARE 3-4 MAJOR SCOUTING FIRMS AND ABOUT 8 ANALYTICS FIRMS, ALL OF WHICH ARE USED BY ALL 32 TEAMS.

its not fucking 1992 and teams ahve scouts going out driving around the country... they arent getting the inside scout sleuthing around campus... thats done by security firms who comb social media, even facial recognition for behavior and events of concern. teams have in thier hands what these mf's ate for breakfast everyday if they want it...

this has got to fucking stop...

you dont think other teams areound the league and their dumbfuck fans arent looking at the bengals who drafted:

joe fucking burrow

jamarr fucking chase

tee fucking higgins

and wishing their team drafted like that..

and you can miss me with the "they were obvious picks no one could ahve fucked those us" bullshit, cause all you motherfuckers wanted Tua, or Herbert or Sewell, etc instead of these picks...

shits out of fucking control.

42 minutes ago, GoBengals said:

im not sure there is much to debate on turner or jenkins, or even mims, murphy is a drop, ctb is a drop..

Probably right - but that was written 3 weeks ago and Turner's play to that point was uneven, IMO. The last few weeks, he's been terrific, no question. Jenkins... I think he's solid but I expected more, honestly. But last year with the hand made it a tougher evaluation. This year, he's been up and down. Maybe that's to be expected. Mims has played pretty well this year, and he was especially good vs. TJ Watt last week.

Murphy might have something... hasn't been great but he's shown flashes. CTB... just hasn't looked good all year and he was money early in 2024, then fell off dramatically and ended the year OK. Just not a reliable player at this point... which is too bad, because as we've seen, he's talented.

53 minutes ago, GoBengals said:

and over a 10 year span every team drafts pretty much the same success rate...

You simply cannot be that naive.

50 minutes ago, GoBengals said:

downs is good.

bengals do always look to trade down, done it many times. lower picks = lower quality players..

you have absolutely no idea WHAT SO EVER what the bengals process is.. none.. zero.. not a single percentage point do you know what the bengals draft process is...

not even a hint...

you dont know what firms they use, what analytics they use, what agencies they use, none of it...

and over a 10 year span every team drafts pretty much the same success rate...

so your pitching an imaginary problem to be fixed with solutions who arent privy to the current process of.

this is basically what sports reporting is now.. people with no idea what is going on saying things into a vacuum full of people who have no idea whats going on.

Lol. So you think the process can't be judged by the results? Aren't you a manager at a business?

47 minutes ago, GoBengals said:

fucking at it again..

A BUNCH OF EGOTISTICAL BILLIONAIRES LIST EVERY FUCKING CONTRACTOR OR AGENCY EMPLOYEE THEY USE AS A STAFF SCOUT, THE BENGALS GET IDENTICAL INFORMATION AS OTHER TEAMS, ASIDE FROM A FLUKE ONE OFF RELATIONSHIP HERE OR THERE THERE ARE 3-4 MAJOR SCOUTING FIRMS AND ABOUT 8 ANALYTICS FIRMS, ALL OF WHICH ARE USED BY ALL 32 TEAMS.

its not fucking 1992 and teams ahve scouts going out driving around the country... they arent getting the inside scout sleuthing around campus... thats done by security firms who comb social media, even facial recognition for behavior and events of concern. teams have in thier hands what these mf's ate for breakfast everyday if they want it...

this has got to fucking stop...

you dont think other teams areound the league and their dumbfuck fans arent looking at the bengals who drafted:

joe fucking burrow

jamarr fucking chase

tee fucking higgins

and wishing their team drafted like that..

and you can miss me with the "they were obvious picks no one could ahve fucked those us" bullshit, cause all you motherfuckers wanted Tua, or Herbert or Sewell, etc instead of these picks...

shits out of fucking control.

Almost all Bengals fans wanted to replace Dalton in 2020. Burrow was a slam dunk coming off the best QB season in college football history.

Bengals had reasonable alternatives to Chase and Higgins when they were picked, so credit there, though we don't know if the team would have been better with Sewell or Parsons instead.

On 10/23/2025 at 10:56 AM, sparky151 said:

Lol. So you think the process can't be judged by the results? Aren't you a manager at a business?

Almost all Bengals fans wanted to replace Dalton in 2020

I wanted to blow the whole thing up after 2015. Didn't everyone aside from all the people actually responsible for that fiasco? How tf does the team get humiliated like that in the postseason against their biggest rival, only the cherry on top of a string of postseason meltdowns, and not think "we need to tear this whole mess down and start over"?

Just that darn bad luck again, I suppose.

Doesn't really matter now of course, unless they fail to learn anything from mistakes..

Interesting artcile on the recent success at Vanderbelt and how the GM there scouts and has increased his 'hit rate' on preospects:

How a former Rivals recruiting analyst maximized his hit rate and built a top-10 team

One of college football’s most successful general managers got his start covering recruiting in the media years ago. Barton Simmons, a former All-Ivy League safety at Yale, spent 15 years ranking high school prospects and building recruiting profiles for Rivals and 247Sports.

Then, in December 2021, he took a chance when his childhood friend Clark Lea, at the time the new head coach at Vanderbilt, offered Simmons a role as the Commodores’ general manager.

Now, four years later, Simmons has engineered one of the sport’s most impressive program overhauls thanks in large part to the insight he’s gained about two major components of modern college football — player evaluation and roster construction.

Vanderbilt, which went winless the year before Lea and Simmons arrived, enjoyed its first winning season in over a decade in 2024, and this year, the Commodores are off to a 6-1 start and ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press poll. Last Saturday, they beat LSU for the first time since 1990.

One of the keys to the turnaround, according to Simmons, has been understanding how critical a player’s mindset is to his success.

“I don’t think that’s any revelation, but it really is everything,” Simmons said. “The player that comes in with the willingness to persevere, with resilience and toughness, who loves football and will stay within the process, those guys are typically gonna become good players. And if they’re also really talented, they’re gonna become great players. And then, there’s also a lot of guys with the mindset (that) doesn’t match up with the ability, and that ultimately equates to a miss.”

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6743047/2025/10/24/recruiting-vanderbilt-barton-simmons-diego-pavia/

On 10/23/2025 at 12:53 PM, GoBengals said:

im not sure there is much to debate on turner or jenkins, or even mims, murphy is a drop, ctb is a drop..

The CTB one is disappointing because he started his first two years really solid, never thought he was CB1 but was one of the better CB2s in the league, that he has dropped off like this is unexplainable

5 hours ago, I_C_Deadpeople said:

Interesting artcile on the recent success at Vanderbelt and how the GM there scouts and has increased his 'hit rate' on preospects:

How a former Rivals recruiting analyst maximized his hit rate and built a top-10 team

One of college football’s most successful general managers got his start covering recruiting in the media years ago. Barton Simmons, a former All-Ivy League safety at Yale, spent 15 years ranking high school prospects and building recruiting profiles for Rivals and 247Sports.

Then, in December 2021, he took a chance when his childhood friend Clark Lea, at the time the new head coach at Vanderbilt, offered Simmons a role as the Commodores’ general manager.

Now, four years later, Simmons has engineered one of the sport’s most impressive program overhauls thanks in large part to the insight he’s gained about two major components of modern college football — player evaluation and roster construction.

Vanderbilt, which went winless the year before Lea and Simmons arrived, enjoyed its first winning season in over a decade in 2024, and this year, the Commodores are off to a 6-1 start and ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press poll. Last Saturday, they beat LSU for the first time since 1990.

One of the keys to the turnaround, according to Simmons, has been understanding how critical a player’s mindset is to his success.

“I don’t think that’s any revelation, but it really is everything,” Simmons said. “The player that comes in with the willingness to persevere, with resilience and toughness, who loves football and will stay within the process, those guys are typically gonna become good players. And if they’re also really talented, they’re gonna become great players. And then, there’s also a lot of guys with the mindset (that) doesn’t match up with the ability, and that ultimately equates to a miss.”

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6743047/2025/10/24/recruiting-vanderbilt-barton-simmons-diego-pavia/

No, no.. The Way We've Always Done It is the correct choice. Have we all forgotten they lost a Super Bowl a few years ago? You don't mess with that kind of success!

3 hours ago, T-Dub said:

No, no.. The Way We've Always Done It is the correct choice. Have we all forgotten they lost a Super Bowl a few years ago? You don't mess with that kind of success!

LOL. When the read the article I immediately thought of the likes of Burton, Cartman, Murphy who have traits but little to no passion for the game.

The Man With The Hair will revise this several thousand times before it's over, but his Top-Whatever List seems to be QB heavy (what else is new?)

ESPN.com

Kiper's updated 2026 Big Board: Ranking the top 25 NFL dr...

Mel Kiper Jr. is stacking the top 25 players for the 2026 NFL draft, including four quarterbacks and one really good running back. See who makes the new list.

The only interesting thing about our scouting department is that Trey Brown has been a finalist for two GM jobs in the league recently. He is clearly well regarded.

Interesting that other teams can sniff out the one possible good person we have?

One of the things that has always annoyed the daylights out of me is the Bengals

maddening habit of a shotgun approach to the draft... stockpiling lots of picks

mostly day three picks.

And not being aggressive and trading up being content with a Mild Murphy etc

falling in their lap.

On 10/23/2025 at 10:03 AM, GoBengals said:

fucking at it again..

A BUNCH OF EGOTISTICAL BILLIONAIRES LIST EVERY FUCKING CONTRACTOR OR AGENCY EMPLOYEE THEY USE AS A STAFF SCOUT, THE BENGALS GET IDENTICAL INFORMATION AS OTHER TEAMS, ASIDE FROM A FLUKE ONE OFF RELATIONSHIP HERE OR THERE THERE ARE 3-4 MAJOR SCOUTING FIRMS AND ABOUT 8 ANALYTICS FIRMS, ALL OF WHICH ARE USED BY ALL 32 TEAMS.

its not fucking 1992 and teams ahve scouts going out driving around the country... they arent getting the inside scout sleuthing around campus... thats done by security firms who comb social media, even facial recognition for behavior and events of concern. teams have in thier hands what these mf's ate for breakfast everyday if they want it...

this has got to fucking stop...

you dont think other teams areound the league and their dumbfuck fans arent looking at the bengals who drafted:

joe fucking burrow

jamarr fucking chase

tee fucking higgins

and wishing their team drafted like that..

and you can miss me with the "they were obvious picks no one could ahve fucked those us" bullshit, cause all you motherfuckers wanted Tua, or Herbert or Sewell, etc instead of these picks...

shits out of fucking control.

So why don't the Bengals list the many scouts and analysts they use as well? What do they possibly gain by pretending they're the only team that doesn't?

Give me a reason that's not showing everyone how much smarter they are.. Hey at least they're not A BUNCH OF EGOTISTICAL BILLIONAIRES 🤣 CAPSLOCK!!!!1

You must be trolling. Dude like what else are they besides comically inept football executives? It's a whole family of egotistical billionaire nepo babies playing with a very expensive toy. The only reason they haven't broken it long ago and moved on to the next thing is that their toy happens to be a multibillion dollar sports franchise and all the other franchise owners keep fixing it for them so they don't drag the entire brand down with them. Then these self-aggrandizing parasites that can't pour piss out of a boot without getting soaked act like their glaring ineptitude and never-ending list of fuckups, tone-deaf press releases, and stubbornly repeated bad decisions are really some kind of rare genius that the peasants of SW Ohio can't possibly comprehend, and are in fact lucky to bask in their radiance. ...And then here you are, parroting that fairy tale for them. Get a grip. "Ohio is so awful, they're lucky the Browns have stooped to raising 4 generations of their family in luxury on the backs of these idiot Bengals fans! Now upgrade our stadium where BTW we're a grand total of 5 games above average since it opened 25 years ago"

Your nonstop simping for them is a little out of control here. And by "a little" I mean "holy shit do you even read what you're typing?"

On 11/1/2025 at 7:51 AM, High School Harry said:

One of the things that has always annoyed the daylights out of me is the Bengals

maddening habit of a shotgun approach to the draft... stockpiling lots of picks

mostly day three picks.

And not being aggressive and trading up being content with a Mild Murphy etc

falling in their lap.

I actually feel the opposite. They should stock more second to fourth rounders instead of failing in round one. We miss a lot in those rounds as well but the more picks the better chance of success.

I like our chances better with two second round picks versus a first round pick

Two offensive linemen in the later rounds, and every single other pick needs to be a defensive player. Our defense is historically bad. Like so bad they cannot even stop the worst ranked offense in the league. We could literally start from scratch and sign free agents and practice squad players RIGHT NOW and they wouldn't be as bad as this defense is.

28 minutes ago, Gary said:

Two offensive linemen in the later rounds, and every single other pick needs to be a defensive player. Our defense is historically bad. Like so bad they cannot even stop the worst ranked offense in the league. We could literally start from scratch and sign free agents and practice squad players RIGHT NOW and they wouldn't be as bad as this defense is.

Well if we keep drafting bad players it is somewhat futile to talk about dedicating a draft to one side. How many premium picks on D have been wastes? There is zero evidence our “luck” will change regarding drafting. We are simply bad at it with periodic spurts of luck.

we need every level of defense

but if we draft in the top 10 and a Tackle is avaiable I wont hate it. OBJ will be in his contract year next year and isnt worth bringing back

We will pick a WR in the top 10, bank on it.

Every Bears drive today ended in a score, right? Even if we got a bunch of practice squad guys and free agents they couldn't possibly be worse than our defense. With that being said, I will see you all near draft time. I am out. It's too hard to watch this crappy team.

Sad thing is, the guys who were responsible for the isht D talent this team has on D will, assuming no changes, be responsible for rebuilding it again. But hey, I get it, Duke needs more time! 25 years just isn’t enough. It’s simply not enough runway to establish winning, proven processes and a track record.

It’s absolute insanity! Nope, actually… it’s worse. Not only is it doing the same dysfunctional things over and over and expecting a different result, but it’s also doing it again and again with the same exact people who got you into this effing mess. LMAO.

Did you see some of the DL today? They were like tackling dummies, getting driven into the ground and just absolutely buried.