Sunday, April 25, 2010

The Bengals' Draft

I'm certainly no expert, and would be the last person to run something like an NFL franchise, but I think it's fair to say that my hometown team, the Bengals, have made some pretty poor decisions over the past two decades. They've made the playoffs two times in that stretch, losing their first game both of those times. One of those was in 2005 when the Steelers destroyed Carson Palmer's knee, and the other was this year when we lost to the Jets.

I feel like this year I'm more excited about the results of the draft than I have been in the last few years. I don't remember the last time the Bengals had a decent TE, so it's a little exciting that we drafted the best TE in the draft, Jermaine Gresham from Oklahoma, in the 1st round. Although this pick is kind of an admission that we've missed on trying to get a good TE the last two years when we signed Ben Utecht and drafted Chase Coffman. Neither of these guys ever did much for the team.

The pick I'm probably most excited about is WR Jordan Shipley from Texas in the 3rd round. He's a white guy that can play in the slot - maybe he could be the next Wes Welker? That might be too high of an expectation, but we could really lose a guy like him to help get Ochocinco and Antonio Bryant open downfield. Our passing game was pretty lame by the end of last year - even Carson looked pretty bad in our last two games and the playoffs. Let's hope that these two picks can help open up our offense back to what it was a few years ago. With the tough defense we've built, it could be a good year for the Bengals.

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