Pats, Bears, Bengals stellar selectors

[Ox]

Pats, Bears, Bengals stellar selectors

9. What's going on with the Bengals? Cincinnati's Day 2 drafting was as solid as its Day 1 selections. There were no reaches, no controversies and even a nice story. The Bengals earned good grades for first-day selections Andre Smith and Rey Maualuga. On the second day, they left themselves without much criticism after taking defensive end Michael Johnson, tight end Chase Coffman and center Jonathan Luigs, who might start. The good story was taking University of Cincinnati punter Kevin Huber, who learned of the selection while golfing. The secret to their success was the Senior Bowl; the Bengals coached four of their draft choices in that game.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft09/colu...&id=4102721

[HairOnFire]

That's a great point about the Senior Bowl bump. Plenty of Bengals fans spent weeks and months mocking their desire to coach that week but I think it proved invaluable.

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

That's a great point about the Senior Bowl bump. Plenty of Bengals fans spent weeks and months mocking their desire to coach that week but I think it proved invaluable.

I don't know who mocked it. It's a good idea, for a few reasons. 1) You can see how guys respond to coaching. 2) You can bench a guy you really like to the detriment of other teams' scouting, like Chuckie supposedly did with Cadillac Williams a few years ago.

[gregstephens]

McShay gave us love for the draft on Mike and Mike today, save the Scott pick. He (correctly) pointed out we had to have ONE bonehead, project pick with character issues to prove it was really us making the picks!!!

[ArmyBengal]

McShay gave us love for the draft on Mike and Mike today, save the Scott pick. He (correctly) pointed out we had to have ONE bonehead, project pick with character issues to prove it was really us making the picks!!!

Typical and exactly the kind of sh*t, I would just love to not have to deal with every single draft. They just can't help it...

[Bearcat1975]

To me, this is another on a short list of Mike Brown's "Blind Squirrel finally finds a Nut" category.

The last one was the 2005 season.

The one before that was the 2003 draft.

Sitting on their hands actually paid off this time. Usually the typical Mike Brown hand wringing just gets the Bengals stepped on by whichever team is closest that wants it more.

But its like there was a game of musical chairs, and even though Mike Brown was last to sit down, as usual, somehow this time there was a golden chair waiting just for him.

Hey, I'll take it. If this draft class doesn't implode, and if the ball bounces the Bengals way, with their easy schedule, maybe they will stumble backwards into the playoffs again...

[Jet23]

That's a great point about the Senior Bowl bump. Plenty of Bengals fans spent weeks and months mocking their desire to coach that week but I think it proved invaluable.

Yeah, who wouldn't want the next Greg Brooks?

[HairOnFire]

That's a great point about the Senior Bowl bump. Plenty of Bengals fans spent weeks and months mocking their desire to coach that week but I think it proved invaluable.

Yeah, who wouldn't want the next Greg Brooks?

And as if on cue Jetboy provides an example of the mocking I was talking about.

Frankly, I get the part about how things didn't work out in the earlier draft, but the strategy is sound even if the previous results were less than desired. And remember, after the crappiest of crappy seasons the Bengals lobbied for the opportunity rather than hole up in some darkened warroom where they could lick their collective wounds in private.