Assuming we go WR on the first day of the draft

[COB]

It was Ginn and one other kid, Jameson Evans who played 3 years at Purdue, then his last year, 2005, at Youngstown State. Ginn ran 3 40s, averaged 4.4, and ran routes and caught passes. I saw his routes in college, makes me ponder his ability at corner. He was high school player of the year his sr year at corner.

[Kirkendall]

Ginn won't be Devin Hester. I'm not even convinced Devin Hester will be Devin Hester. His rookie season was an anomaly, and should not be expected to re-occur.

The likelihood that Ted Ginn Jr. can duplicate his success as a special teamer is tiny, and furthermore, the likelihood that he develops into a consistent receiver doesn't appear much better.

I love the Buckeyes as much as the next guy, but I love the Bengals more. Keep him off my team.

How are you coming to your conclusion?

Marvin checking him out. Says what about Cincy's interest in a WR?

Not necessarily. Quinn Pitcock, David Patterson and Jay Richardson (all defensive front guys), were AT the workout but not actually working out. In other words, he could just be there to chat with these guys (character investigation stuff perhaps). It's not a long drive so why not?

http://www.nfl.com/draft/analysis/individual_workouts#OHst

Keep in mind though.. I'm totally presuming here.

[Stripes]

How are you coming to your conclusion?

Probability alone for the Hester comparisons. Talent issues as a receiver.

[chrishcovga]

Hey I'm with ya' , I say we trade away first rounder for the '08 and '09 draft to the Raiders or Bucs, and get Calvin Johnson, Why not ???

[Kirkendall]

Chris is HERE... YAY!!!!

[HoosierCat]

And the CALVIN JOHNSON bandwagon grows!!!!

[Stripes]

And the CALVIN JOHNSON bandwagon grows!!!!

Anyone who wants my seat, feel free to take it.

[Kirkendall]

And the CALVIN JOHNSON bandwagon grows!!!!

Anyone who wants my seat, feel free to take it.

I already threw you off after your Ginn comments.

[chrishcovga]

What's not to like about Calvin Johnson. For his sake you hope he comes to a team like Cincinnati because we actually have a quarterback that will make him a star. If Calvin goes to the Raiders, he'll suck cause he won't have anyone to throw him the ball. If he goes to the Lions, Browns, Bucs, the same thing. We know we are without Henry for half the season, and his contract is up after the '07 season anyways. Plus Calvin is the official " Cosby " kid. Dad's a lawyer, Moms' a doctor, or something like that, and he's a good kid. I'd take him .. Any trade Partners..???

[GregCook]

Whats the story on Ginn claiming he'd rather play DB in the pro's? Hobson has that up right now. He also says Marvin took a few offensive coaches to watch him work out. The plot thickens.

[HoosierCat]

Whats the story on Ginn claiming he'd rather play DB in the pro's? Hobson has that up right now. He also says Marvin took a few offensive coaches to watch him work out. The plot thickens.

Smoke. At least in the 1st.

They won't bite on Olsen either IMHO.

But...if C. Perry looks like he's heading toward another stint on PUP...and by some odd confluence of events Marshawn Lynch is there at 18...

[The PatternMaster]

Whats the story on Ginn claiming he'd rather play DB in the pro's? Hobson has that up right now. He also says Marvin took a few offensive coaches to watch him work out. The plot thickens.

Smoke. At least in the 1st.

They won't bite on Olsen either IMHO.

But...if C. Perry looks like he's heading toward another stint on PUP...and by some odd confluence of events Marshawn Lynch is there at 18...

I think Olsen is this year's Mike Mamula, he's got incredible measureables, but the production doesn't match. Olsen has never had a break out year, although Miami's qb situation has been rocky at best since the great Ken Dorsey left town, note the sarcasim.

[Stripes]

Olsen is an average-or-worse blocker too. He doesn't fit the Bengals TE mold.

[WhoDeyForever]

Whats the story on Ginn claiming he'd rather play DB in the pro's? Hobson has that up right now. He also says Marvin took a few offensive coaches to watch him work out. The plot thickens.

He played DB in high school and was a beast at it..If we were to try and work on him at corner I think it is just another reason for us to draft him

[membengal]

I'll play along. Give me Craig Davis, LSU WR, in the second round...

[schweinhart]

The Bengals live or die with Carson Palmer. No sense in drafting a WR in the 1st around or taking one in the 2nd with the defense in the condition it's in. But who knows what Mike will decide to do?

Tom Brady had TEs to throw to but his WR corps was junk and he still led the Pats to the AFC title game. The reason they didn't go to the Super Bowl was their defense blew it. With both starting safeties and a starting CB out, it was no wonder but the stake in the heart was their inside backer Eric Alexander who couldn't cover the middle of the field.

The Bengals got the firepower they need without Chris Henry or a 1st WR and some urgency to deal with on defense. A better case for 1st day WR could've been made last year by drafting to strength when the D looked more promising with Odell and Pollack.

Not now. Especially with a boatload of good WRs ready to go in Day 2.

[Kazkal]

Can't beleive people really want to spend a 1st round pick on a 3rd string WR(4th when henry comes back),Atleast when we spent a 1st on a 3rd down back their was doubt about what was going on with rudi.

Whats the story on Ginn claiming he'd rather play DB in the pro's? Hobson has that up right now. He also says Marvin took a few offensive coaches to watch him work out. The plot thickens.

He played DB in high school and was a beast at it..If we were to try and work on him at corner I think it is just another reason for us to draft him

Because he played CB in HS meaning he hasen't played the postion in 3-4 years?He would take quite abit of time to devolope as a corner 1-2 years Atleast.that has bust written all over it,but then again so does him at WR.

PS,Why not take Yamon Figurs in round 4 if you guys just want a WR who can run fast ohya he's not a Buckeye.

[HoosierCat]

Tom Brady had TEs to throw to but his WR corps was junk and he still led the Pats to the AFC title game. The reason they didn't go to the Super Bowl was their defense blew it. With both starting safeties and a starting CB out, it was no wonder but the stake in the heart was their inside backer Eric Alexander who couldn't cover the middle of the field.

The counter-argument, and I'm sure it's being heard in the halls of PBS, is that throwing a couple more rookies onto the fire is highly unlikely to improve the defense in the short-term. 2008, 2009, yes, but if the Bengals make it back to the playoffs in 2007 it will be because of the offense.

And that's the rub, because the schedule is stacked against us. Nearly all the tough games come in those first eight, when we will be without Henry, probably without Chris Perry, and probably with a Tab Perry who at best is still working his way back to form. If CJ or TJ or Tab get dinged, we got what, Chatman? Behind Rudi we have only Watson; behind Kelly we have some PS guys.

If we lose a starter on defense, with a few exceptions it really doesn't matter that much. We have so few defensive studs that there isn't that much of a step down to their backups. But on offense we are now thin at WR (at least for the first 8), RB and TE, and the drop from starter to backup is a lot bigger.

Defense is definitely the way to go from a "build for the future" perspective. But IMHO right now this team is wide open to having one or two bad breaks on the O turn '07 into a really ugly year.

[The PatternMaster]

Tom Brady had TEs to throw to but his WR corps was junk and he still led the Pats to the AFC title game. The reason they didn't go to the Super Bowl was their defense blew it. With both starting safeties and a starting CB out, it was no wonder but the stake in the heart was their inside backer Eric Alexander who couldn't cover the middle of the field.

The counter-argument, and I'm sure it's being heard in the halls of PBS, is that throwing a couple more rookies onto the fire is highly unlikely to improve the defense in the short-term. 2008, 2009, yes, but if the Bengals make it back to the playoffs in 2007 it will be because of the offense.

And that's the rub, because the schedule is stacked against us. Nearly all the tough games come in those first eight, when we will be without Henry, probably without Chris Perry, and probably with a Tab Perry who at best is still working his way back to form. If CJ or TJ or Tab get dinged, we got what, Chatman? Behind Rudi we have only Watson; behind Kelly we have some PS guys.

If we lose a starter on defense, with a few exceptions it really doesn't matter that much. We have so few defensive studs that there isn't that much of a step down to their backups. But on offense we are now thin at WR (at least for the first 8), RB and TE, and the drop from starter to backup is a lot bigger.

Defense is definitely the way to go from a "build for the future" perspective. But IMHO right now this team is wide open to having one or two bad breaks on the O turn '07 into a really ugly year.

Excatly, god forbid TJ or CJ gets hurt, then we'll have a 100 million dollar qb throwing to who?

I say we move on from Henry because by the time he's even eligible to play, his replacement will be atleast 8 games deep and could be playing very well. Would it be fair to bench a guy in favor of Henry, hell no! Why should this guy be punished because Henry couldn't keep from getting suspended?

[Kazkal]

Excatly, god forbid TJ or CJ gets hurt, then we'll have a 100 million dollar qb throwing to who?

Who does brady throw too? hopfully a backup will step up but even if one went down do you really see ginn stepping in for them? If we were forced to take a WR in round 1 I'd probbley take Bowe and Dwayne before ginn.

[HoosierCat]

Excatly, god forbid TJ or CJ gets hurt, then we'll have a 100 million dollar qb throwing to who?

I say we move on from Henry because by the time he's even eligible to play, his replacement will be atleast 8 games deep and could be playing very well. Would it be fair to bench a guy in favor of Henry, hell no! Why should this guy be punished because Henry couldn't keep from getting suspended?

If the Bengals go offense in the first, I'd rather see them take Greg Olsen vs. a wideout. Not that you couldn't line Olsen up as a WR anyhow. Big target, great hands, Blazing Speed, solid downfield blocker -- of all the offensive options in round 1 he makes the most sense to me.

[schweinhart]

No doubt Olsen has got Sean Brewer like speed and has good hands but I wouldn't expect him to add anything more to the offense than a defensive player would in the 1st. I'd rather see the Bengals get Matt Schobel back for a 4th than rely on Olsen as their 3rd WR, 3rd down TE or H-Back in a split backfield. Olsen is way overblown IMO and the Bengals would be better off with a more complete TE like Zach Miller or Ben Patrick if they traget one in this draft, especially if having a viable blocking TE as a backup to Kelly is a concern.

The 3rd WR shouldn't be too hard too come by but no doubt the Bengals are sweating it a little more now. I don't think they have to panic and I probably wouldn't think that as much if the WR class this year wasn't as deep as it is. If Chad or Housh go down, the Bengals would be better served to have a better defense because I seriously doubt Olsen or any WR rook 1st round or not is going to replace them at the level they play and they'll have to rely more on their defense even more to keep them in games.

[derekshank]

You know... the funniest thing to me about this thread is its title: "Assuming we go WR on the first day of the draft." That seems like a pretty crazy and far fetched "assumption."

But I'll give my 2 cents, since seemingly everyone else is. Henry's suspension does hurt... but hopefully we'll have a healthy set of WR's to pick up the slack. Last year Henry's absense killed us because all of our depth (Tab Perry, Antonio Chatman, Bennie Brazell, Kelley Washington at times) were battling injuries or on the IR. Without Henry, we were relying on the likes of Glen Holt, Reggie McNeal and Skyler Green. Hardly anything you can count on.

With Tab back, as well as Chatman, hopefully we'll be able to play with what we've got, given the situation. Perry is a very useful possession receiver. Chatman and maybe Brazell both have potential to be game breakers when they get the ball in their hands.

None of them are the equal of Henry, but they also aren't bad enough to warrant a 1st day pick. Besides... just like last year, when we were low on WR's, Palmer just threw to the TE and RB's more often. There are plenty of weapons on this offense to pick up the slack for Henry. The same can't be said for the defense. If we go offense on the first day, (again... that's a huge if) it better be the O-line.

[kingwilly]

Day one:

OT

RB

S

Day two:

CB

LB

WR

DE

[Bobcat Bengal]

It was Ginn and one other kid, Jameson Evans who played 3 years at Purdue, then his last year, 2005, at Youngstown State. Ginn ran 3 40s, averaged 4.4, and ran routes and caught passes. I saw his routes in college, makes me ponder his ability at corner. He was high school player of the year his sr year at corner.

No offense, but your statement sounds ambiguous.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm unable to discern whether your evaluation is positive or negative?

Having said that, the train of thought that's popular with a lot of head coaches is the 'don't take a WR in this first round axiom'.

Coach Lewis has two of the most talented WR headaches in the league he's trying to deal with right now, and you think he wants to draft a first round WR?

I don't see him trying to pick up another WR in the first.

Sorry.