IF we were to draft D with the 1st pick can it make us a top 10

[Bearcat1975]

How many brain cells have escaped your skull? The Bengals started 0-4 with few injuries. They won the most games when they had the most injuries.

Exactly. The Bengals had greater success, particularly on defense, from waiver wire pickups than they did with their starters.

Speaks volumes about talent evaluation (or the lack of it). But hey, the info's all there on the the internet so who needs a scouting department?

[Clackwoods]

If we go defense, it has to be either Aaron Curry LB Wake Forest, Brian Orakbo DE Texas, Rey Maualuga LB or B.J. Raji DT Boston College. If not then OL

There isn't a DT in this draft worthy of a top 10 pick so we need to stay away from that! I want Okopo

BJ Raji of BC is a legit top 10 pick, just check Mayock or McShay or Kiper, here's what he did against VaTech (remember them)? The other thing is and the Bengals arent saying much about it and the draft gurus arent picking up on this but the Bengals have quite a few LBs filing for free aency, I think 4 or 5 LBs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM3AmHWAGEg

I could pull a video up on any player coming out in the draft that makes them look like superstars. Their is WAYYYY to much talent coming out at WR, OL, LB, and RB to have any DT go in the top ten.

[Kazkal]

Rather than ignore the crap teams we played, look at the playoff teams we played and the scores,

Ravens two losses 17-10 and 34-3

Steelers two losses 38-10 and 27-10

Titans 24-7

Giants 26-23

Eagles 13-13

Colts 35-3

As I remember the games, we were only in two games though, the Giants and Eagles games. The rest were blow outs regardless of score.

0-7-1 against playoff teams show we aren't very good. These mostly lopsided losses show we are really not competitive either on defense or offense. So while I think they have to pick a day 1 LT starter in round 1, it wouldn't shock me if they went for defense. Again, with so many holes on both sides anything is possible. The decision will not be hard though at #6. Is there a DT, DE or ILB worth a #6 pick? Is there a LT worth a #6 pick? Not too many choices really.

One thing the weekend showed was that winning teams have dominate olines and dlines. We have neither.

Injuries, Injuries, Injuries... How much must I pound this into your thick skulls!? How many starters did we loose? Our coach also failed to get this team ready for the season.

How many brain cells have escaped your skull? The Bengals started 0-4 with few injuries. They won the most games when they had the most injuries.

Indeed :| Mike Brown would say we were just unlucky and if we had Carson Palmer back...even though we had zero wins with him this season.

[Pidge]

Genuine question, where is our D ranked in points against? I have no clue - can't be all that high. Yeah yeah, I know yardage etc is indicative but that's all it is. I'd rather be middle of the pack yardage wise and hold teams to FGs and be top 5 or 10 in points against than the other way around.

With our first three picks we really should go O-line with two of them. Our O- line is lacking starting calibre and depth. Hopefully we get a nice pick up or two in FA too which will make the draft options all the better.

Avg of 22.8 pts a game for a ranking of 19th.

12th was the panthers with 20.8 per game.

Well, that's not bad at all considering the D was given next to no help by the O for most of the season. Even a FG less a game and we'd have real improvement next season. Get the D top half with a couple of solid picks in the draft and hope the adjustment made on the O-line stick. Could even sneak a winning record.

/opens another bottle of prozac.

[Pidge]

One thing the weekend showed was that winning teams have dominate olines and dlines. We have neither.

Yep. But there might be a thuper duper LB available at 6 who can, er get hung out to dry by zero penetration from the D-line.

[ArmyBengal]

Yep injuries did bite us this season. Come to think of it, they bit us the season before and even the one before that. The question is, do you have ANY faith that things will fare any better if (and more likely) when the injury bug takes another bite ?? I don't and you just know it is coming. Most teams develop depth to handle such things and usually they don't have as many starters eat it completly without coming back at some point. Remember how the Ravens were getting older and couldn't possibly keep up ?? Or how about the Steelers offensive line losing to many key players to be able to protect Ben ??

Both teams have been able to overcome their own adversity and saw themselves through to the AFC Championship game. All the while we seem to be making an effort to set a record for most consecutive years for having the most players on the IR.

[Pidge]

I hear you Army. Realistically I'm expecting a 7-9 or 8-8 team at best. It's damn difficult to keep at a certain level of performance in this league of parity. But it's possible with hard work, an excellent infrastructure in terms of the coaching staff, personnel dept. and medical team.

So yeah. Our method of throwing s**t at a wall with regards to most of the above and seeing what sticks isn't working and surprises nobody here.

It's amazing we had a winning season at all. Law of probability FTW!