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Post-Draft Analysis: A First Round Blunder For Bengals
Authored by Carl Setterlund - 15th May, 2006 - 1:06 am
Playoff-bound teams and impersonators alike were able to pad their records at an astounding rate this season against the likes of Detroit, Kansas City, and St. Louis.
Between Lane Kiffin at Tennessee and openings at Clemson, Washington, Syracuse, Mississippi State and Purdue, there are fertile jobs out there.
RealGM Search
Cincinnati Bengals
Picks:
1st Round: Jonathan Joseph, CB, South Carolina (24)
2nd Round: Andrew Whitworth, OT, LSU (55)
3rd Round: Frostee Rucker, DE, USC (91)
4th Round: Domata Peko, DT, Michigan State (123)
5th Round: AJ Nicholson, OLB, Florida State, (157)
6th Round: Reggie McNeal, QB, Texas A&M (193)
7th Round: Ethan Kilmer, WR, Penn State (209); Bennie Brazell, WR, LSU (231)
I found myself wondering “Why Joseph at #24?” as the draft was unfolding. It seemed to me a poor decision when the cornerback crop was so deep, to take a guy who is seemingly inconsistent, even if he does have it all physically. I looked though at the other guys left and found that: Jimmy Williams can be just as inconsistent, Ashton Youboty is probably a project not worth taking on at this high a choice and nobody else has quite the same upside as these three. I’m not sure if I would have like Kelly Jennings any more. One thing is sure, Cincinnati needed to go CB in the first round and did it, but maybe they were just picking at an inopportune spot.
Whitworth was smart in the second round because Carson Palmer’s protection is more important than ever and they need an eventual successor to staple Willie Anderson.
I don’t think even the Bengals would deny that their third round pick Frostee Rucker was a reach, but that doesn’t mean he’s useless either (even if someone like Victor Adeyanju would have made more sense).
I’m not completely sold on the Bengals going with guys with character problems early in the second day, even if they are both talented.
To me AJ Nicholson makes a lot of sense, but I don’t know how far you go in drafting these guys. I don’t pretend to be an insider, it still just seems so recent that Cincinnati was the perennial loser of the league and you need a winning culture to support these types of guys. It could definitely work though.
I’m higher on McNeal out of Texas A&M than most and can’t understand why he was around late in the sixth round. To me, McNeal is Vince Young without the established “it” factor and the great supporting cast, and I mean that. He should be a solid backup for years and even if that doesn’t work out, he Bengals know he has the physical tools to switch to a lot of other positions.
I’m not going to say much about the receivers in the seventh round because I think it’s a given that they’re practice squad players at best. You look back at the Bengals draft and it’s pretty solid overall. Nothing stands out as overwhelming, but there weren’t any monumental blunders either. The Bengals didn’t have a great amount of needs, but really in the end managed to address the future well.
