Pro Football Talk Calls Out The Bengals

In case you have not heard, the Bengals got four "compensatory" picks.  This is consistent with the Bengals plan of "building through the draft."  The team now has 11 picks, yes still only three full time scouts.  You try and find the logic there.  (hint: there is none)  The always wise and blunt, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk, calls out the Bengals spin machine.  He directs this zinger at Mike Brown, "The only reason that they have compensatory picks is because they choose not to pay the draft picks and veterans who have performed well for them, and likewise spend limited amounts on other peoples' free agents.  Amen brother.   More analysis after the jump.

In a very Bengal like fashion they focus on players obtained through compensatory picks, such as WDR favorite Chinnedum Ndukwe and "maybe too early to say it but we all know it's true" Bust Andre Caldwell.  However, as every person who has ever taken Econ 101 knows, "There is no such thing as a free lunch."  Florio analyzes what the Bengals have given up to obtain these extra picks.  These four picks (3rd, 6th and two in the 7th) are because the Bengals gave up Landon Johnson, Justin Smith, Bryan Robinson, Alex Stepanovich, and Madieu Williams.  The Bengals signed only Antwan Odom. 

Some great trade-offs in Bengal Free Agent/Compensatory pick include:

Andre Caldwell (97th pick) to compensate the loss of Eric Steinbech - Epic Fail
Landon Johnson (96th pick) for the loss of Takeo Spikes - Fail

And to conclude, the team cites other "notable" late round picks. TJ was a 7th round pick, yes we know, you need to move on from this.  One great pick 8 years ago.  Brad St. Louis?  You mean the long snapper who failed at his one and only job when the playoffs was on the line.  And Ethen Kilmer?  That has to be a joke.  So the Bengals now have four extra picks to screw up, I can not wait.     

Comments

[K. Phelps]

So Brad St. Louis fucked up one time... god damn give the guy a break, he has been one of the best long snappers in the league otherwise.

[Robinsgr]

I agree with many posts, that the Bengals did not lose much with these four players, but look at what has happened over the years. The Bengals let Steinbech (a second round pick) walk to save money. Spikes (a first round pick) wanted out, but we only got third round picks for them. MB saved money. Bottom line. And you cannot replace veterans with draft picks if you want to improve. When you do not sign QUALITY free agents, you do not improve. You keep training new rookies, who can then move on to another team when they are ready to make an impact in the league.

[Marc]

I agree the Bengals need to invest in more scouts and do a better job in the draft, never said anything to the contrary. But to try and say that letting the guys go was a mistake, I don't buy. The TJ example is much better, so if you want to rip that one, have at it, I'm not going to disagree there. Or that they should have kept Willie and/or Deltha last year (Rudi has been "done" for a while, don't miss him, as proved by his showing in Detroit), fine. No doubt Mike Turd is cheap.

So, yes, the Bengals do VERY LITTLE right, but in terms of personnel moves, letting those guys walk was the RIGHT thing to do. You can't just say they should have re-signed them because they were veterans and we had nobody better to replace them. You can't keep every veteran on the team, and the ones that don't warrant their high veteran salaries, need to go. Maybe they weren't immediately better when they lost those veterans, but they sure as heck did a better job overall on defense last year without Smith, Williams, Robinson, and Johnson. Their defense was one of the ONLY bright spots last year, even though it wasn't very bright.

[ItmightbeJB]

A 3rd rounder, a 6th rounder, and 2 ea. 7th rounders. Be still my heart. Well, they're going to need a new long snapper who looks good in a clown suit for MikeyBoy's great grandchildren's birthday parties. And I hear Akili Smith has been practicing his footwork while holding a clipboard next to the head coach....now, what do we do with our two extra 7th rounders?

[Leo deTrotskyo]

The point (at least, as I see it) is that exchanging veterans for draft picks does not immediately improve the team. Mikey is content to replace players, not upgrade positions. Sure, some of the late picks may pan out, in a few years. But by then Mikey will have let a vet at another position go without signing a FA to immediately upgrade, and we're right back at the beginning.

[Sly Vramavomovich]

I would have given up Justin "one move and you better believe its the bullrush" Smith for a bucket of KFC extra crispy.

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I was not trying to argue that each player not re-signed was a good move, but more about how the Bengals brag about who they drafted with compensatory picks without discussing who they gave up. Even worse, we now have 11 draft picks and 3 scouts. If they are going to rely on the draft, they need to prepare for the draft. Florio is dead on, that the reason why the Bengals have these picks is not because of shrewd player personnel analysis, it was being cheap. If the Bengals really cared about these picks, they would have a real scouting department.

Comrades, we can not get lost in the trees. Trying to rationalize/justify individual Bengal moves will make your head spin. That is what Mike Brown wants you to do. Look Look we drafted Carson Palmer. Ndukwe was a serviceable NFL player, in the 7th round....look how smart we are. Don't get lost. Remember the big picture.

[BengalAnthony13]

Read the comments on PFT by bloggers. Even they thought Florio had a weak argument on this one. The bottom line is that they have been shedding dead weight the last two seasons, agree with it or not. Justin Smith's (#4 overall pick in 2001) best season was 8.5 sacks. Good guy but not worth $45 mil. Madieu was a decent player but in his 4 seasons here he probably played in 2.5 of them. Landon Johnson would have been a good player to keep, but the Panthers paid him to start and he didn't even do that in Carolina. Bryan Robinson--Are you kidding? Do I even need to go there? The guy was like 68 years old (though he contributed a little with AZ this year). Stepanovich hurt only because we had a sucky guy in front of him, but he's still not any better than Ghiacuic. Rudi and Deltha were other guys that became dead weight. Rudi got lazy and underperformed as well as ALWAYS showing up late to team meetings, etc. Deltha was not a team guy, wasn't the same guy that made the Pro Bowl in 2005 and was getting up there in age. The only guys that I would have liked to have seen stay were Willie and to a lesser extent, T.J. Willie should have retired a Bengal. Chad and Levi (two guys who have openly said that they want out) are next to go. Marvin needs to re-instill the attitude he had with Corey Dillon and Takeo Spikes--"You don't want to be here, don't let the door hit you on the way out." They can't trade compensatory picks, but they can trade others and hopefully maneuver back into the first and/or second rounds.

[Tim]

I feel that, if you're going to talk about how the bengals settle for compensatory picks, you have to mention the fact that the bengals are perfectely at ease with the 3rd they get for losing TJ. If they used the franchise tag on him, they could have VERY easily traded him for a 2nd and with a little work, gotten a 1st (a la the Patriots and Matt Cassel. They gave him away and TJ is worth much more).

But a 3rd round pick is cheaper than a 2nd or 1st and, since we take players like Jerome Simpson with the 2nd round before anybody else has even thought about him, I guess a 3rd is as good as a 2nd to us (and much better to Mike Brown's piggy bank).

[Rich]

Umm, yeah,
It seems to me that having a lot of these picks when you are a crappy team is bad. It means that you won't sign players that are good enough to play on another NFL team. And is always well said on this website, great Bengals draft picks are one of two things: Freak accidents (TJ) or glaringly obvious (Palmer). Everyone else (yeah, I mean you David Klingler, Akili Smith, Ki Jana Cater and Kenny Irons) gets attributed to being "bad luck."

WDR, please do an analysis on the Bengals draft failure rate some day. Like maybe a ratio of the number of Bengals drafted in the past 5 years currently playing for the team over number of those drafted overall and then compare it to a good team.

Yeah, I know bad luck........

[Marc]

Come on WDR, I know it's draft season and the pickings are slim, but really? There's no way the Bengals should have re-signed Justin Smith for anything close to what he got from SF. Madieu had flashes of greatness, but has had injury problems and hasn't been a consistent top-tier player worthy of the contract he got from Minn. Bryan Robinson and Alex S. were backups here and really nothing to write home about. Landon Johnson was given starter money and then moved to a backup role in Carolina. So while I laugh at the Bengals for trying to spin this as great breaking news, I don't have a problem with any of those players not being re-signed. Williams is probably the best, but I don't think we miss much with the guys that replaced him.

Bottom line to me is that yes, the Bengals will probably screw up these picks, but you can't fault them for letting those guys get overpaid by other teams.