Mike Brown Sucks - Peter King Edition

In today's MMQB, Peter King counts the draft day trades by each NFL franchise over the last five years.  I'd be willing to bet you can guess one of the two franchises tied in dead last, with one.  If you guessed the Arizona Cardinals, you'd be right!  However, I'd imagine you probably guessed the Cincinnati Bengals, in which case you'd be right again.

Think about that.  Over the last five years, the Bengals have traded up or down once on draft day.  That's almost unfathomable.  Do they even have phones in the Bengals war room?  Are you really trying to tell me that over the last five years, at no point did a team call the Bengals in an attempt to trade up?  That the Bengals never thought enough of a player to part with an extra draft pick to get him?

The Bengals have 11 picks in this year's draft, and one thing is for certain.  There is absolutely no way they can fit all 11 of them onto their final 53 man roster.  Making all 11 selections would be foolish.  Packaging a few to move up to get someone you like would be wise.  I wouldn't always agree with that statement, but having 11 picks in a draft allows (and maybe even forces) you do to just that.  Trading away some of those picks for future picks wouldn't be a bad idea either.  You could be flexible in future drafts in addition to this one.  We'll see how this plays out, but I have an idea this ends badly.

Sad footnote:  the one Bengals draft day trade over the last five years?  In 2004, the Bengals traded the 24th pick to St. Louis for the 26th pick and a fourth rounder.  The 24th pick in the 2004 NFL Draft?  Steven Jackson, he of the 90 catch season in 2006.  The 26th pick?  Chris Perry, he of the 35 games in five seasons.  The public reasoning for liking Perry over Jackson?  Perry fit in better with the Bengals passing oriented offense.  I'm glad the Bengals fired the guy who made that call.  What's that you say?  They didn't?  The guy owns the team?  And he's quite possibly a sociopath?  Comforting.

Comments

[Dan]

I have been going through every emotion possible as we head into the draft: excited, anxious, scared, nervous, interested and have finally settled on one: terrified.

Terrified that the Bengals will screw up another draft. Terrified they will take Beanie or Maclin. Terrified that my girlfriend will break up with me once the Bengals do the afore mentioned things and I begin to sob uncontrollably.

[Sven]

They did also get Deltha O'Neal for that pick swap in 2004, right? He may have turned into a turd his last year in stripes, but he did turn in a few good seasons before pulling a Corey Dillon/Carl Pickens, including a pro bowl/10-int season.

It's actually one of the few positive moments the Bungles ever had on draft day, even though it got fully overshadowed by Chris Perry sucking eggs and breaking like Glass Joe every time he tried to cut.

[Matt C]

It really makes zero sense for Brown to NOT have traded out of top 10 picks. For a guy so tight with money, why would want to stay in the top 10 and pay all that guaranteed? It just shows he is an idiot!

[Ryan Smith]

I seem to recall some draft where we could've gotten somewhere in the nature of 14 picks so Ditka could pick a guy named Akili Smith. We could've built an entire O-Line and D-Line with that who were all the same age, etc. Well, at least Akili Smith led us to 3 straight SuperBowl appearances. What? He didn't? Typical Mike Brown.

I'd be willing to swap our Mike Brown for the basketball coach in Cleveland. He's gotta be better than our dear Mikey.

[BenzooPeesOnMikeBrown]

Ditka wanted a pot smoking running back and he got him. The Pot Smoker is still around.
The Redskins got an all-world cornerback *and* a ton of draft picks in return.

[Mike Brown]

In 2004, the only reason I traded down was because the Rams' GM, Jay Zygmunt, promised to wash my car for a month.

And just so you sons of b*tches don't blame me again for another failed draft, I'll let you know that I'm going to be skipping it this year. It's senior citizen's day at Old Country Buffet, and I can usually fit 2 tupperware containers full of mashed potatoes in my coat.

[Ejm1]

I'm drinking now so by saturday I will be numb or dead so "with the 6th pick the Cincy Bengals pick Beanie Wells" won't hurt me. Good Luck to all!

[Who Che]

There was an interesting quote from TJ in that Peter King article you linked:

Quote of the Week III

"Chad Johnson called me today. Crying. He wonders why everyone can get traded but him.''
-- Former Johnson teammate T.J. Houshmandzadeh, now with Seattle, on NFL Network Friday night.

...yeah, we probably should have traded 85 last year, but Mikey would have just blown that pick too.

[Sean]

Why is the marquee article on Bengals.com about Akili Smith? Really Baghdad Hob? Really?

[Wyatt]

And while we're talking about the MMQB, specifically the Quotes of the Week, did you notice he also used a quote from Baghdad Hob? Of course, PK missed the fact that Hob was just using character issues as a justification for Mike Brown not wanting to spend any money in this draft.

[Leo deTrotskyo]

Wyatt, I think what Baghdad is saying is "Of course we'll draft someone with a character issue. Most teams will, just based on the number of players out there who have them." I'm surprised he didn't go further (maybe he did, but PK edited the quote short) to say "Don't be surprised if we draft someone who looks clean, but is proven to be otherwise after we pick him."

[Jordan]

Check out NationalFootballPost.com They are ranking NFL Organizations from the best owner to the Franchise with the worse owner. Can anyone guess who was ranked the lowest? haha (Dolphins owner got an incomplete because he is to new of an owner that is why only 31 teams were ranked)

Here is what they say about Old Mikey Boy:

"Cincinnati Bengals: Mike Brown #31

However, the Bengals — a family business headed by Brown’s now seventy-something, Dartmouth-educated son Mike — have lost sight of the ball, and the team has been beset by the worst elements associated with any kind of family business. The worst of these is an inability to adapt or change quickly. For example, the Bengals didn’t have a scouting staff for years, relying on coaches to handle that function despite the magnitude of that endeavor. For pure prurient interest, the Bengals have led the league in arrests, rather than wins, year in and year out. Cincinnati is the last place any free agent or draft pick wants to play and that earns them the bottom spot on our list.

Everything said is known by all; however, it's just good to see other NFL websites that criticize Mikey as much as we do haha